Epic, Romance, and the Love of God: Medieval France and England

Course Description and Book-list

"Epic, Romance, and the Love of God" is an interdisciplinary course in medieval studies. It is intended as a semester-long elective for 12th-graders or undergraduates.

There are three main goals of this course. The principal is to familiarize students with major trends in literature, philosophy, and politics in Western Europe (primarily France and England) during the Middle Ages. With better knowledge of this diverse period of foundation for the West, students will gain richer understanding of social structures in subsequent ages, including our own. The second goal is to improve students' analytical skills in reading prose and verse and in writing. To this end we will concentrate, both as a group and in individual meetings, on skills of composition. Finally, the course will make use of electronic resources as tools for research and to encourage full engagement with the central texts and issues of the course. While students become comfortable exploring different media and sources of information, both in the library and via computerized channels, they also will learn to be critical evaluators of those sources and to use research skills effectively and responsibly.

The requirements are as follows:

• frequent short writings, both in class and in preparation for discussions
• three (3) papers of approximately five (5) pages each (an approved independent project may be substituted for the final paper)
• a final exam
• a consistently maintained portfolio of all assignments (can include notes from class, reading, and brainstorms) to be submitted at the final exam, in order to trace and reward progress
• attendance in every class and active participation in discussions

• Beowulf. Trans. Burton Raffel. New York: Mentor.
• Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales. Trans. Nevill Coghill. Ed. Betty Radice. New York: Penguin Classics.
• Chretien de Troyes. Arthurian Romances. Trans. and ed. D. D. R. Owen. Rutland, Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle (Everyman).
• Christine de Pisan. The Book of the Duke of True Lovers. Trans. Thelma S.Fenster and Nadia Margolis. New York: Persea.
• Dahlberg, Charles, trans. The Romance of the Rose. By Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun. Princeton: Princeton UP.
• Fiero, Gloria K., Wendy Pfeffer, and Mathe Allain, trans. and ed. Three Medieval Views of Women. New Haven: Yale UP.
• The Rule of St. Benedict in English. Ed. Timothy Fry, OSB, et al. Collegeville, Minnesota: The Liturgical Press.
• The Song of Roland. Trans. Frederick Goldin. New York: Norton.