Time: Monday 4:15-6:15 pm
E-Mail: talarico@mail.csi.cuny.edu
Home Page: http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/modlang/talarico/talarico.htm
Phone (CSI): 718-982-3701
Office Hours: Monday 2-4 pm and by appointment. We will discuss the possibility of working on reading Old French during our first class meeting.

Description:
The romance genre, which arose in the Middle Ages, is one of the most important developments in narrative history. In fact, the concerns of medieval romance are the concerns of much of narrative fiction that we have come to call "novels." Romance, as a literary genre, is characterized by various conventions, motifs, archetypes, and idealisms. We will study these various components of medieval romance in a variety of representative texts which both define the genre and react to it.

Our study will focus on the development of romance, from its beginnings in verse form in the romans d'antiquité (the romances of antiquity), Chrétien de Troyes, and the Tristan stories. We will also look at the mise en prose of romances in the thirteenth century, in the Vulgate Cycle (the Quest of the Holy Grail). Other romances to be studied include the chantefable Aucassin et Nicolette, the Guillaume de Dole (often referred to as the "first Roman de la Rose"), and the "other" Roman de la Rose of Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun. We will also take up issues such as performance; relations between image and text in original manuscripts; variations among different manuscripts of the same work and variations in translations (into modern French and into English). There will be a visit (if possible) to the manuscript section of Butler Library at Columbia University.

Students are not expected to enter the course knowing Old French: for French Program students (and others who may be interested) we will work on this in class and in special sessions prior to our class meeting time. While this course is given in English, students are expected to read and understand modern French.

Requirements:
1) Students are expected to come to class with the text read in its entirety beforehand. You cannot participate in discussions if you haven't read the text. You are expected to read all introductory material and notes as well. Your participation in discussions--as well as your questions--are the important focus.

2) Oral Presentations: Beginning on April 19, students will begin in-class oral presentations of their research paper topics--with printed bibliographies for all members of the class. Presentations should not last more than ten minutes each.

3) Research Paper: You must discuss a topic with me. No papers will be accepted without prior approval of the topic. Thinking about a research project early in the semester will help to focus your readings and bibliographical work for all the texts we read in class. The following dates are signaled on the syllabus:
March 1: Term paper topics with preliminary bibliography of primary and secondary
sources due.
March 22: Draft of term paper due.
Friday, May 21: Last day to hand in final version of term paper (along with draft. You
may, of course, submit your paper earlier! No papers will be accepted if
they are not accompanied by a draft.

Books:
We will be working with a variety of editions and translations of the primary books for this course. Below is a list of books in both French (Modern and Old French) and English. Most of these books have been placed on Reserve in the Library. Please pay close attention to the publishers, translators, editions, since not all editions, translations, etc., are equal! What is listed below are the acceptable editions and translations.

The following books will be the basis of our class discussions: Check both the Reserve Books and Labyrinth:

Le Roman d'Eneas. Ed. J.-J. Salverda de Grave, Classiques Français du Moyen Age (2 volumes)
(This is the Old French edition). Note: Do not purchase the French Eneas in the Lettres Gothiques collection. It is a different manuscript!
Eneas: A Twelfth Century Romance. Ed. and translated John Yunck (Columbia U Press, 1974)

Chrétien de Troyes. Lancelot ou le chevalier de la charette (Lancelot or the Knight of the Cart):
Bilingual (Old/Modern French): Lettres Gothiques
English: In Arthurian Romances (trans. William Kibler, Penguin). These are English prose
translations of all five of Chrétien's romances.
English: verse translation by Burton Raffel (Yale U Press, 1997) or Ruth H. Kline
(U Georgia Press, 1990)

Chrétien de Troyes. Yvain ou le chevalier au lion (Yvain or the Knight with the Lion)
Bilingual (Old/Modern French): Lettres Gothiques
English: In Arthurian Romances (trans. William Kibler, Penguin). These are English prose translations of all five of Chrétien's romances.
Verse translation: Ruth H. Kline (U Georgia Press, 1975)

Tristan et Iseut (versions of Béroul and Thomas).
Bilingual (Old French/Modern French) collection Lettres Gothiques. 1989.
English: Béroul's Tristan and selections from Thomas's version. (trans. Alan Fedrick,Penguin, 1981)
Note: Do not get Joseph Bédier's version of the Tristan stories (in either Modern Frenchor English translation).

La Queste del saint graal.
Old French: ed. Albert Pauphilet (Champion, 1949)
English: trans. Pauline Matarasso (Penguin)

Aucassin et Nicolette. Garnier-Flammarion, 1973 (Bi-lingual: Old and Modern French)

Jean Renart. Le Roman de la rose ou de Guillaume de Dole.
Bi-lingual (Old French/English) edition: ed. Regina Psaki (Garland, 1995)
English only: trans. Patricia Terry and Nancy Vine Durling (U Penn. Press, 1993)
Modern French: trans. Jean Dufournet (Champion, 1979)
Old French: ed. Felix Lecoy (Champion, 1979)

Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun. Le Roman de la rose.
Bilingual (Old/Modern French): Lettres Gothiques
English (verse translation by Harry W. Robbins): Dutton, 1962.
English (prose translation by Frances Horgan, Oxford U Press, 1999)

Approximate Calendar of Readings:

The Beginnings of Romance:
1. Feb. 2: Introduction; Le Roman d'Eneas

2. Feb. 9: Eneas

Feb. 16 (No Classes)

Romance and the Arthurian Tradition:
3. Feb. 18: Wednesday: CLASSES FOLLOW A MONDAY SCHDEULE IN CUNY-LAND!
Chrétien de Troyes: Lancelot ou le chevalier de la charrete

4. Feb. 23: Lancelot

5. Mar. 1: Chrétien de Troyes: Yvain ou le chevalier au lion
Term paper topics due (see #3, above, under "Requirements")

6. Mar. 8: Yvain

Expansion of Romance Themes:
7. Mar. 15: Tristan et Iseut

8. Mar. 22: Tristan et Iseut
Draft of term paper due.

9. Mar. 29: La Queste del saint graal

APRIL 2-13 SPRING RECESS

10. Apr. 19: La Queste del saint graal

Reactions to Romance:
11. Apr. 26: Aucassin et Nicolette; Jean Renart: Le Roman de la rose ou de Guillaume de Dole

12. May 3: Guillaume de Dole

13. May 10: Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun: Le Roman de la rose

14. May 17: Le Roman de la rose

Friday, May 21: Last day to submit term paper and draft (see #3, above, under "Requirements")

Introductory Bibliography: Medieval Studies

Students are strongly encouraged to check the Reserve Reading list in the library for books that have been set aside for this course. While no bibliography of medieval literature could begin to even pretend to be complete, there are some starting points for help in sorting out this vast corpus:

Getting Started, in the Broadest Sense:

The MLA International Bibliography. Updated yearly and usually available through research libraries on-line. It has a searchable index and often an abstract of the article.

Bibliography of the International Arthurian Society. More specialized, but an excellent starting point for matters Arthurian. In print form only.

Many reliable websites offer excellent bibliographies and links to either faculty pages or the pages of "official sites" for professional organizations.

Two of the most wide-ranging sites:
The Labyrinth at Georgetown University: http://www.labyrinth.georgetown.edu
The ORB: On-line Reference Book for Medieval Studies: http://the-orb.net

Linking to my own website: http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/modlang/talarico/talarico.htm
will get you to many of the general sites on the net that have reliable bibliographic and general information.

Some basics:

Artin, Tom. The Allegory of Adventure: Reading Chrétien's ‘Erec' and ‘Yvain.' London:
Associated University Presses, 1974.

Bethurum, Dorothy, ed. Critical Approaches to Medieval Literature: Selected Papers from the English Institute, 1958-1959. New York: Columbia U. Press, 1960.
(This series of essays gives the essentials of the "Robertsonian controversy.")

Bloch, Howard R. Etymologies and Genealogies: A Literary Anthropology of the French Middle Ages. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983.

Bolgar, Robert R. The Classical Heritage and Its Beneficiaries. New York: Harper and Row, 1964 [1954].

Burns, E. Jane. Arthurian Fictions: Rereading the Vulgate Cycle. Columbus: Ohio State UP, 1985.

Busby, Keith, ed. (with Terry Nixon, Alison Stones and Lori Walters). The Manuscripts of Chrétien de Troyes. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1993, 2 vols.

Busby, Keith. Codex and Context: Reading Old French Verse Narrative in Manuscript. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2002, 2 vols.

Chance, Jane. Woman as Hero in Old English Literature. Syracuse: Syracuse U. Press, 1986.

Chenu, Marie Dominique. Nature, Man and Society in the Twelfth Century: Essays on the New Theological Perspectives in the Latin West. Pref. Étienne Gilson. Selected, edited, and translated by Jerome Taylor and Lester K. Little. Chicago: U. Chicago Press, 1968.

Clanchy, Michael. From Memory to Written Record: England 1066-1307. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard U. Press, 1979.

Coleman, Janet. Medieval Readers and Writers: 1350-1400. New York: Columbia U. Press, 1981.

Curtius, Ernst Robert. European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages. Trans. Willard R. Trask. Princeton: Princeton U. Press, 1973 [1953].

Dronke, Peter. Medieval Latin and the Rise of the European Love-Lyric. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1968, 2 vols.

__________ . Women Writers of the Middle Ages: A Critical Study of Texts from Perpetua (203) to Marguerite Porete (1310). New York: Cambridge U. Press, 1984.

Eagleton, Terry. Literary Theory: An Introduction. Minneapolis: U. of Minnesota Press, 1983.

Ferrante, Joan. Woman as Image in Medieval Literature from the Twelfth Century to Dante. New York: Columbia U. Press, 1975.

Foley, John Miles. "Literary Art and Oral Tradition in Old English and Serbian Poetry." Anglo-Saxon England 12 (1983): 183-214.

Frappier, Jean. Chrétien de Troyes. Paris: Hatier, coll. Connaissance des Lettres, 1968.

__________. Chrétien de Troyes: L'homme et l'oeuvre. Paris: Hatier, 1957. English translation by Raymond Cormier, Chrétien de Troyes: The Man and His Work. Athens, Ohio: Ohio State UP, 1982.

_________. Chrétien de Troyes et le mythe du Graal: Étude sur ‘Perceval ou le conte du Graal.' Paris: SEDES, 1972.

__________. Étude sur La Mort le roi Artu. Geneva: Droz, 1961.

Gilson, Étienne. A History of Christian Philosophy in the Middle Ages. New York: Random House, 1956.

Hanning, Robert W. The Individual in Twelfth Century Romance. New Haven: Yale U Press, 1977.

Huizinga, Johan. The Waning of the Middle Ages. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1969 [1924].
Revised under the title: The Autumn of the Middle Ages. Trans. R. Payton and U. Mammitzsch. Chicago: U. Chicago Press, 1996.

Jewers, Caroline. Chivalric Fiction and the History of the Novel. Gainesville: UP of Florida, 2000.

Kaeuper, Richard. Chivalry and Violence in Medieval Europe. NY: Oxford U Press, 1999.

Keen, Maurice. Chivalry. New Haven: Yale U. Press, 1984.

Lewis, C.S. The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature. Cambridge, England: Cambridge U. Press, 1967 [1964].

Loomis, Roger Sherman. Arthurian Tradition and Chrétien de Troyes. New York: Columbia U. Press, 1949.

__________. Celtic Myth and Arthurian Romance. New York: Columbia U. Press, 1927.

__________. The Development of Arthurian Romance. New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 1963.

__________. The Grail: From Celtic Myth to Christian Symbol. New York: Columbia U. Press, 1963 [rpt. 1964].

Morris, Colin. The Discovery of the Individual: 1050-1200. Toronto: U. of Toronto Press in association with the Medieval Academy of America, 1987 [1972].

Muscatine, Charles. Chaucer and the French Tradition. Berkeley: U. of California Press, 1957.

Paris, Gaston. La Littérature française au moyen âge. Paris: Hachette, 1914.

Patterson, Lee. Negotiating the Past: The Historical Understanding of Medieval Literature. Madison: U. Wisconsin Press, 1987.

Robertson, D.W. A Preface to Chaucer: Studies in Medieval Perspectives. Princeton: Princeton U. Press, 1962.

Southern, Richard William. The Making of the Middle Ages. Ithaca: Cornell U Press, 1953.

__________. Western Society and the Church in the Middle Ages. Harmondsworth, England and New York: Penguin, 1970.

Stevens, John. Medieval Romance: Themes and Approaches. London: Hutchinson, 1973.

Stock, Brian. The Implications of Literacy: Written Language and Models of Interpretation in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries. Princeton: Princeton U. Press, 1983.

Stuard, Susan Mosher, ed. Women in Medieval Society. Philadelphia: U. of Pennsylvania Press, 1976.

Vitz, Evelyn Birge. Medieval Narrative and Modern Narratology. New York: NYU Press, 1989.

__________. Orality and Performance in Medieval French Romance. Boydell and Brewer, 1999.

Zumthor, Paul. Essai de poétique médiévale. Paris: Eds. du Seuil, 1972.