English 83

I’m having trouble figuring out what exactly “une mout bele conjunture” is.  I know Sean said it means “a most perfectly ordered composition” and that it relates to Chretien somehow, but I don’t really understand.  Does it pertain more to “Arthurian Romances” as a whole or is it talking about the order within the individual [...]

Hey everybody. A couple of weeks ago in class I compared the vulgate Lancelot to King David of biblical tradition. At first glance the characters are very similar and share important dramatic themes, for instance Lancelot and David both commit adultery and play important roles in the demise or destruction of close friends (David with [...]

Attached here are notes for week 7. Don’t forget to take the midterm Knowledge Confidence Survey (see just below here).
week 7

Once again wary of reading too anachronistically, I can’t help but feel there’s something unsettling about a mass murderer charming his way into a knighthood by finding Jesus and throwing a swank dinner party.  After epics and romances, only now, in this humble poem, do the politics of largess seem truly sinister.  Just where does [...]

Maybe the Middle/Old English was a bit over my head, but I’m having some difficulty understanding what makes SGCC a worthwhile piece of Arthurian Literature. I know there has to be something about it that makes it important and worth reading. It was assigned after all, and it has survived for so long that I [...]

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Notes for week 6

Unable to get the Geraldine Heng article to load, I frivolously summon the specter of queer theory anachronism: Is Gawain gay? The answer being “no,” what does his rejection of “courteous” adultery suggest about the English morality on display here?
From my Tolkien translation:
The lady in lovely guise came laughing sweetly, / bent down o’er his [...]

Does anyone know which text the Carl of Carlisle is in?

Was it just me or did it feel like Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, in comparison to the other things that we have been reading, was incredibly uneventful? The lesson learned by Gawain is really essential to understanding how the knights of the Round Table were supposed to behave. Is it because I’ve read it [...]

In Chapter 9, just as Parzifal is about to learn about “hidden” matters of the gral, Wofram steps in with another of his characteristic apostrophes. His source, Kyot, wanted him to keep this information about the gral and its angelic origins hidden “till the story itself reached the point where it has to be spoken [...]

So I know we already talked a little about this in class, but I still don’t really understand why it was okay for Gahmuret to just completely ditch Belacane. I know she isn’t baptized, but he tells her “Madam, you can still win me, if you will be baptized” (39). Her instantaneous reply is:
How soon [...]

Parzival comes from a different (German) culture than both Chretien and the Prose Lancelot cycle.  It is hard not to notice some of the dissimilarities implied by the narrative discrepancies of Parzival and the The Story of the Grail.  In particular, Parzival makes interesting choices surrounding sexuality, compared with Chretien’s Romance.  For example when Parzival encounters the lady besieged [...]

We noted in discussion the ethical quandary surrounding the ‘poisoned fruit’ episode in the Death of KA, and the very complicated and contradictory figure of Lancelot, and the relationships he has with KA and QG.
I mentioned in class that this text seems to be offering up several critiques at once: of courtly adulterous love as [...]

So I don’t know exactly what went on between Guinevere and Lancelot in “King Arthur’s Death,” because I didn’t read it. I read “The Death of King Arthur” by Thomas Malory and thought it was the same thing. My bad.
Anyway, in Malory’s version I thought it was really disconcerting how Lancelot and Guinevere admitted they [...]

Thanks for an interesting discussion today, everyone.
Here are notes for weeks four and five. I’ll post something tomorrow about the very interesting discussion here on Guinevere’s plight, and the issue of Lancelot’s arrogance. . .
wks45.zip

I know that Lancelot’s love for Guinevere was great, but how arrogant does he have to be to not only disregard even the advice of a closest brother, but take not consider how suspiciously the king treats him? He could not even wait a short amount of time for a little of the suspicion to [...]

While reading The Death of King Arthur, I was extremely surprised by the way in which the people treat Guinevere and the inconsistencies which arise. First, there is no one to defend her when everyone believes that she has poisoned a knight. Then, Lancelot saves her, and everything is ok. When Agravain [...]