HONR 1130 - Between Epic and Romance

4 credit hours
Formerly - HONR 113

This course uses two of the most common genres in medieval literature-epic and romance-as touchstones for the wide variety of literary texts produced in the period. Medieval writers reworked the classical epic to their own ends and invented the romance genre. Even works that don’t quite fit the conventions of these genres can be read as in conversation with epic or romance expectations. Through the study of these medieval texts we will explore fascinating questions about love, secular or religious, and marriage and we will analyze medieval notions of identity by examining various forms of affiliation on the basis of categories such as gender and sexuality, nation, state, or ethnic group, social status, or religious belief. At the same time, we will also pay close attention to the formal and aesthetic features that are characteristic of medieval literature. Readings may include Anglo-Saxon poetry, Dante’s Divine Comedy, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, selections from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, or Christine the Pizan’s Book of the City of Ladies, among others.