I was kind of thinking around the same lines that Lindsay was, when I read Chism’s article on romance. It seems as if every movie that our generation seems to joy is revolved around a romance plot from “Twilight” to even “The Hangover”. Romance stories are what fuels our television shows, our popular movies, and our books. We still love those classic romances like Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” along with “Gone With the Wind”. Romance stories seem to be timeless in our society. Even in “Saint Eustice” there was a little bit of romance, I mean who doesn’t sympathize with him when he is grief stricken over losing his wife?
The very opening of Chism’s essay states “Romance was the dominant non-devtional genre of Middle English literature, and its themes permate medieval literary culture at large” (Chism 57). Could the same not be said for our litterature today? I mean who honestly has not read one of Nicholas Sparks’ novels or atleast watched “The Notebook”? (If you haven’t you have to considering a lot of it was filmed in Charleston)
I think sometimes when we read literature we get so wrapped up in the fact that it was a time so different than our own that we forget the commonalities between the Middle Ages and now. Their were still individuals working hard every day to make money, there were still people falling in love, there will still people reading every book they could get their hands on, and there were still people who were religious. Aren’t these religious notions and ideologies that the gentry had in the Middle Ages the same as what most of us hold today?
I agree, Jade. I especially like the last blurb in your post: “we get so wrapped up in the fact that it was a time so different than our own that we forget the commonalities between the Middle Ages and now.”
That reminds me a lot of what Mortimer says in the introduction to Time Traveler’s Guide: “We should always remember that what we have in common with the past is just as important, real, and as essential to our lives as those things which make us different.
Here, I think the commonalities say a lot about just how potent and prevalent the Middle Ages were. Kline talks a bit in his piece about how modern readers think of the Middle Ages as a time of super-Romanticism, knights, manners, and courts because of films like “A Knights Tale” and books like .Lord of the Rings. Kline’s intention in his essay is to have readers stray away from this narrow view of the time period, but I wonder how helpful that might be.
The longer narrative poems that we have read so far (e.g. “Saint Eustace” and “Sir Isumbras”) seem to have just as many Romantic characteristics as they do religious ones. I think you’re right in noting that today’s media and literature is filled with Romantic motifs and storylines. Chism notes that “genres are…created through histories of reading” and that “Romance may be such an enduring genre simply because it allows such a breadth of play.”
The Lord of the Rings trilogy doesn’t read anything like “Saint Eustace,” but the Romantic tendencies in both works are obvious. This long-lasting genre probably dated before the Middle Ages, but the literature produced in the late medieval time period has obviously lasted into the 21st century.
Jessica- I used your quote from Mortimer on the midterm addressing how Ashmole 61 relating to or not relating to history was beneficial. I said that not addressing specific historical events helps the reader to connect to a Medieval work through the fact that we are sentient beings. Romance novels, whether they be Sir Isumbras or The Notebook, are all emotionally relatable (Yes, I’ve read the novel and watched the movie The Notebook). As long as people are able to feel emotions and maintain sexual attraction, Romance will continue to dominate television shows, literature, and movies.
I would like to take note on WHAT drew one person to another, perhaps “two cows and strong arms” as was mentioned in class. Of course a woman, who is biologically preset to look for a strong man who can care for her and their family will look for the man who fits that description in any era. In the Middle ages it’s the man with the most livestock and strong build while today it’s the man with the nice car and well, still the strong build, creating the cliche that inspired Good Charlotte’s lyrics “girls don’t like boys girls like cars and money”. Now, men do the same thing through laws of attraction in looking for a healthy woman who can bear their children. Of course, these aren’t the first thing that comes to mind at first attraction, but they explain why men and women through the ages share certain preferances in a mate. This commonality between the Middle ages and today is why I find this week’s post a bit redundant for me and difficult to elaborate on. It is hard to say question something unknown or make a witty comment on the Middle Ages, because love and physical attraction are the same then and now.
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