ENGL 361: King Arthur & His World
Spring 2019
TR 10:50-12:05
MYBK 300
office hours T 1:30-2:30 and R 9:30-10:30
5 College Way, office 203 

King Arthur was called “The once and future king,” and he certainly looms large, even still. He has appealed to the imagination of artists throughout the centuries—with his medieval origins as intriguing and complex as his later varied appearances in the Victorian era and modern fiction and film. In fact, King Arthur was and remains a mystery—a man quietly residing at the center of things, the eye of the storm. In this class we will encounter the diverse medieval stories that the idea of Arthur generated: from the myth’s Celtic roots to its later French and English elaborations. We’ll begin with his appearance in early histories, observe his flourishing in the romances of Marie de France and Chrétien and other anonymous poets, share Malory’s 15^th century nostalgia, and immerse ourselves in the mix of triumph and tragedy throughout. Along the way, we will reflect on how the myth encourages considerations of temporality—the past containing the present and future all at once.

Student Learning Outcomes:

As a course that can fulfill the Gen Ed Humanities requirement, the course has the following learning outcomes:

• Students analyze how ideas are represented, interpreted or valued in various expressions of human culture.
• Students examine relevant primary source materials as understood by the discipline and interpret the material in writing assignments.

These outcomes will be assessed using Project 1.

In addition, in this particular course students will:

• acquire tools and strategies for analyzing how ideas are represented, interpreted and valued in imaginative texts of the late Middle Ages in England
• practice skills reading contemporary critical and theoretical writing important to the discipline
• deploy these skills to analyze literary texts in relation to pertinent cultural and historical views of late medieval England
• gain experience expressing their analyses in writing, both formal and informal—which will include writing generated through an individual sustained research project

Books: Available at the bookstore. Please get these specific versions of the texts. Many of them are translations into Modern English, and some are more useful to us than others.
(You are welcome to purchase your books through an online retailer. I highly recommend Powell’s Books, where you can purchase used copies easily.) The books are listed here in the order that you will need them for class.

Chrétien de Troyes. Arthurian Romances. Trans. and ed. William W. Kibler. Penguin, 1991. ISBN: 978-0140445213

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Trans. Simon Armitage. Norton, 2008.
ISBN: 978-0-39-333415-9

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Death of King Arthur. Trans. Simon Armitage. Norton, 2012.
ISBN: 978-0393343533

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur: Selections. Broadview, 2015. ISBN: 978-1554811595