Pham Proposal

So my paper had a slight change since writing the proposal. It’s a little more streamlined than what I originally had. Before, it was more of trying to get a broad understanding of medieval magic through several different texts that we’ve read (i.e. passages related to magic). However, I plan to focus on something a little more specific — prophecies in medieval culture, and the role those play within the texts we’ve read. As we know from modern interpretations, Arthur was always destined to be king of England, but Arthurian legend is riddled with visions and dreams of the future. My main goal within the paper is to examine the way medieval culture views prophecies and fate, and its role within the context of the texts, and how it might (or might not) further our understanding of them.

As far as the texts we’ve read goes, I’m going to be doing a bit of picking and choosing (as I originally planned to do) through the various texts we’ve read, focusing on the examples where prophecy, fate, visions of the future, etc. are being used. One particular example is the final dream Arthur has in the Alliterative Morte, where he sees the Wheel of Fortune, which is, as we discussed in class, something that, in medieval culture, was believed to control the fate of one’s fortune. The various primary sources will me more of a survey-type, so it’ll span across the different ones we’ve read, as opposed to one or two.

Because my proposal has slightly changed than the one I turned in, I’m also attaching a tentative outline of what I want to touch on in the paper.

 

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