Room 272

Sorry!  I forgot to post this week’s discussion thread. Here it is.  Have at it!

This isn’t Arthurian, but it’s interesting nonetheless:

Viking Hoard

Those of you who have read Egil’s Saga with me may remember that Egil fights for the Athelstan mentioned in the story.

Meanwhile, if you’re looking for a summer home, you might consider:

Castles in France

Be sure to budget for remodeling.

For this short (5-to-7-page) paper, you should choose some aspect of Malory which you can explore within this limited scope. In other words, don’t attempt a totalizing reading; you won’t have enough space. You might consider, for example, a word study, or an analysis of a particular scene or minor figure. Keep in mind that reading Malory is not like reading a modern novel, so you might consider a paper topic which will allow you to analyze the “narrative grammar” of the text. In other words, you could choose a particular scene or episode and demonstrate the ways in which it is illustrative of Malory’s narrative strategies or styles. (Note the plural: one could easily argue that Malory uses multiple narrative strategies and styles.) You could take an even more formalist approach with an analysis of his prose style.

But these are just some ideas. The topic is up to you.

Outside research is not required but not forbidden. I don’t really recommend it unless you have something particular in mind. We will be doing plenty of research later in the semester.

The paper is due September 14th.

Here is a link to Richard Waswo’s article, which I have asked you to read for next week:

http://www.jstor.org.libproxy2.usouthal.edu/stable/469088?&Search=yes&term=waswo&list=hide&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dwaswo%26wc%3Don%26dc%3DAll%2BDisciplines&item=5&ttl=364&returnArticleService=showArticle

Please download it and print it to bring to class. You will need to be logged into the library system in order to retrieve the article.  If you have trouble, you can search for it yourself on JSTOR. Here is the citation:

Waswo, Richard. “The History that Literature Makes.” New Literary History: A Journal of Theory and Interpretation 19 (1988): 241-64.

Watch this space later this morning for some words about the first paper.

Here is your open thread to post discussion topics for next Monday’s meeting. Any aspect of the text that you find interesting, strange, or baffling is fair game. I’ll get us started:

I didn’t ask you in class to read Caxton’s preface, but give it a quick look; it’s short, and both Shepherd and Cooper include it in their appendices. At the end of the preface, Caxton writes: “But all is written for our doctrine, and to beware that we may fall not to vice nor sin, but to exercise and follow virtue . . .” My former Chaucer students may recognize the first clause as a reference to the same verse from Romans chapter 15 that Chaucer paraphrases in his Retraction. We might discuss what this kind of aesthetic implies and whether it is sustainable in reference to such a text. We also might consider how this accords with Caxton’s other stated aims and arguments.

This blog is coming out of retirement this semester for my EH 570 course, Malory and the Arthurian Tradition. Watch this space this week for further information. The syllabus is already available.