Resources For Teaching Graduate School
Syllabi
Courses in Medieval Arthurian Legends
Courses in Medieval and Post-Medieval Arthurian Legends
King Arthur in Literature and Film,
Advanced Undergraduates and Graduate Students, Cynthia Gravlee, University of
Montevallo
-
"After reviewing the medieval tales of Sir Thomas Malory, the source
for our modern authors, we will focus on representative works of the 19th and 20th
centuries. We will also learn from Arthurian films and will end the course with The
Natural, a film based on the novel by Bernard Malamud."
Comparative Literature 506: Tests and
Quests in Medieval Arthurian Literature, Graduate Students, Norris J. Lacy, Penn State
University
- "This course will study Arthurian works that prominently feature tests and quests. We will
examine the extent to which these two activities can be distinguished from each other and will
study the functions and conventions of each; in particular we will consider the way those
conventions take shape and eventually, in some literatures, become "fossilized" into ordeal,
ritual, or material for parody.
"We will concentrate on medieval literature, and we will of course give considerable attention to
the greatest quest of them all: the quest for the Holy Grail. We will trace that quest (by Galahad,
Perceval, and others) through texts in Welsh, French, German, and English. The final component
of the course will be a brief look at some modern Arthurian interpretations, from Wagner to Eliot
to John Boorman's Excalibur."
-
The Legends of King Arthur: The Once and Future King
, a Liberal Studies seminar for graduate students and advanced undergraduates, John T.
Sebastian, Loyola University of New Orleans- "This course surveys the origins and development of one of the richest and most enduring
traditions in all of world literature: the legend of Arthur, rex quondam, rexque futurus, "the once
and future king." Primary focus will be on medieval historical and literary imaginings of Arthur,
Guinevere, Lancelot, Merlin, Camelot, the Holy Grail, and the Round Table, but some attention
will also be given to contemporary archaeological evidence, manuscripts and their illustrations,
and music as well as to more recent literary and cinematic adaptations of the legends.
"The course will operate as a seminar; students will therefore play as great a role if not a
greater one in determining the direction of class discussion as the instructor. Several key
themes that are likely to recur, however, include the transmission of the so-called "matter of
Britain" throughout medieval European literature; competing codes of chivalric and courtly
ethics; the quest as a metaphor for the search for identity; the conflict between secular and sacred
ethics and desire; the shape of the legend as a function of genre (chronicle, romance, lai, prose
text); the relationship between literature and material culture; and issues of sex and gender. The
instructor will occasionally offer mini-lectures on relevant background materials, but only as an
incitement to even wider-ranging discussion."
Malory and the Arthurian Tradition, Graduate Seminar, Paul Szarmach, Western
Michigan University
- Malory's Morte is surely the best Arthurian work ever written by
a (probable) convicted felon, cattle-rustler, and all-around ne'er-do-well. This course will focus
on the whole Morte (yes, in the original!), including the agony and ecstasy
thereof, after a look at some earlier medieval treatments in Chrétien and the anonymous
tradition. Malory redivivus (="the reception of Malory") will be the theme of the final weeks,
which will consider Tennyson and Twain.
The Literature of
Chivalry, Advanced Undergrads & Graduate Students, Bonnie Wheeler, Southern
Methodist University- "Courage! Honor! Intensity! Valor! Amor! Lances! Romance! Youth! = CHIVALRY.
In these lectures, we study the development of chivalric mentality in literature and thought from
the Middle Ages to modern times. This course starts with the flowering of chivalry in the
twelfth-century West. Stories of King Arthur form the central thread around which we weave
studies of chivalric education and variation, of chivalric rejection and renewal."
Syllabi for Courses in Post-Medieval Arthurian Legends
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Lecture Notes & Classroom Exercises
From Scythia to Camelot: Lecture Notes for a Slide
Show, by Linda A. Malcor
Handout on "The Reception of Geoffrey of
Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae", by John T. Sebastian, Loyola
University of New Orleans
A
Millennial Quest for Arthur
In January 2000 two undergraduate students left for a
month-long research trip, sponsored by Birmingham-Southern College in
Birmingham, Alabama. After traveling over 3000 miles across the Island of
Britain, we created this site for people who wish to learn more about those
places associated with King Arthur and the legends attached to them."
Created by students Joseph W.C. Boyles and W. Jacob Livingston, III, this site
is beautifully organized and has lots of photographs. Suitable for all levels.
{This link is to an archived version of the site that has all the text, but the
links to the photos are broken. Some of the pictures, however, are still
available at Vortigern Studies.)
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