Hannah Christensen

Revising the Romance

Autumn 2016

Tues/Thurs 3:00-4:20pm, Rosenwald 405

Office hours Tues12-3pm in Ex Libris
or by appointmenthchrist@uchicago.edu

Welcome to Revising the Romance! Were going to be reading a set of romances written in
Middle English between 1200 and 1500 CE. This is my favorite medieval thing to read: they are
weird, unpredictable, often uncomfortable, and largely understudied. They grapple with anything
and everything you can think ofviolence, sex, gender, morality, religious forms, magic, nature
and they do it in creative and bizarre ways. Romance has been called the pulp fiction of
medieval England (the name of a book by Nicola McDonald), and as that implies, it is a form of
medieval pop culture: it addresses popular understandings of big issues in ways that are often
more perspicacious than the high cultural forms that have been more persistent in the canon.
Imagine watching Keeping Up with the Kardashians to learn about the 21st-century USA rather
than reading Jonathan Franzenboth have something to say, but its a very different kind of
thing.
A note on language: In this class were going to read all the texts in Middle English. That may
sound scary if you havent encountered Middle English before, but it isnt, really. Middle English
is essentially just English with DIY spelling and a weird accent. For this reason, in this syllabus
whenever I describe the process of converting Middle English to modern, I say
translate/transliteratesome of what youll need to do is to simply transcribe what youre
reading into familiar spelling and syntax; some is actually looking up unfamiliar words and
choosing the best translation. On our Chalk site Ive posted a link to a webpage that describes
and illustrates the process by which a medieval manuscript is transformed into a modern edition
this is not required reading, but it may be a helpful reference point. Ive also put some links to
more robust pronunciation guides up there; well go over the broad strokes and work on things in
class, but if you are trying to answer a specific question you will probably be able to find an
answer there.
General policies:
Reading is to be done before the class for which it is assigned. For weeks in which one
text is spread across two days, you should read about half of the poem before Tuesday
(Ive included line counts in the syllabus to aid with this), but it might behoove you to
read the whole poem over the weekend if you can, since youll have more time then and
will have a better sense of the poem as a whole right from the start of discussion.
Coursebooks have been ordered to the Sem Co-op.
This is a small class; if you are not here, your absence will be noted. More than 2
absences in the course of the quarter will affect your participation grade, which will
represent a significant portion of your grade for the quarter.
Assignments are due by 11:59pm via email on the scheduled day. If you have a
scheduling conflict or similar, I am willing to grant extensions, but we must agree in
writing at least 3 days before the assignment is due.
Assignments: My focus for this class is going to be on getting you comfortable reading and
analyzing a set of texts that might at first blush seem foreign. Its hard to write anything
interesting about material this old if you arent comfortable reading it, understanding it, and

thinking about ways into it that grapple with the tough and complicated issues its taking on. Its
easy to read medieval stuff and think oh, we dont think like this anymore, its stupid or to
think you can understand it by just applying a historical or rhetorical concept that will
explain the text. Critics much more experienced than youor mestill do exactly that for
medieval texts. I want us to push past that kind of reading and engage with what really is weird
and interesting and productive about these readings. In order to work on that, here is what well
be doing for assessments:

We will have two shorter (2 pages) assignments during the quarter one in third week
and one in seventh.
o Assignment 1 will be a close reading of 10 lines which you will choose from
Degar or Orfeo, translate/transliterate, and then discuss: tell me why you chose
these lines, what work you think they do in the poem, how they change your
larger reading of the poem.
o Assignment 2 will focus on a secondary source; apart from the Finlayson article,
this is the only work well do with secondary sources in this class, but I think its
important for you to read some amount of criticism of these texts so you can think
about how its done (and maybe whether youd do it differently). Choose a
secondary sourcethis can (and probably should) be a critical article from a
reputable journal, but it could also be a book chapter, if youd prefer. (The book
chapter will be more challenging because you will probably have to read some
part of the introduction to have a sense of the authors overall argument and how
the chapter fits into it.) This assignment will also be 2 pages; I would like you to
explain the question or problem the author is addressing, describe their approach
to the text, and tell me why and how you agree or disagree with their perspective,
citing specific material from the primary text. It may seem daunting to assess a
20- or 30-page article in such a brief space, but being able to do so effectively will
be an immensely useful skill in future English classes and other kinds of work as
well.
In addition, I want each person to sign up for one week in the quarter where you will be
responsible for choosing a 3-5-line passage from our reading for Thursdays class that
you think opens up the text in a useful way. You will post the passage on Chalk,
translate/transliterate it to the best of your ability, and write 3 discussion questions that
get at what you think is interesting or productive about this section. Well use these
questions to guide our Tuesday sections.
Depending on how reading and discussion is going, I will reserve the right to give really
brief quizzes in classone or two short questions to check if youve done and understood
the reading. I know you all are busy and I want to trust that you will arrange your time
effectively, so hopefully we will not need to do this.
Finally, our last assignment will be either a paper or a take-home, typed exam.

Class Schedule
Week 1
Tuesday 9/27: introduction to class. We will begin reading Sir Orfeo in class.
Thursday 9/29: finish Sir Orfeo (600 lines) and read Finlayson article (on Chalk). In Finlayson,
please mark some hypothetical definitions of romance (he suggests and discards a lot) to
discuss in class.
Week 2
Tuesday 10/4: Sir Degar (1100 lines)
Thursday 10/6: Degar cont.
Week 3
Tuesday 10/11: Sir Isumbras (800 lines)
Thursday 10/13: Isumbras ASSIGNMENT 1 DUE THURSDAY EVENING
Week 4
Tuesday 10/18: Sir Amadace (900 lines)
Thursday 10/20: Amadace
Week 5
Tuesday 10/25: King Horn (1500 lines, but theyre short lines)
Thursday 10/27: Horn
Week 6
Tuesday 11/1: Havelok the Dane (this is 2900 lines, so I will excerpt TBD)
Thursday 11/3: Havelok
Week 7
Tuesday 11/8: Richard Coer de Lyon (again, VERY long excerpts TBD)
Thursday 11/10: Richard ASSIGNMENT 2 DUE
Week 8
Tuesday 11/15: The King of Tars (1240 lines)
Thursday 11/17: Tars
Week 9
Tuesday 11/22: The Squire of Low Degree (1100 lines will be posted to Chalk)
Thursday 11/24: THANKSGIVING, no class
Week 10
Tuesday 11/29: Squire LAST CLASS
Thursday 11/30: READING PERIOD