This course will be offered Spring 2010.
Literature Shaped by History and History Changed by Literature
Chronicles from the Middle Ages document that, in 778, a troop of Basques ambushed Charlemagne's rearguard, led by Roland, as Charlemagne's army was returning from a failed attempt to take Saragossa. Nearly three-hundred year later, one of the great monuments of medieval literature, The Song of Roland, transformed this historical event into an epic poem that exemplifies the medieval heroic code of conduct. In turn, The Song of Roland itself may have shaped history as some scholars speculate about its use as propaganda to gain support for the Norman Conquest.
Using The Song of Roland, Chretien
de Troyes' Arthurian romances, Shakespeare's Henry IV,
Part I, and selections from Cervantes' Don Quixote
as common texts, I propose a section of the Capstone seminar
that will focus on the relationships between literature and
history, particularly in the development of chivalry. Reception
theory and new historicism will serve as primary critical
perspectives. Thus, common secondary texts will include Eric
Auerbach's Mimeses, Hans Robert Jauss' Toward an
Aesthetic of Reception, Catherine Gallagher and Stephen
Greenblatt's Practicing New Historicism, and Maurice
Keen's Chivalry.
Dr. Carol Jamison
Gamble Hall 202C
Armstrong Atlantic State University
11935 Abercorn Street
Savannah, GA 31419
Phone: 912.344-3097