Syllabus
The majority of lessons will be focused on some basic plots or problems and will be based on selected passages of medieval texts that will be read together with relevant chapters of HA.
All the texts will be made available in Modern English translations. The schedule below may be enlarged or modified to suit students’ needs and tastes.
(0) Introductions. Syllabus. Goals and requirements.
(1) Material aspects. Manuscript as a medium of transmission. Variants and variety. Codices and their composition.
(2) The story as a whole. Its structure. Episodes and their relations. Test of overall knowledge of the Latin Historia Apollonii regis Tyri.
(3) The scene. Space-time of the story. Ancient oecumene. Sea as a locus of transition be-tween islands and cities. Romance as a translation from antiquity to medieval presence. Further reading: Chrétien de Troyes’ Cligès.
(4) Characters. Families. Parentage. Heroic deeds and their impact. Changes of character and gender roles. Further reading: Aucassin et Nicolette.
(5) Signs and symbols. Reliability of signs and names. Links between persons and places. Further reading: De Ortu Waluuanii Nepotis Arturi.
(6) Riddles. Writing and speech, through enigma to wit and wisdom. Dialogues and storytell-ing. Further reading: troubadour devinalh poems.
(7) Body. Sex and death. Body parts. Bodily fluids. The body used and degraded. Further reading: Marie de France’s Lays.
(8) Emotions. Desire (corporal and spiritual). Sorrow. Feeling of loss. Lethal love. Further reading: Tristrams saga ok Ísöndar.
(9) Fate, fortune, and will. Machina mundi and Rota fortunae. Motivations and the human endeavor to over-come it. Further reading: Boëthius’ De consolatione philosophiae.
(10) Crime, sin and punishment. Socially destructive action and its repercussions. Law, in-justice and mercy.Further reading: Dante’s Commedia.
(11) Economy and society. Liberality. Trade and honor. Commodities bought and sold. Re-ward and redemption. Further reading: Trubert.
(12) Text and image. Illuminations. The power of image. Further reading: Guillaume de Lorris’ part of Roman de la Rose.
Annotation
The History of Apollonius, King of Tyre (Historia Apollonii regis Tyri, abbreviated as HA) recounts adventures of a peculiar, highly civilized, peaceful and wise hero, the king of Tyre (in present day Lebanon), who solves a riddle that no one else could solve, becomes a target for hired assassins as a result, is stripped of his wife and daughter by fate, leaves of being a king and turns merchant, only to regain all his loses at the end and reign happily ever after. This story, probably a Latin translation of a lost Greek original, can be found all over the medieval Europe, not only in Latin but also in various vernacular retellings, which were popular from west (Castilian Libro de Apolonio) to east (Old Czech O Apolónovi) and exhibit a remarkable stability as to the basic plot and narrative sequence. According to some scholars (e.g. Maurice Delbouille) the HA played an important role in formation of medieval romance and modern novel. Others read it as a prime example of classical story that successfully passed through the dark ages and retained its popularity even in much-changed medieval milieu.
The Latin versions of HA are virtually omnipresent in medieval Europe, to this day they survive in more than 100 manuscripts. As such, they have a vast potential to interact with other tales and texts, to establish a dialogue with them or to inspire them. This is the reason why we will use this short tale (17 pages in modern edition) as a tool for reading various medieval texts. We will look on plots, problems and motives that these texts have in common and uncover some traits or lines of argument that connect various medieval literatures across the boundaries of languages or cultures, both clerical and lay.
Erasmus Class: Exchange – 09.2 General and Comparative Literature
Undergraduate students are welcome, as the course will equip them with basic tools that can be used in dealing with medieval literature.