Book Discussion Group, Online: The Arthurian Romances of Chrétien de Troyes: The Art of Ambivalence
- Thursday, September 12, 2024, 6 - 8 PM
- Thursday, September 26, 2024, 6 - 8 PM
Location
The Arthurian Romances of Chrétien de Troyes (1135-1191) have mesmerized readers for centuries. So much more than mere adventure tales or simple love stories, Chrétien's five romances (Erec & Enide, Cligés, Lancelot: the Knight of the Cart, Yvain: the Knight with the Lion, Perceval: the Story of the Grail) written between the years 1170 and 1191, are works of profound psychic depth, exploring the tensions between male and female, the individual and society, pride and humility, desire and death, as well as meaning and its expression in/as language.
This series of ten online lectures seeks to examine these tales through a lens at once literary, historical, and psychological, so that we may understand the relevance of Chrétien's poetry for our own times. The series will begin on Thursday, June 13th, 2024, taking place on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month at 6 PM. The program will through the month of October.
There is no need to read along to attend or participate. Registration for this event qualifies as registration for the entire series. In you are looking to register for this series after June 27th please email andrewfairweather@nypl.org . Otherwise, click here to register through the event's main page.
The structure of the series is as follows:
- Part I: Erec & Enide (a) - [pp. 37- 70] - Thursday, June 13th @ 6pm
- Part II: Erec & Enide (b) - [pp. 71 - 122] - Thursday, June 27th @ 6pm
- Part III: Cligés (a) - [pp. 123 - 157] - Thursday, July 11th @ 6pm
- Part IV: Cligés (b) - [pp. 157 - 205] - Thursday, July 25th @ 6pm
- Part V: Lancelot, or the Knight of the Cart (a) - [pp. 206 - 238] - Thursday, August 8th @ 6pm
- Part VI: Lancelot, or the Knight of the Cart (b) - [pp. 239 - 294] - Thursday, August 22nd @ 6pm
- Part VII: Yvain, or the Knight with the Lion (a) - [pp. 295 - 330] - Thursday, September 12th @ 6pm
- Part VIII: Yvain, or the Knight with the Lion (b) - [pp. 330 - 380] - Thursday, September 26th @6pm
- Part IX: Perceval, or the Story of the Grail (a) - [pp. 381 - 431] - Thursday, October 10th @ 6pm
- Part X: Perceval, or the Story of the Grail (b) - [pp. 431 - 494] - Thursday, October 24th @ 6pm
The lecturer will be working from the translations found in the Penguin Classics edition of Chrétien de Troyes' Arthurian Romances. Page numbers refer to those found in print copies of this edition.
Major Works Cited:
- Archibald, E., Putter, A. (Eds.) (2009). The Cambridge companion to the Arthurian legend. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press
- Bloch, M. (1989). Feudal Society. London ; New York : Routledge
- Bloch, R. H. (1983). Etymologies and genealogies : a literary anthropology of the French Middle Ages. Chicago : University of Chicago Press
- Brody, S. N. (2001). Reflections of Yvain's Inner Life. Romance Philology, 54(2), 277–298. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44742150
- Bruckner, M. T. (1986). An Interpreter’s Dilemma: Why Are There So Many Interpretations of Chrétien’s “Chevalier de la Charrette?” Romance Philology, 40(2), 159–180. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44942815
- Cavendish, R. (1978). King Arthur & the Grail : the Arthurian legends and their meaning. London : Weidenfeld and Nicolson,
- Condren, E. I. (1970). The Paradox of Chrétien’s Lancelot. MLN, 85(4), 434–453. https://doi.org/10.2307/2907990
- Duggan, J. J. (2001). The romances of Chrétien de Troyes . New Haven : Yale University Press
- Feinstein, S. (1999). Losing Your Head in Chrétien’s “Knight of the Cart.” Arthuriana, 9(4), 45–62. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27869496
- Frappier, J. (1982). Chrétien de Troyes, the man and his work . Athens, Ohio : Ohio University Press
- Haidu, P. (1968). Aesthetic distance in Chrétien de Troyes : irony and comedy in Cligés and Perceval. Genève, Droz, 1968.
- Harris, J. (1949). The Rôle of the Lion in Chrétien de Troyes’ Yvain. PMLA, 64(5), 1143–1163. https://doi.org/10.2307/459555
- Keen, M. (1984). Chivalry . New Haven : Yale University Press, 1984
- Kelly, D. (Ed.) (1985). The Romances of Chrétien de Troyes : a symposium. Lexington, Ky. : French Forum, c1985.
- Lacy, N. J., Grimbert, J. T. (Eds.) (2005). A companion to Chrétien de Troyes. Cambridge [England] ; New York : D.S. Brewer
- Lacy, N. J. (1984) "Cligés" and Courtliness. Interpretations, 15(2), 18–24. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23241570
- Lacy, N. J. )1980). The craft of Chrétien de Troyes : an essay on narrative art. Leiden : Brill
- Luria, M. S. (1967). The Storm-Making Spring and the Meaning of Chrétien’s “Yvain.” Studies in Philology, 64(4), 564–585. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4173574
- McCracken, P. (2008). Love and War in Cligés. Arthuriana 18(3), 6-18. https://doi.org/10.1353/art.0.0013.
- Schroeder, J. L. (1998). The vestal and the fasces : Hegel, Lacan, property, and the feminine. Berkeley : University of California Press
- Ragland, E. (1995). Psychoanalysis and Courtly Love. Arthuriana, 5(1), 1–20. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27869092
- Schweitzer, E. C. (1974). Pattern and Theme in Chrétien’s ‘Yvain’ Traditio, 30, 145–189. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27830966
- Sturm-Maddox, S. (1982). The “Joie De La Cort” : Thematic Unity in Chrétien’s “Erec et Enide.” Romania, 103(412 (4)), 513–528. http://www.jstor.org/stable/45041127
- Sullivan, P. (1983). The Presentation of Enide in the “Premier Vers” of Chrétien’s “Erec et Enide.” Medium Ævum, 52(1), 77–89. https://doi.org/10.2307/43628684
- Vance, E. (1986). Chrétien’s Yvain and the Ideologies of Change and Exchange. Yale French Studies, 70, 42–62. https://doi.org/10.2307/2929848