PART ONE: GUILLAUME DE LORRIS & JEAN DE MEUN, ROMANCE OF THE ROSE
it's not what it might look like
WEEKS 1-4
Week 1: 4-6 January
Thursday 05/01:
❊ introduction to the course
Week 2: 9-13 January
Tuesday 10/01:
❊ READING FOR TODAY: none (familiarize yourselves with the course site, syllabus, etc.)
❊ lecture: prologue, background history to literary and other intellectual debates in a European tradition:
– a nod to the Classical tradition…
– debates and disputations theological, scholarly, and inquisitorial
– 12th-13th c. Occitan poetry: Guiraut de Bornelh & Raimbaut d’Aurenga, other tensos and partimens
Thursday 12/01:
❊ READING FOR TODAY to prepare in advance for today’s class: Romance of the Rose (1): up to p. 61 (end of Guillaume de Lorris section of the poem)
❊ BLOG WRITING FOR TODAY: weekly commentary (1)
❊ lecture: introduction to the Romance of the Rose
❊ discussion, based on and around your blog commentary
Lecture outline-notes from week 2 (PDF): the lecture-outlines won’t be this long every week, not to worry!
Week 3: 16-20 January
Tuesday 17/01:
❊ reading: Romance of the Rose (2): 62-127 (to near the end of the page, “But if she is as I describe, loyal of heart and innocent of face, I shall tell you what you must do.”)
❊ lecture
Thursday 19/01:
❊ reading: Romance of the Rose (3): 127 (end of page) – 190.
❊ lecture
❊ blogging: weekly commentary (2)
❊ discussion
Reading-guide / guided reading (PDF): key passages that will be referred to in this week’s lectures, and that may appear in the mid-term paper (you’ll have a choice of passages on which to comment) and in the final examination.
Lecture outline-notes for week 3 (PDF): ROUGH VERSION: to be updated at the end of the week
Week 4: 23-27 January
Tuesday 24/01:
❊ reading: Romance of the Rose (4): 191-258
❊ lecture: misogyny
Thursday 26/01:
❊ reading: Romance of the Rose (5): 259-335 (= the end).
❊ lecture: blasphemy, obscenity, misanthropy, and possible/attempted defences
❊ blogging: weekly commentary (3)
❊ discussion
Reading-guide / guided reading (PDF): key passages that will be referred to in this week’s lectures, and that may appear in the mid-term paper (you’ll have a choice of passages on which to comment) and in the final examination.
Lecture outline-notes for week 4 (PDF): ROUGH VERSION: to be updated at the end of the week
EXTRA MATERIALS
❊ The Roman de la Rose Digital Library (Johns Hopkins U & Bibliothèque Nationale de France). We will be referring to this site in class throughout the Rose part of this course.
– introduction / overview of the Rose
– narrative sections (nearly a plot summary) with each segment linking to the available manuscript scans
– alternative routes to synopsis by illustration; see also character names
– the project’s Official Blog
❊ A reader’s guide / map / plot summary (Per Nykrog):
O’Brien English translation in progress, original French version available on request (electronic file of scan)
❊ Chaucer, The Romaunt of the Rose (partial translation/version)
– 1911 illustrated ed. c/o Project Gutenberg and U of Toronto:
online, PDF, assorted other file formats
– the Riverside Chaucer, ed. Benson (3rd ed. 1987 & various subsequent reprints):
This is the principal current edition. The printed version is in UBC and other Vancouver libraries, available in good bookstores, & second-hand copies easily obtainable (and cheap, albeit often because heavily used).
An electronic version of this edition exists (1992), but alas, it is not free but by subscription, and UBC library does not have a licence for it. O’Brien promises to ask/beg/plead for UBC to buy it.
