Marie de france lanval feminism

1. "Crises of the 14th Century"

https://earlybritishlit.pressbooks.com/chapter/contexts-crises-of-the-14th-century/

2. "Contexts: Love and Marriage"

https://earlybritishlit.pressbooks.com/chapter/contexts-love-and-marriage-in-medieval-britain/

3. “Romances of Marie de France (all 12 are on the page; read "Lay of Launfal," "Milun" and "Bisclavret" only) “

https://earlybritishlit.pressbooks.com/chapter/romances-of-marie-de-france/

4. “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”

https://earlybritishlit.pressbooks.com/chapter/sir-gawain-part-i/

5. "The Knight's Tale" from Canterbury Tales”

https://earlybritishlit.pressbooks.com/chapter/the-knights-tale/

6. "Wife of Bath: Prologue and Tale" from Canterbury Tales

https://earlybritishlit.pressbooks.com/chapter/canterbury-tales-the-wife-of-baths-prologue-and-tale/

7. " The Pardoner's Prologue and Tale" from Canterbury Tales

https://earlybritishlit.pressbooks.com/chapter/the-pardoners-prologue-and-tale/

Assignments:

Discussion 3: Love and Death in the 14th Century
For Discussion 3, please make sure to answer both prompts below with examples from the text:

1. After reading "Crises of the 14th Century" please indicate which event (the Great Famine, Black Death, 100 Years War or Peasant's Revolt) was the most significant and why. Then, what within these readings points to old social orders falling away - and are there corollaries to our society today?

2. The "Love and Marriage" readings, we see the evolution of law (religious and secular) to define the institution of marriage. What is the purpose of codifying love relationships and what are the consequences of this? Which reading affected you the most and why?

Discussion 4: The Sacred and the Profane
After completing the readings for this module, what have we inherited, in terms of our cultural norms or beliefs, from the medieval mindset (especially regarding love, marriage, and class)? When we look back at our historic moment (100 or 500 years from now), what defining works of art (painting, performance, music, literature) will communicate the moment we are living in and how we felt about our world? Once you have answered these general questions, please answer at least two from the list below:

1. After reading the laws of Aethelberht and Cnut, what do you imagine life was like for women in Anglo-Saxon England?

2. How are women portrayed in the readings from this module? Do any archetypes emerge?

3. How did the bubonic plague ultimately change English society?

4. Describe the way the “Lay of Lanval/Launfal” addresses issues of class, gender and sexuality.

5. What does the Green Knight in Sir Gawain represent?

6. How does the "Knight's Tale" relate to the Lais of Marie de France?

7. Is the “Wife of Bath” a feminist icon or a gender stereotype?

8. Why do you think the Pardoner explained his tricks not long before trying them on the Host and the other pilgrims?

1. "Faith in Conflict"

https://earlybritishlit.pressbooks.com/chapter/contexts-religion-and-devotional-life/

2. “ Everyman ”

https://earlybritishlit.pressbooks.com/chapter/everyman/

3. Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe

https://earlybritishlit.pressbooks.com/chapter/christopher-marlowe-doctor-faustus/

4. The. Tempest by William Shakespeare

https://earlybritishlit.pressbooks.com/chapter/william-shakespeare-the-tempest/

Assignments:

Discussion 5: The Changing Church

There are many causes for the English Reformation. Which do you think was the most significant and why? Both sides of the conflict--Catholic and Protestant--could claim a cadre of martyrs who died for their respective faiths; what motivated these men and women and is there any equivalent to this level of religious fervor today? Once you have answered these general questions, please answer at least one from the list below:

1. Anne Askew was considered a "dangerous" woman in her day. What danger did she pose and to whom based on information from the texts about her?

2. The Book of Common Prayer is often argued to be one of the three foundational texts of modern English (along with Shakespeare's writings and the King James Bible). What words, phrases, lines and/or literary elements from the text you read would support this argument?

3. John Foxe wrote Acts and Monuments with a clear purpose in mind: to glorify Protestant martyrs and advance the cause of Reformation. Where is this purpose most clearly expressed in his excerpts?

4. Lady Hoby's Diaries are included in the chapter to demonstrate the "average" person's experience of religion at the end of the 16th century. Based on her entries, how do you think she regarded her faith, God and the role of the church?

5. Though Jews were expelled from England in 1290, they continued to feature prominently in English literature (and were almost always portrayed negatively); based on the readings in the "Jews and Christians" section, why was this? What purpose did it serve?

Discussion 6: The Soul on Stage
After reading the plays in this module, what themes seem to emerge in all three? To what extent does each explore the darkness of the human soul? Which did you find most compelling and why? Once you have answered these general questions, please choose at least one from the list below:

1. In Everyman, what sinful acts do you think weakened Good Deeds, and would those acts still be considered “sinful” today?

2. In the variations of the Faustian tale, the main character is either redeemed or damned to hell. Why are there various endings and which is the more impactful? Why?

3. There are many readings of Shakespeare's The Tempest; it was his last play so many scholars see it as a metaphor for his exit from professional life. Others see it as a commentary on colonialism, or Christian morality, or on the Renaissance-era preoccupation with white and black magic. Which interpretation do you favor and why?

Writing Project 2: A Deeper Reading

Description:

This writing project will focus on analyzing one of the works we have covered and applying a critical literary theory as the “lens” for your analysis. That is, you will take one work and examine it in the context of ideas it presents about gender or class, or in the light of its historic moment, its author’s personal history or archetypal/psychological tropes. In this analysis, you will incorporate at least four secondary sources where appropriate. Having said this, the majority of this paper should, as with all strong literary essays, be your original analysis and interpretation.

Critical theory options: Feminism, Marxism, New Historicism, Biographical Criticism, Archetypal/Psychological.

Readings:

· “Sermon of the Wolf to the English”

· “Dream of the Rood”

· Beowulf

· The Lais of Marie de France (choose one)

· Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

· Canterbury Tales (choose one Tale)

· Everyman

· Doctor Faustus

· The Tempest

Word Count: This paper for the project should be 800-1,200 words in length.

1.

"

Crises

of

the

14th

Century

"

https://earlybritishlit.pressbooks.com/chapter/contexts

-

crises

-

of

-

the

-

14th

-

century/

2.

"

Contexts:

Love

and

Marriage

"

https://earlybritishlit.pressbooks.com/chapter/contexts

-

love

-

and

-

marriage

-

in

-

medieval

-

britain/

3.

“

Romances

of

Marie

de

France

(all 12 are on the page; read "Lay of Launfal," "Milun"

and "Bisclavret"

only

)

“

https://e

arlybritishlit.pressbooks.com/chapter/romances

-

of

-

marie

-

de

-

france/

4.

“

Sir

Gawain

and

the

Green

Knight

”

https://earlybritishlit.pressbooks.com/chapter/sir

-

gawain

-

part

-

i/

5.

"

The

Knight's

Tale

" from

Canterbury

Tales”

https://ea

rlybritishlit.pressbooks.com/chapter/the

-

knights

-

tale/

6.

"

Wife

of

Bath:

Prologue

and

Tale

" from

Canterbury

Tales

https://earlybritishlit.pressbooks.com/chapter/canterbury

-

tales

-

the

-

wife

-

of

-

baths

-

prologue

-

and

-

tale/

7.

"

The

Pardoner's

Prologue

and

Tale

" from

Canterbury

Tales

https

://earlybritishlit.pressbooks.com/chapter/the

-

pardoners

-

prologue

-

and

-

tale/

1. "Crises of the 14th Century"

https://earlybritishlit.pressbooks.com/chapter/contexts-crises-of-the-14th-century/

2. "Contexts: Love and Marriage"

https://earlybritishlit.pressbooks.com/chapter/contexts-love-and-marriage-in-medieval-

britain/

3. “Romances of Marie de France (all 12 are on the page; read "Lay of Launfal," "Milun"

and "Bisclavret" only) “

https://earlybritishlit.pressbooks.com/chapter/romances-of-marie-de-france/

4. “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”

https://earlybritishlit.pressbooks.com/chapter/sir-gawain-part-i/

5. "The Knight's Tale" from Canterbury Tales”

https://earlybritishlit.pressbooks.com/chapter/the-knights-tale/

6. "Wife of Bath: Prologue and Tale" from Canterbury Tales

https://earlybritishlit.pressbooks.com/chapter/canterbury-tales-the-wife-of-baths-

prologue-and-tale/

7. "The Pardoner's Prologue and Tale" from Canterbury Tales

https://earlybritishlit.pressbooks.com/chapter/the-pardoners-prologue-and-tale/