Medieval Myths and Marvels
Knights and wizards, dragons and unicorns—contemporary fantasy fiction draws many of its standard figures from medieval models. In this course we will examine the imaginative construction of the medieval world as a narrative device in various forms of fantasy literature, looking in particular at the element of enchantment that is so often an integral characteristic. Organizing our study around certain recurring human and bestial characters, we will ask about the cultural work investment in such figures did then and does now. We will start our examination of medieval myths with the Arthurian legends related in Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte D’Arthur, and recast in T. H. White’s The Once and Future King. Horace Walpole’s early Gothic novel The Castle of Otranto, and William Morris’s The Wood Beyond the World will raise questions about the reinvention of the chilvaric model for later times. Turning to medieval marvels in the second half of the semester, we will examine the descriptions of fantastic creatures in medieval bestiaries and in such contemporary works as Peter Berger’s The Last Unicorn and Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Wizard of Earthsea. Along the way we will ponder questions of agency, gender, identity and otherness, and human (and not-so-human) connection and disconnection. To help, we will peruse some of the central literary, philosophical and psychological musings about the uses of imagination and fantasy.
The course will emphasize critical reading of texts, fervent discussion and imaginative speculation of our own, explored and expanded through regular writing assignments that consider such perennial writer’s problems as discovering an audience, finding a voice, structuring an argument, and refining presentation. Short weekly response papers will prepare for two mid-length papers of five to seven pages and one more extended final project.
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