Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: a philological reading - AAA500192

• Title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: a philological reading
• Guaranteed by: Department of the English Language and ELT Methodology (21-UAJD)
• Faculty: Faculty of Arts
• Actual: from 2023
• Semester: summer
• Points: 0
• E-Credits: 5
• Examination process: summer s.:
• Hours per week, examination: summer s.:0/2, C [HT]
• Capacity: unknown / 15 (unknown)
• Min. number of students: unlimited
• 4EU+: no
• Virtual mobility / capacity: no
• State of the course: taught
• Language: English
• Teaching methods: full-time
• Teaching methods: full-time
• Additional information: https://dl1.cuni.cz/course/view.php?id=665
• Note: course can be enrolled in outside the study plan; enabled for web enrollment
• Guarantor: prof. PhDr. Jan Čermák, CSc.
• Teacher(s): prof. PhDr. Jan Čermák, CSc.

Annotation

Last update: prof. PhDr. Jan Čermák, CSc. (10.02.2024)

The seminar is conceived as a philological, literary and historical introduction to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight against the background of a) the development of romance as genre, and b) the Alliterative Revival. Our "philology" will not entail technicalities of language structure but rather interpretive steering through the poetic texture of the romance within the limits set by its language.
An elementary knowledge of Middle English is a bonus but not a prerequisite. The analysis and discussions will be based on the original text of the poem, but will also look to its renderings into Present-Day English. The sessions will be conducted in English and Czech, as needed.

Aim of the course

Last update: prof. PhDr. Jan Čermák, CSc. (08.02.2024)

SGGK, edited by J. R. R. Tolkien and E. V. Gordon, 2^nd edition ed. by Norman Davis, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1925, 1967

http://www.maldura.unipd.it/dllags/brunetti/ME/index_gaw.php?poe=gaw&lingua=eng

(http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/c/cme/cme-idx?type=header&idno=Gawain)

 

PRELIMINARY PROGRAMME:

Week 1 (19 February)

Introductory: Division of Labour. The Alliterative Verse. Romance as a genre.

Reading: Cooper, Introduction to SGGK in Keith Harrison’s translation, Oxford World’s Classics, Oxford University Press, 1998,  pp. ix-xxi (‛The poet’; ‛The romance background’) and xxxiii-xxxviii (‛The Poetics of SGGK’).

In-class Close reading: ll. 1(I. Fitt)- 84 {From Troy to Camelot. Christmas time at Camelot}.

 

Week 2 (26 February)

Presentation 1: Derek Brewer, ‛Feasts’, in: Brewer, D. - Gibson, J., A Companion to the Gawain-Poet, D. S. Brewer, Cambridge, 1997,  pp. 131-143.

Close reading: ll. 85-249 {Green Knight’s arrival and challenge}.

 

Week 3 (4 March)

Presentation 2: Derek Brewer, ‛The Colour Green’, in: Brewer, D. - Gibson, J., A Companion to the Gawain-Poet, D. S. Brewer, Cambridge, 1997,  pp. 181-191.

Close reading: ll. 250-490 {First beheading and the covenant between Gawain and the Green Knight}.

 

Week 4 (11 March)

Close reading: ll. 491 (II. Fitt) – 639 {Gawain puts on armour}.

Presentation 3: Derek Brewer, ‛Armour II: The Arming Topos as Literature’, in: Brewer, D. - Gibson, J., A Companion to the Gawain-Poet, D. S. Brewer, Cambridge, 1997,  pp. 175-180.

 

Week 5 (18 March)

Close reading: ll. 640-810 {Gawain’s Journey and arrival at Bercilak’s castle}.

Presentation 4: Elizabeth Brewer, ‛The Sources of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’, in: Brewer, D. -  Gibson, J., A Companion to the Gawain-Poet, D. S. Brewer, Cambridge, 1997,  pp. 243-256.

 

Week 6 (25 March)

Close reading: ll. 811-1125 {Reception by the host}.

 

Week 7 (8 April)

Close reading: ll. 1126 (III. Fitt) – 1411 {1st bedroom scene and 1st hunt}.

 

Week 8 (15 April)

Close reading: ll. 1412 – 1689 {2nd bedroom scene and 2nd hunt}.

 

Week 9 (22 April)

Close reading: ll. 1690 – 1921 {3rd bedroom scene and 3rd hunt}.

 

Week 10 (29 April)

Close reading: ll. 1921 – 1997 {Gawain’s last night at Hautdesert}.

Presentation 5: J. A. Burrow, ‛The Third Fitt’, in: Burrow, J. A. B., A Reading of SGGK, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1965, pp. 96-104.

 

Week 11 (6 May)

Close reading: ll. 1998 (IV. Fitt) – 2258 {Gawain’s journey to the Green Chapel and the encounter with the Green Knight}.

Presentation 6: Helen Cooper, ‛The Supernatural’, in: Brewer, D. -  Gibson, J., A Companion to the Gawain-Poet, D. S. Brewer, Cambridge, 1997,  pp. 277-293.

 

Week 12 (13 May)

Close reading: ll. 2259 – 2478 {Return Blow and Denouement}.

Presentation 7: Helen Cooper, Introduction to SGGK in Keith Harrison’s translation, Oxford World’s Classics, Oxford University Press, 1998, pp. xxii-xxxiii (‛The Poem’).

Course completion requirements

Last update: prof. PhDr. Jan Čermák, CSc. (09.02.2024)

Students will be required to complete their weekly reading assign­ments, offer one presentation and write an essay (3,000 words) on a topic they will choose.

Some thematic tips for essays: 

• the poem in its time
• the poem in its locality
• critical analysis of any two modern translations  of the poem
• Tolkien on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
• sources and analogues of the poem
• knighthood and chivalry in the poem
• courtesy in the poem
• the poem as part of the Alliterative Revival

Literature

Last update: prof. PhDr. Jan Čermák, CSc. (09.02.2024)

Primary texts:

Andrew, M. and Waldron R., eds. 1987. The Poems of the Pearl Manuscript. 2nd rev. edn,1996. Exeter. Borroff, M., trans. 1977. Pearl. New York.

Hahn, T., ed. 1995. Sir Gawain: Eleven Romances and Tales. Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Tolkien, J.R.R. and Gordon E.V., eds. 1967. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Rev. N. Davis. Oxford. 2nd edn. 

Secondary texts:

Borroff, Marie. 1952. Sir Gawain and tlze Green K11iglzt: A Stylistic and Metrical Study, Yale University Press.

Brewer, D. -  Gibson, J., A Companion to the Gawain-Poet, D. S. Brewer, Cambridge, 1997

Brewer, L. E., ed. 1992. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: Sources and Analogues. Cambridge. 2nd edn. Arthurian Studies 27.

Burrow, J. A. 1965. A Reading of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. London.

Cooper, Helen. 1998. Introduction to SGGK in Keith Harrison’s translation, Oxford World’s Classics, Oxford University Press.