This module will introduce students to key works in medieval French literature. 

The module is divided into two halves, taught respectively in the first and second halves of term. The first half addresses medieval and modern ideas about and conflicts over ‘race’, ethnicity, ‘nationality’, and religion. The second addresses courts, courtoisie (courtliness) and courtly love: topics central to medieval literature. Both halves address medieval and modern ideas about and forms of gender and sexuality, including trans, queer, kinship, cross-dressing, and inter-religion relationships. 

1.Christianity and its Others 

In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, energetic European expansion (in particular through the Crusades in Spain, North Africa, the Middle East and the Eastern Christian empire of Byzantium) coincided with the cultural development of vernacular French literature, which found many of its earliest resources in various non-Christian cultures (Latin, Arabic, Greek, Celtic). This module will explore some of the ways in which Old French literary texts represent Christians and the ‘pagans’ with whom they come into contact in encounters dramatized as violent, erotic and/or burlesque. We shall study epic, romance and comic texts. We shall analyse the kinds of desire engaged in the differing representations of the pagan other, and explore also how true to life (or otherwise – mainly otherwise!) these literary pagans were. 

Set texts for ‘Christianity and Its Others’: 


	La Chanson de Roland, ed. and modern Fr. trans. Jean Dufournet (Garnier-Flammarion, series Flammarion bilingue), ISBN 2-08-070554-7. 
	
	
	Le Pèlerinage de Charlemagne, ed. and trans. Glyn S. Burgess (series British Rencesvals Publications, 2) (copies will be available at approx. £10 from theteacher at the beginning of term 1). 
	
	
	Robert d'Orbigny, Le Conte de Floire et Blanchefleur, ed. and modern Fr. trans. J-L Leclanche (Champion, series Champion Classiques Moyen Age, 2), ISBN 2745307363. 
	
	
	Aucassin et Nicolette, in: Nouvelles courtoises, ed. Suzanne Méjean-Thiolier and Marie-Françoise Notz-Grob (Livre de Poche, series Lettres gothiques, 1997) (see second half of term). 
	
Alternatively, Aucassin et Nicolette, ed. Jean Dufournet (Garnier-Flammarion, series Flammarion bilingue), ISBN 2-08-070261-0. 

2.The Court, Courtoisie and Courtly Love 

The Court provides the setting for much medieval literature. Often depicted as a luxurious place, the epitome of elegance and refinement, it is also seen as a destructive environment, full of jealousy, spite and scandal. We shall look at examples of literature produced for courts and depicting the people who live there. What are the pleasures of such a life, and what are its constraints? To what extent is life governed by codes of courtesy, and what problems do these codes create? In particular, we shall examine the code of courtly love, what it was, and how it was problematised in some of the key works of medieval literature. 

Set Texts for ‘The Court, Courtoisie and Courtly Love’: 


	Graelent, Guingamor and Le Lai du Trot, all in: Lais féeriques des XIIe et XIII siècles, ed. A. Micha (GF-Flammarion) ISBN 2-08-070672-1. 
	

	Chrétien de Troyes, Le Chevalier de la charrette, ed. C. Méla (Livre de Poche, series: Lettres gothiques) ISBN 2-253-05401-1. 
	
	
	La Châtelaine de Vergi , Le Lai de l'oiselet, and Jean Renart, Le Lai de l'ombre, all in: Nouvelles courtoises, ed. S Méjean-Thiolier and M-F Notz-Grob (Livre de Poche, series: Lettres gothiques) ISBN 2-253-06661-3. 
	
Teaching Delivery 

10 x online recorded lectures, plus 10 x weekly 2-hour seminars based on small-group discussions. Students are expected to have read the specified text(s) and other preparatory materials each week, and to come prepared to discuss them actively. 

By the end of the module, you should be able to: 


	Understand and engage critically with key literary works in medieval French 
	

	Understand and engage critically with relevant modern critical theories 
	

	Understand and engage critically with medieval and modern concepts relevant to religious conflict and to the history of sexuality. 
	

	Discuss in a variety of formats 
	

	Write essays on relevant topics. 
	 
	Recommended Reading 
	
In preparation for the module, we advise reading the following core critical works. These can be found in the UCL Library: 


	Kinoshita, Sharon, Medieval Boundaries: Rethinking Difference in Old French Literature (Philadelphia, 2006) 
	
	
	Christopher Tyerman, The Crusades: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005). 
	
	
	Gaunt, Simon, and Sarah Kay, eds, The Cambridge Companion to Medieval French Literature (Cambridge, 2008), available online 
	
 