Medieval Romance Epic
Code: 103371 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year | Semester |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2501913 English and French Studies | OT | 3 | 2 |
| 2501913 English and French Studies | OT | 4 | 2 |
| 2502533 French Studies | OT | 3 | 2 |
| 2502533 French Studies | OT | 4 | 2 |
| 2504393 English and French Studies | OT | 3 | 2 |
| 2504393 English and French Studies | OT | 4 | 2 |
Contact
- Name:
- Jordi Cerdà Subirachs
- Email:
- jordi.cerda@uab.cat
Use of Languages
- Principal working language:
- catalan (cat)
- Some groups entirely in English:
- No
- Some groups entirely in Catalan:
- Yes
- Some groups entirely in Spanish:
- Yes
Prerequisites
No admission requirements
Objectives and Contextualisation
Epic poetry is one of the most important literary genres in the Europe of the Middle Ages. Romance epic poems, “chansons de geste”, were born at the end of the 11th century as a literary and linguistic manifestation in the northern area of present-day France. They evolved with extraordinary qualitative and quantitative richness throughout the 12th and 13th centuries up to the 15th century. This subject aims to make the students travel to this medieval heroic universe as well as to make them aware of the linguistic and cultural diversity of Romania.
Competences
- English and French Studies
- Comparative and multicultural different medieval Romance literature study.
- Establish guidelines for definition of medieval literary genres from oral or written nature.
- Students can apply the knowledge to their own work or vocation in a professional manner and have the powers generally demonstrated by preparing and defending arguments and solving problems within their area of study.
- Students have the ability to gather and interpret relevant data (normally within their study area) to issue judgments that include reflection on important issues of social, scientific or ethical.
- Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
- Students must develop the necessary learning skills in order to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
- French Studies
- Analysing the various medieval romance literatures from a contrastive and multicultural perspective.
- Establish guidelines for definition of medieval literary genres from oral or written nature.
- Knowing the beginning of European literature in medieval romance languages.
- Students can apply the knowledge to their own work or vocation in a professional manner and have the powers generally demonstrated by preparing and defending arguments and solving problems within their area of study.
- Students have the ability to gather and interpret relevant data (normally within their study area) to issue judgments that include reflection on important issues of social, scientific or ethical.
- Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
- Students must develop the necessary learning skills in order to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
Learning Outcomes
- Analysing oral and written medieval literary documents.
- Analysing romance literatures in their social, religious and political context.
- Analyze medieval oral and written literary documents.
- Arguing about several issues and literary problems for the purpose of different works and the assessment of the results.
- Being able to define the medieval literary genres.
- Being able to perform a comparative analysis of the various multicultural medieval Romance literatures.
- Conceptually analysing a work of the subject matter.
- Critically interpreting literary works taking into account the relationships between the different areas of literature and its relationships with human, artistic and social areas.
- Describing the first medieval linguistic and literary monuments.
- Identifying and analysing texts coming from the European literary tradition.
- Identifying the main ideas of a related text and drawing a diagram.
- Student must be capable of defining the medieval literary genres.
- Students must be capable of carrying out a comparative and multicultural analysis of the various medieval romance literatures.
Content
1. General features of heroic poetry: The figure of the hero; The problem of origins, ideology and theory; Historical event versus legend; Epic poetry, a universal gender?
2. Heroic poetry from a gender perspective: Feudal epic society
3. The origins of European heroic poetry: the Latin, Germanic and Anglo-Saxon traditions.
4. Medieval Romance epic and hagiography: the case of the Life of Sainte Fe and the Life of Saint Alexis.
5. Formal features of the heroic poem: Laisse or tirada; The epic poem: metre and rhyme; Narrative and rhetorical stereotypes; The marks of orality in epic poems.
6. La Chanson de Roland: Handwritten tradition; The Carolingian cycle; The epic and history.
7. The cyclic configuration: The main French epic cycles; Thematic and Formal evolution of the French epic and the European epic; Cycle de Guillaume (Chançun de Guilelme); The cycle of the rebellious Barons (The Raoul of Cambrai).
8. The crusades and their repercussion for the epic poetry.
Methodology
Generally, the learning process will be directed through a number of techniques and activities:
- Masterclass supported by the use of ICT and students’ discussion
- Practice of written and oral production
- Individual and group exercises, both written and oral
- Out of Class assignments: reading of primary and critical sources, writing and bibliographic search.
- Feedback sessions for the correction and assessment of exercises and activities.
-Inverse classes of some item of the program and subsequent collective discussion and analysis of the bibliographic sources consulted
Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.
Activities
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Activity participated in class and coordinated with other students | 20 | 0.8 | 7, 3, 1, 2, 4, 9, 10, 11, 8, 5, 12, 13, 6 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Commentaries of a epic text applying the knowledge of the historical and socio-cultural context. | 10 | 0.4 | 7, 3, 1, 2, 4, 9, 10, 11, 8, 5, 12, 13, 6 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Out of Class assignments: reading of primary and critical sources, writing and bibliographic search | 30 | 1.2 | 7, 3, 1, 2, 4, 9, 10, 11, 8, 5, 12, 13, 6 |
Assessment
ASSESSMENT PROCEDURE: The competences of this subject will be assessed through written tests, individual and group work, text commentaries and oral presentations.
-Paper submission module: A minimum of two papers will be required in this module. Results will value 45% of the final mark.
-Module for presentations of texts in the classroom: 25%.
-Module of written tests: 30%.
At the time of each assessment task, students will be informed through Moodle about the procedure and the date of the review of results.
In the event that tests or exams cannot be taken onsite, they will be adapted to an online format made available through the UAB’s virtual tools (original weighting will be maintained). Homework, activities and class participation will be carried out through forums, wikis and/or discussion on Teams, etc. Lecturers will ensure that students are able to access these virtual tools, or will offer them feasible alternatives.
ABSENT: Students will be considered absent if they have completed less than 30% of the work assigned during the course and 30% less of the tests. Therefore, if they have done more than 30% of each part, they will be assessed.
REMEDIATION: Students are required to have been awarded marks previously in a set of activities that score at least 2/3 of the total mark. Only students with an average mark equal or higher than 3.5 will be eligible for remediation. Activities such as oral presentations, group work, or those related to daily teaching may not be eligible for remediation.
In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be given a zero for this activity, regardless of any disciplinary process that may take place. In the event of several irregularities in assessment activities of thesame subject, the student will be given a zero as the final grade for this subject. Total and partial plagiarism of any of the exercises will automatically be considered a FAIL. Plagiarism means deliberately or accidentally using someone else’s work, whether a single sentence or more, as if it were your own. This includes copying sentences or whole paragraphs from digital documents on the Internet and it can have very serious consequences, which is why it is important to follow good academic practices and to reference your work properly.
Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Commentaries of a epic text applying the knowledge of the historical and socio-cultural context. | Autonomous bibliographic search | 40 | 1.6 | 7, 3, 1, 2, 4, 9, 10, 11, 8, 5, 12, 13, 6 |
| Minimum two comments of poetry epic texts | Assessment with instrumental and bibliographic orientation | 20 | 0.8 | 7, 3, 1, 2, 4, 9, 10, 11, 8, 5, 12, 13, 6 |
| Minimum two comments of poetry epic texts | Autonomous bibliographical approach to the subject | 30 | 1.2 | 7, 3, 1, 2, 4, 9, 10, 11, 8, 5, 12, 13, 6 |
Bibliography
Relevant bibliography (course readings):
Chanson de Roland: Cantar de Roldán y el Roncesvalles navarro (2003). Ed. y trad. M. de Riquer. Acantilado Barcelona,.
La Chanson de Guillaume (2008). Ed. François Suard, Lettres Gothiques, Paris.
Raoul de Cambrai (2011). Ed. Sarah Kay, Lettres Gothiques, Paris.
Cantar de Guillermo (1997). Trad. de Joaquín Rubio Tovar, Gredos, Madrid.
Bibliography:
AA.VV. 1984. Essor et fortune de la chanson de geste dans l'Europe et l'Orient latin. Modena.
AA.VV. 1985. Les épopées romanes, GRLMA, Heidelberg, C. Winter, 1985, vol. VIII, t.2.
BÉDIER, Joseph. 1926 Les légendes épiques. Recherches sur la formation des Chansons de geste, 4 vols. Paris, Champion, 3ª ed.
COHEN,Walter. 2017. A History of European Literature: The West and the World from Antiquity to the Present. Oxford.
DUGGAN, Joseph J., A guide to Studies on the Chanson de Roland, London, 1976.
FLORIO, Rubén.2002. Waltharius, Madrid / Bellaterra.
FRAPPIER, Joseph, 1965 Les Chansons de geste du cycle de Guillaume, Paris.
GRISWARD, Joël H. 1981., Archéologie de l'epopée médiévale, Paris, Payot.
JONIN, Pierre. 1965. Pages épiques du Moyen Age français. Le Cycle du Roi, Paris, SEDES.
KRAUSS, Henning. 1980. Épica feudale e pubblico borghese. Per la storia di Carlomagno in Italia, Padova.
LAFONT, Robert. 1991.La Geste de Roland, Paris.
LEJEUNE, Rita. 1972 «Le problème de l'épopée occitane», Cahiers de Saint Michel de Cuxa, III, p. 147-179.
LIMENTANI, Alberto, e INFURNA, Marcos. 1986, L'epica, Bologna, Il Mulino.
MENÉNDEZ PIDAL, Ramón,La “Chanson de Roland” y el neotradicionalismo, Madrid, Espasa-Calpe, 1959.
PAQUETTE, Jean-Marcel. 1988. "Définition du genre" dins L'Epopée, Typologies des Sources de Moyen Âge Occidental, 49, Brepols.
REAL, Elena. 2002. Épica medieval francesa, Madrid.
RIQUER, Martín de, Los cantares de gesta franceses, Madrid, 2009.
RIQUER, Martín de,1978. «El caso particular de Cataluña», Le Roman jusqu'a la fin du XIIIe siècle, GRLMA, vol.IV, t.1, Heidelberg, C. Winter, p. 665-666.
RYCHNER, Jean. 1955., La chanson de geste. Essai sur l'art épique des jongleurs, Ginebra, Droz.
VALLCORBA, Jaume. 2010. Lectura de la Chanson de Roland, Barcelona, Acantilado.
Software
No specific software is necessary. Although unlikely, if required later in the course, this would be indicated in due time.