| Day 1 |
As needed, continue discussion of Tennyson
and Arnold.
NEW TOPIC: The Victorians and Pre-Raphaelitism 2 --
Algernon Charles Swinburne
REQUIRED BACKGROUND READING:
Review "Tristan
and Isolt after the Middle Ages" from the Camelot
Project website (assigned for last class meeting; follow link to access
the required section of this online reading, which is only a small portion
of the page itself; be aware that you do NOT need to print out the entire
webpage, just the three final paragraphs of the essay, which begin at this
link.)
Algernon
Charles Swinburne Biography from the Victorian
Web.
Have a look at the paintings on the class homepage
and spend some time browsing the 19th-century images of Tristan
and Isolt and of King
Mark on the Camelot
Project website.
REQUIRED PRIMARY READINGS:
-
Algernon Charles Swinburne, "Queen Yseult" (1857-1858)
(PDF file, 27 pp.)
-
Algernon Charles Swinburne, "The Wife's Vigil," part
VII
of his long poem
Tristram of Lyonesse (1882) (PDF file, 4
pp.)
Both poems are on e-reserve in the
Library Resources section of Blackboard; be sure
to PRINT THEM OUT, place them in your course binder, and BRING THEM WITH
YOU TO CLASS.
Also highly recommended:
-
"Prelude," the opening section of Swinburne's Tristram
of Lyonesse (and as much of the rest of the poem as you care to
peruse); you can access this text in the online
reading on the Camelot
Project website.
TEXT INFO: British poet Algernon Charles Swinburne
lived from 1837-1909. His early poem "Queen Yseult"
(written 1857-1858) is divided into six "cantos" (or sections) written
in tercets (i.e. three-line stanzas); all three lines of
each tercet rhyme with each other, so that the rhyme scheme is "AAA BBB
CCC" etc. The long narrative poem
Tristram of Lyonessedates
from 1882; it consists of a "Prelude" (highly recommended) and nine
sections (only one of which is required reading, section VII,
"The Wife's
Vigil"); this work is written entirely in rhyming couplets (every
two lines rhyme with each other, so that the rhyme scheme is "AA BB CC"
etc.)
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| Day 2 |
As needed, continue discussion of Swinburne.
NEW TOPIC: 20th-Century Perspectives -- Reimagining
Isolde of the White Hands
REQUIRED BACKGROUND READING:
Oscar
Fay Adams biography from Sacklunch.net.
Maurice
Baring biography from FantasticFiction.
Rhoda Pettit's Dorothy
Parker Biography from the Modern
American Poetry Site.
Have a look at the paintings on the class homepage
and spend some time browsing the 20th-century images of Tristan
and Isolt and of King
Mark on the Camelot
Project website.
REQUIRED PRIMARY READINGS:
Oscar
Fay Adams, "The Pleasaunce of Maid Marian" (1906;
.HTML file from the
Camelot
Project site);
Maurice
Baring, "From the Diary of Iseult of Brittany" (1913; .HTML
file from the
Camelot
Project site);
Dorothy Parker, "Guenevere at Her Fireside" (note
reference to Tristan!) and
"Iseult of Brittany" (both 1931; together
in one PDF file, 2 pp.;on e-reserve in the Library
Resources section of Blackboard).
Be sure to PRINT OUT these readings and bring them with
you to class!
NOTE: On your print-out of the Adams poem, you will need
to WRITE IN LINE NUMBERS for every 5th line. For your numbering,
count "Isolt the White, the daughter of a king," as line 1; thus, line
5 (the first you should number) is "Upon an autumn midnight drencht with
rain."
HINT: the lines to count are those that begin
at the left margin, with the exception of the two half-lines "False heart!
False love!" in Iseult's song, each of which counts as a full line.
Because lines in this poem are determined by syllable count, one numbered
line may be printed over two subsequent lines; you will know to count only
one line because the second of the two does
not begin at the left
margin. EXAMPLE: The following should be counted as three
lines
of text, although it is printed over four lines:
The sharp-fac'd damsel, clanging to the door,
Laught shrilly, crying out the while:
'Your guest,
Good cousin, is not to your mind, meseems.'
(Here, the second of the three countable line begins with
"Laught" and ends with " 'Your guest,").
TEXT AND AUTHOR INFO:
The American poet Oscar Fay Adams lived from
1855-1919.
He wrote a number of poems on Arthurian themes (available on the Camelot
Project site), including "The Pleasaunce of Maid Marian" (1906),
originally
published in the volume Sicut Patribus and Other Verse. This
poem is in blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter).
British writer Maurice Baring lived from 1874-1945;
among his close friends was Hilaire Belloc, the English translator
of Bédier's Romance of Tristan and Iseult. "From
the Diary of Iseult of Brittany" (1913) is a witty short story in
prose
which
was originally published in the satirical collection
Lost Diaries
(London: Duckworth, 1913).
American writer Dorothy Parker lived from 1893-1967.
She was a prominent member of the "Algonquin Round Table,"a literary circle
of New York writers and intellectuals in the 1920s and 1930s. A prolific
author of poetry, fiction, theater reviews and critical essays, she was
a frequent contributor to The New Yorker (among many other publications).
"Guenevere
at Her Fireside" and
"Iseult of Brittany" both date from 1931;
they were originally published in the volume Death and Taxes.
Both poems are in quatrains (four-line stanzas) of alternating
rhyme (rhyme scheme "ABAB CDCD" etc.)
NOTE 1: Jean
Delannoy's 1943 film
L'Éternel retour (107
min.) must be screened prior to our next class meeting (on Tuesday
5/20). There will be several Group Screenings in Library 202,
on TUESDAY 5/13 (6-8 PM); and on SUNDAY 5/18 (from 4-6 and 6-8 PM).
The
VHS cassette of the film is on reserve in Kennedy Library, so you can also
check it out on your own time for independent in-library viewing
-- BUT BE SURE IT IS RETURNED TO THE RESERVE DESK BY 1/2 HOUR BEFORE SCHEDULED
GROUP SCREENINGS!! You are unlikely to be able to get this film from
NetFlix (unless it's recently been released on DVD). To my knowledge,
it is not available at local video stores -- but feel free to call around,
and let me know if you find it! (Be sure to inquire about the French title
and both English titles if you do!)
NOTE 2: Nancy McKenzie's Prince of Dreams
(2004),
the novel assigned for Thursday 5/20, is a fun and easy read --
but a longer than usual reading chunk for a Thursday class. GET STARTED
ON IT OVER THE WEEK-END!!
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