Research Topics for research groups 2-6.
The Song of Roland
- Oral composition, aural perfomance, and poetics.
- The depiction of the pagans.
- Relationship of the poem to the first crusade.
- Treatment of Christian ideas in the poem.
- Symbolic meaning in the poem (dreams, colors, etc.)
- Post-1980 critical approaches to the poem.
The Lais of Marie de France
- Feminist studies of the Lais.
- Relationship of the Lais to her other works.
- Who was the author? And does it make any difference in interpreting her
works?
- The symbolic meaning of fantasy.
- Feminist interpretations of Marie's Lais.
- Marie de France's concept of love.
Lancelot
- Relationship of Chrétien's work to the Old French Lancelot.
- Twelfth-century chivalric values in Lancelot.
- The role of women in Lancelot.
- Who was the author and what is the importance of biography to interpretation
of text?
- Marie de Champagne as patroness.
- The concept of love in the poem.
Perceval
- The role of women in Perceval.
- The development of the character of Perceval in the Quest of the Holy
Grail.
- The patron of Perceval.
- The role of Gawain in Perceval.
- Twelfth-century chivalric values in Perceval.
- The unfinished quality and post-modern values.
The Death of King Arthur
- Comparison of the Old French version to Malory.
- The depiction of Lancelot.
- The relationship of illustrations to text in Yale 229.
- The text in historical context: thirteenth-century Flanders and Yale 229.
- Apocalypse or tragedy in the poem.
- The depiction of Geneviere.