King Arthur: The Man, The Myth, The Legend

Description du cours

This course will use a multi-disciplinary approach to explore the evolution of the legend of King Arthur, grounding the many variations of the story politically, socially, and historically. Students will learn how these transcendent tales have shaped cultures and national identities since the 12th century, and how analysis of the Arthurian tradition can help us to understand the people who read and wrote these stories. In addition, students will be introduced to paleography and manuscript analysis to teach them techniques used to decipher primary Arthurian texts, in an attempt to answer the question: King Arthur, medieval man or myth?