The Realism of Romance: Some Chivalric Themes in Late Medieval and Early Renaissance Life and Literature

FAIN: FS-10058-75

President and Fellows of Harvard College (Cambridge, MA 02138-3800)
Larry D. Benson (Project Director: January 1975 to present)

To conduct a seminar on the themes of chivalric life, the quest, and the knightly duel in Chaucer, the Gawain-poet, Malory, Wyatt, and other writers of the period, and in the life of the time as recorded in contemporary art and historical documents. The seminar will relate the literary work to society and define the meaning of "realism" in medieval literature.