EN615: Romance
The module is devoted to the study of romance from its medieval origins through to modern adaptations in novels and film. Romance is an extraordinarily durable genre and may simply be described as narratives of courtship and quest (or adventure stories of love and arms), but this module will make it a special point to examine several competing definitions of romance in the light of examples taken from different periods: that is, we will examine crtiticall one category of literature and the idea of literary categorization itself. Of particular interest is the transmission of transformation of romance over time. We will consider how the term 'romance' was used by late medieval writiers to describe narratives of chivalric and courtly exploits. Here we may cover such topics as the role of chance and destiny; images of alien lands; women as sovreign quest objects; and the 'innovation' of romantic love.
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