The YAWP: Villanova's Graduate English Program Blog

  ENG 8260: Medieval Romance Dr. Brooke Hunter CRN 34350 Thursday from 5:20 pm to 07:20 pm Romance—the mode of literature that tells stories of chivalry, ladies, and love—shaped medieval ideas about everything from racial and cultural identity to best practices for flirting. Focusing on the romances of King Arthur and other English heroes, this course will consider three main questions: how romances structure the experience of love, sexuality, and gender; how romances shape the practice of religion and notions of religious and racial otherness; and how romances construct ideas about peoples ( nationes ) and political power. Half of the course reading will be in Middle English, including the cannibalistic crusader sieges of  Richard Coer de Lyon , several works by Geoffrey Chaucer, and a selection from Thomas Malory’s exhaustive collection of Arthuriana,  Le Morte d’Arthur . We will also read several works of early Arthuriana in translation, including Geoffrey of Monmo...

 The English Department is proud to share the release of Dr. Lauren Shohet's new edited collection,  Queering Early Modern Death in England: Figuration, Representation, Matter.  This new collection, edited by Dr. Shohet and Dr. Christine Varnado of the University of Buffalo, analyzes a variety of celebrated texts, including  The Duchess of Malfi ,  The Alchemist ,  The Spanish Tragedy ,  The Winter's Tale ,  Richard III , and  A Midsummer Night's Dream , using queer theoretical methodologies to offer fascinating insights regarding early modern conceptualizations of humanity, embodiment, and temporality, among others. Dr. Shohet and Dr. Varnado utilize queer logics to suggest poignant understandings of early modern death as non-dualist, non-linear, a-teleological, and fruitfully muddled, showcasing the fascinating expansiveness of death through a queer lens. A worthy addition to the collection of anyone interested in questions of queernes...