Courses

ENG 305LEC Medieval Epic

This course investigates the social and cultural function of epic and the hero in medieval Europe. Course material may vary semester to semester, but may include such topics as the Jewish Epic. In the late Middle Ages the literary genre of epic suddenly appeared in Jewish culture for the first time in its history, and it appeared in Yiddish, not Hebrew: both short heroic lays and lengthy epics, both secular tales adapted from Christian sources and religious tales derived from Jewish traditions of Bible and midrash. There are epicized versions of humorous tales of Abrahams youth, pious meditations on core narratives of the Jewish faith (the Binding of Isaac), swashbuckling Jewish adventure heroes, King David as a quasi-medieval night, and a tale of international intellectual intrigue with a high priest, a pope, a Jewish king, a pious scholar, and a beautiful maiden.