Bah. Any medievalists or people who know things about medieval lit out there? Help.

[Sparky]

Can anyone recommend a good shortcut guide to the Romance of the Rose? Overview of important modern critical opinions, perhaps a bit on the querrelle des femmes (I'm familiar with the broader scope of the medieval/Renaissance debate, but less so the Romance origins, so I guess here an overview of Christine de Pizan's writings on it would be useful), Chaucer's Romaunt translations, differences between the sections by the two authors, etc. I'm thinking something like the level of upscale SparkNotes, that will unpack the allegory where it doesn't unpack itself.

 

I've got Huot's study of the early mss reception history, which is helpful, but am looking for more of a literary study in the classic sense.

 

Oh, and also something on Pearl, which I don't even know enough about to know what I don't know.

[Quantum Buckyball]

I like Braveheart

[Sparky]

Uh, okay, so, no medievalists, or else a cohort of medievalists who all work on Hiberno-Latin hagiography.

 

How about a generic Middle English, or even historical linguistics, question? Maybe someone could help with this? I'm sitting in front of an article (Nicholas Watson on Julian of Norwich, if you must know) where Watson comments something like "but is a conjunction that had less force in Middle English than formal Modern, but was nonetheless real."

 

(1) What exactly does this mean, in practice? I grasp the concept; how do I apply it to occurrences of "but" in a text?

(2) How the #*$(@ do we know something like this?

 

ETA (3) Is there some kind of guide to Middle English, not a dictionary or concordance or pronunciation guide, that will tell me the little things like this?

Edited February 4, 2013 by Sparky

[DontHate]

Don't take this the wrong way, but aren't you in grad school already? Why don't you ask one of your professors, or someone else in your program, or even a librarian? Seems a more effective strategy than grad cafe.

[Lyrus]

I'm not a medievalist, so this suggestion might actually be harmful, but do you know about German modal particles? Watson's description of "but" reminds me of "aber" and "doch," two Modern German words frequently translated as "but." In practice, they occasionally appear, adverb-like, in the middle of a simple sentence, and sometimes the best translation just drops them entirely when they're only shading the overall tone of the sentence.

 

Ich fand aber nichts.

(But) I found nothing.

[Sparky]

Lyrus, that's brilliant. (I've known German for awhile, so I have a decent grasp of the incidentals and their shades of meaning/emphasis). Since Middle English and Middle German are closer than the modern vernaculars are, I bet you're right on. Thank you!

 

DontHate ~ lol, who's to say I didn't? I must admit that being told it's acceptable to use an edition with a facing page translation if I'm having trouble with the Old French (HAHAHA right.) was not exactly the answer I was looking for. I will confess that I was sort of also thinking that medieval lit is awesome and maybe getting any medievalists here a chance to, y'know, talk about medieval lit outside a classroom context would help release some of the pressure of this time of year, because when I was applying every opportunity to do so helped me out emotionally, and I thought maybe it could be the same for someone this year. I'm sorry for intruding.

 

Thanks again, Lyrus!

Edited February 5, 2013 by Sparky

[m_pru]

Do you have a reader for the class? I know for Old English, we basically had three terrible, dry grammar books, which had been photocopied from the 1800s. I haven't taken a Middle English class yet, but I've taken a Chaucer/Middle English lit class. I used a Tolkien's Middle English Reader and the Chaucer Metapages from Harvard. They have links to teach yourself Middle English. I know this late, but maybe it will still help. Be warned, German is only a part of our linguistic heritage! For help with the Roman and The Pearl, your best bet is going to go to that section of the library and just scan the shelves. It is much faster than trying to get the right keywords. Also, even though they were being snarky, the suggestion to speak with your prof is a good one. Msg me if you need more help--I have been making a bibliography/card catalog of this stuff, which I hope to digitize one day, but it's in my office.