Autumn Quarter 2000-01

Arthurian Film Series

Featuring your all-time favorite movies about King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. Come see how the Arthurian legend has been portrayed and transformed by movie-makers of our day. Join us!

All films to be shown Thursdays, 7-9 in 200-02 (History Corner Basement) unless otherwise noted.

Date:	Name:	Notes:
10/12	Monty Python and the Holy Grail	.
10/19	Excalibur	.
10/26	Lancelot du Lac	.
11/2	Fisher King	in 420-041
11/9	First Knight	.
11/16	Camelot	.
11/30	The Sword and the Stone	.
12/7	Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade	.

Faculty Speaker Series

Prof. Sara S. Poor, "Gender, Medievalism and Film"
(Nov. 1, 5:30 p.m., Trancos Lounge)

Ever wondered what medievalists do? Here's your chance to find out!

Professor Poor is an Assistant Professor of German Studies and Gender Studies, and a faculty member of the Medieval Studies Program at Stanford. In her multi-media presentation, she will examine the divers ways in which gender issues and medievalism have interacted in film, both in movies made earlier in the 20th century as well as in contemporary films. For those of you who are interested in how the Middle Ages and gender have been presented in movies, this event promises to be very interesting!

Winter Quarter 2000-01

Faculty-Student Luncheon

Thursday, February 22, 2001; noon to 1:30pm
Terrace Room, 4th floor of the English Department, Main Quad
Delicious Indian food catered by Darbar of Palo Alto!

The faculty-student luncheon should be an excellent way for undergraduates who desire to learn more about the Middle Ages to mingle with graduate students in medieval studies as well as distinguished faculty members. For graduate students pressed with their finances, the event offers a free lunch! And, for faculty members, the event offers the opportunity to inspire a younger generation of students to pursue further studies and research in the Middle Ages. The luncheon, therefore, promises to be an exciting event. All interested undergraduate and graduate students affiliated with the club, as well as all medievalist faculty members, are warmly invited and welcome to attend.

Guest Speaker: Prof. Phyllis Brown, Santa Clara University
"Machaut's Curse: Intertextuality, Influence, and a Late-Medieval Poem"

When Guillaume de Machaut five times repeats the expression "Je maudi" (I curse) as a unifying device in his ballade that begins with those words, he positions his poem in a long and complex tradition of literary curses. Since the curse traditionally is antithetical to the blessing, the intertextuality becomes even more intricate when the ballade modulates, in its third stanza, to the expression "Mais je pris Dieu" (But I pray God), a prayer for the well-being of his lady grammatically parallel to the curse. We'll look at Machaut's ballade in the specific context of Petrarch's sonnet "Benedetto sia 'l giorno," (Blessed be the day) as a starting point for discussion of some reasons why critical reception of these two poems has been so radically different.

Spring Quarter 2000-01

Faculty Speaker Series continues!

We are in the process of inviting Prof. Paula Findlen to talk about her interest in medieval medicine. Stayed tuned to the email list for time and place!

Also in the works: a second luncheon this quarter, for those of you who missed the one in February. Time and place TBA.

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The border of this page is based on the detail of the stained glass window, Chartres Cathedral, France (1210-30).