Potential (But Not Essential) Topic Starter You may select this topic starter or create your own. Even if you do this topic, please do not repeat the prompt or answer all of the questions. The prompt...

Potential (But Not Essential) Topic Starter

You may select this topic starter or create your own. Even if you do this topic, please do not repeat the prompt or answer all of the questions. The prompt merely aims to initiate the writing process, not to confine it. Similar to the close-reading paragraph, the analysis should follow the logic of the passages you choose to close read. Consult notes on the close-reading paragraph for additional tips.

• Sexual License: Sarah Kay points out that due to perceptions of hereditary superiority, the twelfth-century aristocratic class gave itself more sexual license than the medieval Church deemed permissible (2). Kay notes that the resulting courtly love, or more preciselyfin’ amor, exhibits a “tension between inner intensity and outward decorum” produced by combining spirituality with sexuality while attempting to conceal their dichotomy (3). Select a couple love scenes fromSir Orfeo,Amoryus and Cleopes, orSir Launfal, and examine how these scenes grapple with the inherent tensions of courtly love. You might want to consider one or more of the following questions: How does the poem attempt to conceal the spiritual and sexual tensions of its depicted romance? How do your scenes challenge or redefine the tension between decorum and turmoil? How do your scenes use Christian spirituality to “purify” illicit sexuality (even pagan sexuality)? Or how do your scenes preserve these competing perspectives to defend the aristocratic values of courtly love?




• N.b., the paper’s resulting argument should not attempt to redefine courtly love or romance, but rather examine how your specific poem reimagines the tradition’s courtly values. I also encourage the paper not to classify everything in a pagan-Christian or spiritual-sexual binary, which would simplify your analysis. A more fruitful approach would focus on examples that challenge these labels.

Content

• You may also create your own topic. Whichever option you choose, you will want to follow the subsequent steps:




• Select one claim, position, or point from one our secondary readings (preferably not the central thesis)


• Create your own argument in response, focusing on how your close readings of any romance in the syllabusprovide a slightly different conclusion than the secondary source’s (i.e. how do your readings expand, refine, or contradict a point from the secondary source?)




• Begin with what is missing, misinterpreted, or not yet connected in the secondary source. Then explain what your close readings do to fill in this space. The point about what is missing, misinterpreted, or not yet connected is the beginning of your thesis. The second part (likely a second sentence) will note a "so what?"--i.e., what do your close readings contribute to the critical ocnversation




• Use quotations and close readings from the primary source to create your own analysis

Format

• 4–6 double-spaced pages--roughly 1500 words, meaning that you should not add additional spaces between paragraphs, the title, or the paper's heading


• 12 pt. Times New Roman font


• 1-inch margins (not Microsoft Word’s default)


• Number pages in top right corner


• Include full heading in top left corner of the first page


• Cite all quotations with book and line numbers




• You may use either MLA or Chicago style citations as long as you are consistent in your use. MLA might be easier for this assignment




• You do not need to include a Works Cited page

Reminders

• Examine your quotations’ underlying meaning by discussing their figurative imagery, rhetorical strategies, syntax, or grammar (but please do not use the words in this list as the paper’s analysis, because they do not offer any information)


• Use these observations about underlying meaning to develop a cohesive argument about your primary source’s agenda or message at a specific moment in the text


• Use substantial quotations from primary sources to support your claims (short phrases do not supply evidence, merely quotable phrasing)


• Use fewer quotations from secondary sources, which tend not to be as clear as your own words