HumanitiesNATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES • VOLUME 7 NUMBER 3 • JUNE 1986 Editor's Contents Notes
Images of Arthur by Stephen G. Nichols One of the most often quoted lines Twelfth-century romances that broke the medieval mold. from the 800-year-old written tradi tion of Arthurian literature comes 6 Quest for le Mot Juste not surprisingly from Tennyson in Translating the oldest extant Arthurian romance from Chretien's verse. "The Passing of Arthur," the twelfth and last chapter of The Idylls of the 9 The Age and the Art of Chivalry King. After King Arthur has been A different kind of metal work on display in Detroit. mortally wounded, he whispers comfort to Bedevere, "The old order 10 Medieval Women changeth, yielding place to new." For some women, the Middle Ages weren't so Dark. His words carry the paradox of the Arthurian tradition: an old order 12 The Sorceress, the Friar, and the Greyhound Saint rooted in ancient mythology, loved, Healer or heretic? A film drama based on a twelfth-century inquisition. and preserved, yet reconsidered and adapted from age to age. In a de 14 Literary Origins of Arthur scriptive guide to the modern Arthu High school teachers follow the Celtic king to France and back to England. rian novel, John Conlee of the College of William and Mary dem 15 The Age of the Arthurian Novel by John Conlee onstrates in this issue both the per How the "once and future king" appears in the literature of the present. sistence of Arthurian lore and its adaptability to current artistic and 18 Lancelot and the Lone Ranger moral concerns. Stephen G. Nichols High school teachers found the two have a lot in common. of the University of Pennsylvania ex plains in an essay describing the dif 20 Historicism and Its Discontents ference between the Arthur of ro A new book by an NEH fellow reassesses medieval historiography. mance and the Arthur of medieval historia how the artistic achievement 22 The Real Arthur by David Whitehouse of Chretien de Troyes has contrib How much of the legend does archaeology prove is history? uted to the legend's power to last. Is King Arthur more than legend? 25 "Let's Talk about It": Book lovers talking about books. David Whitehouse reviews the docu mentary and scant archaeological ev 27 A Nation of Readers: Libraries in Vermont and Utah are booked solid. idence for what Geoffrey Ashe as serts as "the Arthurian Fact." 29 Meeting the Brownings: Victorian scholarship for folks in Kansas. Whether fact or fiction, Arthur still claims the attention of historians, 31 The Humanities GUIDE: Support for libraries. novelists, archaeologists, artists, lit erary scholars, and readers who know him, if not through Chretien or Geoffrey of Monmouth then Humanities through Tennyson or T. H. White. A bimonthly review published by the The opinions and conclusions expressed in National Endowment for the Humanities are those of the authors and do Humanities not necessarily reflect Endowment policy. Material appearing in this publication may be While this issue of Humanities was Chairman: Lynne V. Cheney freely reproduced with appropriate credit to in production, Lynne V. Cheney Director of Public Affairs: Humanities. The editor would appreciate cop was sworn in as NEH chairman. A Susan H. Metts ies for the Endowment's reference. The chair Assistant Director for Publications: man of the Endowment has determined that biography appears on page 36. Caroline Taylor the publication of this periodical is necessary —Linda Blanken in the transaction of the public business re Editor: Linda Blanken quired by law of this agency. Use of funds for Managing Editor: Mary T. Chunko printing this periodical has been approved by Cover: The Round Table in the hall of Editorial Board: Marjorie Berlincourt, the director of the Office of Management and Winchester Castle. The Tudor rose in the James Blessing, Harold Cannon, Budget through September 1988. Send re center and the twenty-four alternating spokes quests for subscriptions and other communi Richard Ekman, Donald Gibson, cations to the editor, Humanities, N ational in white and green (Tudor Colors) demon Guinevere Griest, Pamela Glenn Endowment for the Humanities, 1100 strate the Tudor claim to descent from Ar Menke Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, thur. Eighteen feet in diameter, the oaken ta D.C. 20506. Telephone 202/ 786-0435. (USPS ble is first mentioned by the chronicler Designed by Maria josephy Schoolman 521-090) ISSN 00:8-7526. Hardyng in 1450. 2 Images of Arthur
Not long ago, standing in front of a holds a lance with a banner showing focus our attention on the Arthurian richly colored fifteenth-century tap the German imperial eagle and the world of romance, we may have se estry, I unexpectedly found myself fleurs de lys of France. Together, riously lost touch with the way in pondering the complex link between they symbolize the ideals of political which Arthurian romance existed and literature, history, and art in the leg hegemony of a Christian Europe, as made its meanings. We have intro end of King Arthur. Godfrey of Bouillon symbolizes the duced a disjunction between historia The deep hues of dark green, scar extension of that order back into the and romance, rather than taking let, blue, and gold of the tapestry in Holy Land from which it traced its them together as part of the same the Historisches Museum in Basel, divine authority. continuum of literary expression. Switzerland, depict the nine wor The Basel tapestry of the nine The Arthur and his world of historia thies credited in the Middle Ages worthies, or its counterparts else provided a spatial and temporal with having shaped the destiny of where (such as the one at the Clois framework in which the stories of Western civilization. Resplendent in ters in New York), I realized, is not individual heroes could assume a medieval court dress, in groups of simply a beautiful work of art from larger significance. From the stand three, the nine included first the another era. The five-hundred-year- point of twelfth-century authors, ro "good" pagans: Hector of Troy, old images of still familiar heroes mance was a way of focusing on one Alexander the Great of Macedon, also testify to the gulf that lies be episode in a larger canvas whose ex and Julius Caesar, emperor of Rome; tween our view of medieval culture istence was assumed to be familiar then a trio of great warriors of the and that of the period itself. More to the audience. The larger canvas Old Testament: Joshua, David, and than any other, the figure of King was the historia; the episodic narra Judas Maccabaeus; and, finally, Arthur summarizes this lesson of tive, the romance. three leaders of recent history: King historical discontinuity. For the per King Arthur is rarely the central Arthur, Charlemagne, and Godfrey fectly commonplace claim that Ar figure of romance. Instead, the of Bouillon (one of the founders of thur was one of the "founding fa genre seeks to explore the human the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem). thers" of European civilization, on a dimension of life within the Arthu A portion of the left side of the par with Julius Caesar and rian world that Arthur's heroism Basel tapestry—the part that con Charlemagne, clashes with our most made possible in the first place. It is Detail from Le Livre des tained the three virtuous pagans, commonly held view of him as the this connection between Arthur's vertueux faix de Joshua, and half of King David—is somewhat ineffectual, but benign historia and individual romance that plusieurs nobles missing, but in the large, intact sec husband of Guinevere, the mistress we have tended to ignore, thereby chevaliers, Wal tion, the remaining worthies stand of Lancelot du Lac. giving us a fragmented and partial ter Map, Rouen, out boldly against a green back In the Middle Ages, both views literary history. As the illustrations 1488. ground of flowering vines. Framing existed, but not in the same degree of the nine worthies show us, how each hero, a banderole in Middle of importance and not in the same ever, it is the presence of Arthur's High German sets forth his principal literary forms. The strong Arthur of historia, stretching like a horizon virtue. Arthur's stresses his might history derives from a genre called around the individual romances, and military prowess. historia, which we may, somewhat that authorizes so much of the alle In keeping with the belief of the inaccurately, translate as "history," gorical and symbolic meaning we as period that Arthur had died in 542 while the other Arthur, who serves sociate with romance. For it was A.D., he serves as the transitional principally as a figurehead for the through the person of Arthur that figure between the Old Testament stories of the knights of the Round the world of romance linked directly heroes and their "modern" Christian Table, belongs to the realm of ro to the classical and biblical literary counterparts. He is shown facing mance. Because romance feels com tradition. And it was the role of Charlemagne and Godfrey with his fortable to us today, thanks to its historia to make those links clear. back to Joshua, David, and Judas kinship with the modern psycholog The illustrations of Arthur as one Maccabaeus. Attached to the lance ical novel, we have come to empha of the nine worthies show how in Arthur's left hand, a heraldic ban size Arthurian romance at the ex these links were meant to work, and ner displays three gold crowns rep pense of Arthurian historia. Perhaps how his historia authorized them. resenting his kingdoms of England, this is so because we find it more Behind such representations (and Scotland, and Brittany, while his profound and more interesting to they were not particularly rare) lies right hand points to heaven to ac trace the inner dimensions and emo the authority of written texts, knowledge the reciprocal nature of tional development of individuals, preeminently the Bible, of course, the power of the three Christian rul than to learn about the deeds of but also of historia in Latin and epic ers. Divinely sanctioned, they must, kings and nation-states. in the vernacular. Charlemagne, for in return, uphold the faith. But the Basel tapestry and others example, figures both in the Latin Facing Arthur, Charlemagne like it remind us that in choosing to versions of the Historia Karoli Magni 3 et Rhotolandi ("History of which he shrouds Arthur's birth and first half of the twelfth century. It Charlemagne and Roland") as well death. He sets Arthur apart from the also implicitly argues, for those who as in such vernacular epics as the other kings of Britain by the agency could make the connection, that the late eleventh-century Song of Roland of the magician, Merlin. Like the Norman conquest should not be which opens with the verse: Sybil in Virgil's epic, Merlin presides seen as a foreign invasion. It repre "Charles the King, our great em over the past and the future by sented, rather, a return of the vigor peror." The nine worthies might be controlling memory and prophecy. ous Arthurian line of heroes to their seen as incarnating a reading list of It is Geoffrey who tells us that Mer homeland. For according to "great books," because each of these lin created the Stonehenge at Geoffrey, after subduing Gaul, Ar figures has an extensive medieval lit Salisbury at the request of King thur held court in Paris rewarding erary existence. Aurelius to make a fitting commem his noble followers with French What has made the presence of orative monument for the great men provinces. The only two mentioned Arthur in this company so difficult of Britain. And Geoffrey, too, has by name are precisely Normandy for moderns to comprehend is his Merlin predict the coming of Arthur and Anjou, the French provinces largely fictional status. All of the as part of a long series of prophecies most closely associated with the worthies were subjects of historiae about the future of Britain. Norman conquerors: "It was then marked by fictional elaboration— In Geoffrey's schema, Arthur rep that he gave Neustria, now called Julius Caesar was never emperor of resents the apogee of British power Normandy, to his Cup-Bearer Rome, for example, nor did and prestige. Long before Bedevere, and the province of Anjou Charlemagne obtain rights to the Charlemagne, Arthur conquered to his Seneschal Kay." The Normans Holy Land as eleventh-century and united Europe under his leader and Angevins, for those who ac Western accounts claimed. But the ship, even to the point of defeating cepted Geoffrey's account, were others at least had some degree of the Roman forces. But if Arthur rep more directly linked with the Arthu historical authenticity. Alone among resents the height of prestige for the rian world than the Saxons whom them, Arthur may be said to be an Britons, he also illustrates why the they conquered. For in Geoffrey, the entirely fictional creation and thus to British can never be ruled for long Saxons always play the role of trai exemplify Borges's ironic dictum, by one of their own, even Arthur. tors and villains. "that history should have imitated The allegory of Arthur conveyed With Geoffrey, the main lines of history was already sufficiently mar by Geoffrey is the familiar one of a Arthur's story have been fixed: velous; that history should imitate "a house divided. Arthur conquered preeminent hero, strong king and literature is inconceivable." the world; he had the most perfect maintainer of universal order in And this is precisely what knights, and was himself the epit Europe, on the one hand, myth- and Geoffrey of Monmouth seemed to ome of political astuteness and mystery-shrouded figure, on the have accomplished when, in 1136, virtue. But his own people, like the other. Yet we miss certain familiar he published his Latin prose, History querulous Hebrews in the desert attributes of the Arthurian myth in of the Kings of Britain, the first work while Moses was on Mt. Sinai, could Geoffrey: the Round Table with its to give a full-fledged picture of Ar not refrain from internal strife. In ideal of service and chivalry, themes thur and his fabulous reign. Taking Arthur's case, the treachery comes like the Grail quest, love and its at his cue from Vergil's Aeneid, which from within his own family: his tendant complications, and a strong raced the wanderings of the Trojan wife, Queen Guinevere, and his contingent of knight-heroes, like hero Aeneas to Italy where his de nephew, Mordred, betray him dou Lancelot, Perceval, or Galahad who scendants would eventually found bly in their adultery and attempted do not simply reflect Arthur's glory Rome as the fulfillment of a divine usurpation of the throne. Arthur's and prowess, but exemplify chivalry prophecy, Geoffrey traced the last battle thus pits nephew against on their own. founding of Britain to a great- uncle, and initiates the final deca These accretions to the legend grandson of Aeneas named Brutus, dence of the Britons. "Arthur, him come later in the twelfth century whence the name Britain. Geoffrey's self, our renowned King, was mor and reveal the creative tension be History, like the Basel tapestry, syn tally wounded and was carried off to tween historia and romance, which thesizes classical and scriptural his the Isle of Avalon, so that his might also be cast as a tension be tory as it moves towards the birth of wounds might be attended to." The tween Arthur and Merlin, or, more Arthur. Geoffrey reports that Bru ambiguity of his ending wrapped concretely, between conflicting inter tus's founding of "New Troy," Arthur in a shroud of mystery, ests of kings, with their concern for which ultimately became London, opening the possibility of a return at a strong central monarchy, and bar took place "at the time the priest Eli some future time. ons, whose tastes ran rather to a be was ruling in Judea and the Ark of The History of the Kings of Britain re nign monarch reliant upon his bar the Covenant was captured by the peatedly illustrates the disastrous ef ons and undisposed to interfere Philistines." Brutus will thus have fects of civil unrest and internal dis with their perquisites. the same relation to Arthur as that sension on good government. It The invention of the Round Table of Alexander and Julius Caesar in places the Arthurian historia squarely allowed Arthurian romance to shift the tapestry. in the arena of politics by its clearly from the single emphasis of historia, What makes Geoffrey's history at articulated lesson on the necessity of where Arthur played the most sig once so powerful as a legend and so a strong centralized monarchy: nificant role, to a multidimensional suspect to historians is the aura of roughly equivalent to the politics of format where anyone of Arthur's mystery and the supernatural in the Norman Kings of England in the knights might be the subject of the 4 narrative. The emphasis thus shifts Zumthor recently observed; for with shaping his stories in accordance subtly from the exploits of the the introduction of the unforeseen, with the historia, he created a new leader, to those of the community, with the eruption of the unexpected Arthurian syntax and vocabulary the court, over which he and his awaiting the knight and his reader through which the shade of the old queen preside (hence the title of around the next bend in the narra language may be discerned just "courtly romance)". In this litera tive, romance is free to leave historia barely. Chretien's genius was to ture, politics play a less obvious role behind to become literature. have used the Arthurian historia to than in the history proper, because But we may well ask whether in acquire for Old French literature an the issues raised focus on philosoph deed romance does leave historia be authoritative status previously re ical and religious questions. hind or does it not, instead, trans served for Latin. Chretien de Troyes, for example, form it? Arthur's story was in the This was an extraordinary achieve the foremost writer of Arthurian ro vernacular rather than in Latin. ment, without a doubt, and it was mance in the twelfth century—to Geoffrey of Monmouth claimed to so successful at capturing the mod whom we owe such additions to Ar have been translating his history ern imagination that the other image thurian literature as the quest motif, into Latin from the old British lan of Arthur—the youthful Arthur of the Grail, the character of Lancelot, guage of "a very ancient book," but historia on the nine worthies and the love affair between Lancelot we know that the choice of Latin, tapestry—has all but faded from and Guinevere—devoted three of his rather than Old French as the target public consciousness. But it has not romances to reconciling love, duty, language of his translation was dic faded entirely, certainly not on the and marriage. The period of tated by a desire to make the historia tapestry where we find a vigorous Chretien's romances, like those of authoritative. Latin was the lan image of a resilient myth. his successors, is that of the "peace guage of power, the language of — Stephen G. Nichols of Arthur," that rare interlude of law, the language of Scripture. But peace and social order that Arthur the vernacular was the language of Mr. Nichols is professor of Romance achieved for Europe, according to the people, including the nobility. languages at the University of Geoffrey. It was precisely such a Chretien did not simply translate or Pennsylvania. His book, Romanesque peace which the Church sought to adapt the Latin historia as Wace had Signs: Early Medieval Narrative and create in Europe during the twelfth done. Rather, he used it as a kind of Iconography (Yale University Press, century, the "peace of God." deep structure, a poetic unconscious 1983) won the MLA James Russell In the social order accompanying for his own romances. Instead of Lowell Prize in 1984. a world free from large-scale war fare, attention can be paid to the n o quality of life, to larger questions of meaning. This is how Chretien con strued the Arthurian world: as a metaphor for human existence itself, an existence fraught with enigma and frightening apparitions. This world had to be confronted on two levels: physically, in the form of hos tile knights or monstrous appari tions like the hideous giant which Geoffrey tells us that Arthur faced and slew on Mont Saint Michel. Or it might take a more troubling, inner form of self-doubt, awakened per haps, by the tears of a young bride falling on her knight's chest, as Enide's tears fall on Erec's chest in Chretien's Erec and Enide. Both pit the individual against a world as impenetrable and full of wonders as the mysterious Breton forest of Broceliande. Broceliande is where one finds adventures, events that take the measure of the knights. The adventure is the romance equiv The Nine Wor alent of the battles fought by Arthur thies Tapestry, in the historia, but, unlike epic bat fifteenth century. Detail: King Ar tles, the adventure, as a literary phe thur and nomenon, introduces the dimension Charlemagne. of the unexpected, the unforeseen. It Historisches is perhaps Chretien's most profound Museum, Basel, contribution to the romance, as Paul Switzerland. the right; and he derives from a story of adventure a pleasing argument whereby it may be proved and known that he is Quest for not wise who does not make liberal use of his knowledge so long as God may give him grace.
le Mot Juste Compare Gilbert's verses with Com fort's prose:
feel like an explorer Using an edition that was not The peasant says in tales and saws who goes off into the available in Comfort's time—Mario that a poor scorned thing may have cause jungle in search of Roques's series, Classiques Franqaises to be a prize and a windfall; beauty, and when I du Moyen Age—Gilbert is creating a so, if a man is shrewd at all, find it my concern is verse translation of Erec et Enide in a he turns to advantage what he knows. to bring it out of the jungle form as close as possible to the origi If he's assiduous, he shows with me and into another world." nal. As a poet, Gilbert feels strongly he doesn't miss a thing that might Dorothy Gilbert's search for that Chretien's work is best served give entertainment and delight; beauty is a quest for le mot juste in by a translation in rhymed, octosyl and so, Chretien de Troyes maintains translating the twelfth-century labic couplets: a form that is, she ad that each of us should use his brains French romance, Erec et Enide, into mits, more difficult in English than constantly, watch, think, work; and each English. Gilbert has set herself the in French. "Octosyllabics in English perform with skill, and with skill, teach. task of translating the 6,878-line can have what George Saintsbury He'll tell a tale of avanture, poem by Chretien de Troyes into called a 'fatal fluency,' " she ex a marvellously joined structure; English verse, creating the first Eng plains. "At the same time, the short and when he does, he'll make his suit lish version to preserve the work's line with the demands imposed by that one is not at all astute original literary form, octosyllabic the rhyme that occurs at relatively to hide his genius thatfiod made rhymed couplets. short intervals can limit possibilities or his light, in a bushel's shade. Erec et Enide, the first of five ro and create a rigidity in thought and mances written by Chretien, is the diction. I am using more half Working with several Old French oldest extant Arthurian romance. rhymes, or inexact rhymes, which is dictionaries and multiple versions of Gilbert, a scholar of medieval Eng only fair, since my language is less the poem, Gilbert must often choose lish literature, became interested in 'rhyme rich' than Chretien's. I try to among meanings that are contradict the work of Chretien de Troyes avoid inversions of syntax and ar ory, and she has grown particularly while tracing French influences on chaic expressions, and I try to make wary of false cognates. For example, Chaucer. She describes Chretien as each line correspond as much as in a passage in which Enide antic "an excellent example of the possible to its original. I'm also es ipates the joys that will come with 'abstruese' cultural figure whose in chewing a jolting, jarring 'contem her marriage to Erec, Comfort trans fluence has been pervasive. His in porary' style that, while it seems im lated the Old French word riche as fluence extends to Chaucer, to the mediate and arresting to some "rich." The actual derivation of the author of Sir Gawain and the Green readers, trivializes and demens the word is from the Frankish riki mean Knight, to Malory Spenser, original poem." Gilbert is striving to ing "formidable" or "noble." Thus, Tennyson, and Robinson Jeffers. He make the octosyllabic form appeal Comfort's translation, based on a is little known in the Anglo-Saxon ing to contemporary readers by a false cognate, adds a mercenary note world because he has been so inade juste exploitation of Chretien's ideas, totally at odds with Chretien's char quately translated into English. nuances, and sense of high style. acterization of Enide as a sensitive, The only English version of Erec et The felicity of Gilbert's verse is innocent young girl. Enide is W.W. Comfort's prose trans most easily illustrated to those who In other cases it is impossible to lation published in 1914; but the do not read old French by know Chretien's intention. The charm, sophistication, and supple comparing her couplets with Com word viele occurs in the original in a ness that captivated Gilbert in the fort's prose. The opening lines of the list of the instruments played at Erec Old French were lacking in Comfort. romance demonstrate the advan and Enide's wedding feast. In a note When Gilbert taught survey of medi tages of a verse translation: to his Old French edition, Roques eval literature courses, her students says that this is the modern vielle or also complained that Comfort's rep The rustic's proverb says that many a "hurdy-gurdy." It is also likely, resentation of Chretien's work was thing is despised that is worth much though, that it is a kind of fiddle. stiff and lifeless, and they wondered more than is supposed. Therefore he does The translator's dilemma, then, is to aloud whether the poet was simply well who makes the most of whatever in decide whether "the joyful noise/ of a dull, prolix figure whose work telligence he may possess. For he who the hurdy-gurdy's voice" is conso they were obliged to read because of neglects this concern may likely omit to nant with "the tuneful twang of or its influence on other writers. Gil say something which would subsequently gan barrels." bert hopes that her translation will give great pleasure. So Chretien de Such decisions are important in put to rest such speculation about Troyes maintains that one ought to determining the tone and texture of Chretien's literary merit. study and strive to speak well and teach the translation. Beyond these line- 6 by-line considerations, Gilbert must he burned no longer for events to tell her lord how matters stood, faithfully convey a sense of the ro of knightly valor, tournaments; so much she feared his bitter mood. mance as a whole. Like other ro he showed indifference to them all, So she concealed the whole affair mances of the period, in Erec et Enide and lived, absorbed and sensual, until one morning . . . there is an idealization of adventure making her pet and paramour . . . "Sire," she said, “since you press me and love, along with a belief in mar seeking her ease in everything. so, riage as an institution that safe Now grief among his comrades spread; I will tell you the truth I know; guards spiritual joy and develop often among themselves they said I speak with sorrow and with dread. ment. At the heart of the work lies he loved too well, he was not wise. In this whole country it is said the conflict between the obligations by all—the fair, the dark, the red— Arthur pursuing of marriage—especially of love in what shame it is that since you've wed, the white stag So much remark there was, and marriage—and the obligations of you neglect arms and exploits . . . from Erec et blame, knightly avanture. During the course Can you believe the pain, for me, Enide, ms. 1376, by knights and sergeants, Enide came folio 107, of the tale, which Gilbert sees as a to hear them laugh and jeer and mock? to hear of it. She heard them speak, Bibliotheque precursor of the modern How much it hurts me when they talk. placing him now among the weak, nationale. The Bildungsroman, Erec must learn how But what is most unbearable feeble at arms and chivalry. manuscript is be to bring the two types of obligation is that they blame me, fault me, all, lieved to date into balance. accuse me. This is, you see, their from the early The story begins at Arthur's court This talk disturbed, bore down on her. view: thirteenth at Cardigan, at the Easter festival. She hid her thoughts; she did not dare I have ensnared and captured you. century. Arthur has decided, rather impul sively, to conduct a hunt and to re vive an old custom of pursuing the white stag that inhabits the forest. Queen Guinevere and her maids in waiting follow the hunters, and they are joined by Erec, a handsome young knight who has not yet proven himself in avanture, and who does not yet have a lady. Erec joins the queen and her maid. In the for est they encounter a silent, arrogant knight, his disdainful woman com panion, and a dwarf, who attacks the queen's maid and Erec with a whip. Erec vows to avenge this af front and sets off after the hunters, hoping to acquire some arms with which to fight the knight. He arrives eventually at the town of Laluth, where he meets a poor vavasor—or petty nobleman—and his family, including his beautiful daughter, Enide. Erec falls in love with the girl immediately, and vows to fight in an upcoming tournament for her. At the tournament, he chal lenges the arrogant knight whose dwarf had attacked him. He wins the tournament prize and requests permission to bring Enide to court. She is received at court with much pomp and splendor and wins the fa vor of the king and queen. Arrange ments are made for the wedding of Erec and Enide. At this point in the story Erec has established himself as a knight, since he has proven him self in avanture, and he has won the admiration of the court for finding such a beautiful bride.
After his marriage O . . . Erec loved so ardently, O□ O •
Detail from the Birth, Life, and Death of King Arthur, illustra tions by Aubrey Beardsley. Italian armor, The Age & the Art of Chivalry fifteenth century.
Readers of medieval romances often raping virgins. visualize a bold knight in shining ar Nickel believes that in the devel mor with helmet and breastplate opment of the chivalric code, the old decoratively chased and polished. legends and the code were mutually But such an image actually belongs influential: while the heroes were to a much later era than the Dark following the code, the code was Ages in which the heroes of those evolving according to the models of romantic tales are thought to have behavior set by the heroes. "The lived. "Most of the armor that we greatest praise one could give a see today postdates even the time knight was to compare him to Lan when chivalry was in flower— celot," Nickel says. o Q. roughly from the ninth to the thir Rather than in shining armor, the o teenth century—and was made for knight of the early Middle Ages parades and tournaments, not for probably girded himself in a shirt of use in battle," says Peter Barnet, an mail, a very expensive protective art historian at the Detroit Institute garment such as had been used by of Art who was assistant director of the Romans. Formed of interlocking an exhibition shown there, "The rings of steel, a mail shirt was con Age and the Art of Chivalry." The structed much like a modern exhibition traced the development of sweater, with rows of rings in place arms and armor from early mail of stitches. It could require as many pieces to elaborate ensembles of as a quarter of a million rings and steel plate capable of shielding the weigh about twenty-two pounds. wearer from the powerful crossbow. Shaped by the increase or decrease A traveling exhibition of European of stitches in a row, the shirt was arms and armor from the Metropoli pulled over the head. Further pro tan Museum of Art offered the occa tection was achieved with mail sion several years ago for the inter chausses (leggings), a helmet fa pretive display of the institute's own shioned of iron plates attached to an holdings. iron framework, and a shield made work, a subject of particular interest Traditions from three cultures of wood over which leather was in Detroit. To draw the interest of were blended in the chivalric code, stretched to prevent the shield's be families, story hours for children according to Helmut Nickel, curator ing split by a heavy blow. featured Arthurian legends. An ad of arms and armor at the Metropoli Mail, while effective against the junct exhibition brought together in tan Museum of Art, and coauthor of thrust of a sword, could not deflect stitute holdings illustrating aspects the catalogue for the Metropolitan arrows, especially those shot from a of medieval life through medieval traveling exhibition. Horsemanship crossbow. It was not until the four graphics, textiles, and tapestries. in battle, central to knighthood, was teenth century, more than one hun One tapestry showed a shepherd introduced to western Europe by dred years after the institution of and shepherdess conversing against mounted nomads from the steppes chivalry began to wane, that an im a millefleur background. A minia of Iran. (In several languages, the pregnable armor came into use. The ture painting from a medieval man word for knight—chevalier, Caballero, plate was added, piece by piece, un uscript depicted an apocalyptic beast cavaliere, Ritter—refers to horses or til almost all of the knight's body under attack by four human figures horsemanship.) From the Romans, was encased in a cocoon of steel— wielding medieval weapons; and a chivalry inherited the vestiges of cul thus the shining armor—and the model of a horse—fully armored and ture remaining after the Empire's shield was no longer needed. mounted by a figure in knight's ar fall, and from the Germanic tribes, a In Detroit the exhibition was ac mor holding a lance—captured the system of mutual loyalty between companied by a series of films, lec panache most people associate with leaders and followers. tures, and demonstrations to famil the age of chivalry. "The basic chivalric code estab iarize museum visitors with —Anita Mintz lished a fairness between fighting everyday life in the age of chivalry. men, and each knight followed it in Highlights in the series included “European Arms and Armor from the hope of reciprocity," Nickel ex demonstrations of how a suit of ar Metropolitan Museum and the Detroit plains. He cites examples of the mor is worn and how a man moves Institute of Arts (Implementation)"/Alan code, such as giving fair warning be inside it. A display to show the de P. Darr/Detroit Institute of Arts, MI/ fore beginning to fight, not mur velopment of the helmet also dealt $111,739/1984/Humanities Projects in dering a foe while he slept, and not with the tradition of steel and metal Museums and Historical Organizations 9 A wedding from by studying the role of women in lit the Spiegel des erature written by men. Ferrante menschlichen, points out that the two dominant Lebens, forms of nonreligious literature—the Augsburg, epic and the romance—present 1475-76. distinctly different portraits of that era's females. The epics—some of them known as chansons de geste—portray a war like virile, unsentimental society. Fe males played only a secondary role. "In the epics, women generally be come the peace-weavers," notes Ferrante, "they're married off in or der to unite and bring peace to warring factions." One exception, adds Ferrante, is the "very ambigu ous" Nibelungenlied, where the chief female characters have been denied their legal rights and instigate the downfall of the society. "The work can be read as a sort of warning about what might happen when women are denied their rights and Medieval privileges." But a very different picture of women emerges from the literary form that came to dominate the Women twelfth century—romance. A reac tion to the often-brutal chanson de geste, the romance found a comfort able home in the French and Ange vin courts, which sought a more Medieval exempla resound with the Ages," says Joan M. Ferrante, a pro stimulating social climate in a here stern admonition of Thomas fessor of English and comparative tofore dour world dominated by Aquinas: "Woman is subject to man literature at Columbia University, monkish demands and dreams of on account of the weakness of her and author of The Lais of Marie de Charlemagne's faded glory. The nature, both of mind and of body. France. new art form embellished the legend She was created to assist man, but With help from NEH, Ferrante has of Arthur to produce an ideal of so only in procreation, because for all conducted two summer seminars for cial conduct for that era's other tasks another man will be far college teachers that have examined aristocracy. more efficient." the status of medieval women as "Women," notes Ferrante, "are re Typical medieval moral literature presented in the literature of that ally appendices of men in these ro depicted woman as the reincarna era. Says Ferrante: "We've tried to mances. They are objects of love, tion of Eve who had lost Eden for increase our understanding of the and their function is to set off or mankind. That literature reflected Middle Ages by looking at it from an highlight men's psychological devel the prevalent misogyny of the era: uncommon perspective, and to add opment. " But in medieval allegorical women were denied seats in the to our knowledge of the role of literature, Ferrante notes that the English Parliament and the French women in the development of West virtues and the liberal arts were Estates-General; marriage gave the ern culture." personified as women." Allegorical husband full authority over his The seminars evolved from a literature shows the positive side of wife's property; civil law permitted, friendly argument between Ferrante the medieval conception of women. sometimes even encouraged, wife and an academic colleague, who was Some romantic literature showed beating. As eminent medieval histo "skeptical that women ever had that women were often more prag rian Friedrich Heer put it, "the good standing in the Middle Ages," matic than men. Ferrante notes that undifferentiated mass of oppressed Ferrante recalls. To explore her in the famous twelfth-century guide women were forced to accept life theory, the Columbia professor ex to wooing by Andras Capellanus (De and men and misery as they found amined several notable medieval arte honeste amandi), "women debate them" women—including Eleanor of men; the men speak the wonderful But recent scholarship has empha Aquitaine, Marie de France, Heloise, rhetoric of tove, but the women cut sized that the lot of medieval and Countess Matilda of through the rhetoric, and get down woman was not entirely bleak. Tuscany—who appeared to influ to the realities." "There really was a positive side to ence their societies in some way. Ferrante says the difference prob the life of women in the Middle Each two-month seminar began ably is a reflection of real life in the 10 courts of the time. She notes aristo writers, including the tenth-century articles and also have incorporated cratic women of that era "were often playwright Hroswitha. "Her plays some of their research into their better educated than their male were in Latin, based on models by teachings. "When I first did this in counterparts" whose training gener the Roman Terrence," notes 1981, the role of women was not re ally focused more on such pursuits Ferrante. "But she adapted the clas ally being looked at that closely," as fighting and governing. She adds sical form to deal with Christian sub says Ferrante. "But now, it's being that within a court milieu, women jects. And in her plays, the women taken much more seriously." appear to have better status. That's characters are often very forceful— Much of the subject matter for the certainly reflected in this literature, they're able to exert tremendous seminar was a natural outgrowth of though it doesn't really reflect soci influence." prior work by Ferrante, including ety as a whole. Ferrante notes that similar influ translations of Marie de France and In the work of female writers of ence was exerted by some historical various chansons de geste, and a book, that era, we find a different perspec women of the Middle Ages. Her Woman as Image in Medieval Literature tive from that found in literature seminars examined the lives of sev from the Twelfth Century to Dante. written by men. Ferrante notes that eral famous medieval females, in But Ferrante also stumbled onto more than a dozen trobairitz, female cluding Countess Matilda of some discoveries as she devised the lyric poets of Provence, used the Tuscany, who inherited lands in seminar's syllabus. One find was the same literary conventions as male northern Italy and became a political thirteenth century work, Roman de poets, but with more emphasis on "buffer" in a struggle between the Silences, which tells the unusual tale the emotional costs of their pope and the German emperor; of a young medieval woman secretly passions. Heloise who inspired some of the brought up as a boy. She eventually Marie de France in her short, nar philosophical writings of Abelard; becomes the most successful knight rative lais, looks at the personal and Cristina of Marykate, a Saxon in France. problems of men and women. woman who struggled against her "It suggests that environment was Princeton University historian family to become a hermit; and more important than heredity in de Natalie Davis recently noted (in the Christine de Pisan, who at the end termining one's success in life," introduction to the 1983 book, The of the Middle Ages made a career notes Ferrante. For a society still re Knight, the Lady and the Priest, by for herself as a professional writer, sponsive to the words of Aquinas, it Georges Duby) that by examining working not only on women's sub was making revolutionary Marie's work, Ferrante has shown jects, but on politics, government, statements. that "some [medieval] marriages are on social problems, as well as on ed —Frank O'Donnell spoiled by jealous or faithless hus ucation, the deeds of great women, bands, but love is as much a re and her own life struggles. "Women in Medieval Life and source for a woman as for a man." The two dozen college teachers Literature"/Joan M. Ferrante/Columbia Ferrante's seminars also examined who completed Ferrante's seminars University, NYCI$64,.29811983-84/ the works of other medieval women have produced a variety of scholarly Summer Seminars for College Teachers
Procession carry ing relics of Saint Genevieve through the streets of Paris, the city she pro tected from fire in the miracle of 1130, Cabinet des estampes, Musee Camavalet, Paris. The Sorceress, the Friar, and the Greyhound Saint Medieval theological treatises as a rule make poor subjects for film dramatizations. Nevertheless, one thirteenth-century Dominican friar, the author of Tractatus de Diversis Materiis Praedicabilibus, a tract on the dangers of superstition, has been ritual in adoration of a greyhound Dinner with Andre and coproducer of the unwitting script man for a "saint," Guinefort. In addition to re Atlantic City, and filmed by Domi suspenseful film drama that explores counting the mythology and hagiog nique Chapuis, whose credits in powerful human emotions and, per raphy of Saint Guinefort, Etienne clude Sugar Cane Alley and Shoah, the haps, some inhuman ones as well. describes the activities of the vetula, NEH-funded film will be completed Unlike many members of the petite who would lead the mothers of sick next year. noblesse of thirteenth-century France, babies to a grove where the grey The story begins with the origins Etienne de Bourbon did not ride hound was buried and where, by of Guinefort's "sainthood." It is a with the Seventh Crusade, sent by means of certain plants, fixed spring morning in the eleventh cen Gregory IX in 1239 to wrest the Holy ritualized activities, and "interac tury. Inside the main house of a me Land from the infidel. A Dominican tions with the devil," the mothers dieval nobleman's estate, a grey mendicant, he joined instead the could either heal their sick infants or hound sits as guard next to a cradle. growing legion of defenders of the assure them a rapid death. Etienne From between the stones of an old faith who fought at home against implies that the anonymous, illiter wall at the back of the house, a large the other deadly enemy of the ate vetula is a sorceress and that the snake emerges and crawls through Church: the heretics. rite over which she presides is a the weeds and grasses. The grey Etienne was an inquisitor. The rel form of infanticide. hound sees the snake in the window atively small group of scholars who "Etienne reports that he destroyed and leaps to his feet. The snake at have read his Tractatus, which he the grove," says Berger. "He burned tacks the dog and bloodies his wrote in the 1250s near the end of the elder trees, which the vetula throat. In the fight that follows, the his life, know that he sat on several used for medicinal purposes. He cradle is upset, and the bloodied ecclesiastical inquiries resulting in disinterred and scattered the bones dog pulls the baby away from dan the fiery executions of Waldensians, of the greyhound. But he makes no ger. The dog returns to the fight, followers of Peter Waldo of Lyon in mention of any punishment to the kills the snake, and begins to howl the second half of the twelfth woman. loudly. century. "We know from the Tractatus that When the nurse, mother, and fa Art historian Pamela Berger, of he is responsible for sentencing her ther rush into the room, they see the Boston College, came across etics to be burned. He tells us that in overturned cradle, the baby in the Etienne's Tractatus while she was his eyes the vetula is committing in corner with bloodied swaddling conducting research for a book, The fanticide. Why doesn't he burn her? clothes, and the dog with blood on Goddess Obscured, a study of the per "There must have been something its mouth and neck. Thinking the sistence of the ancient mother in her character or in her knowledge dog has killed the baby, the father goddess in various guises—Deme that fascinated him. That is why I rushes forward, thrusts his hunting ter, for instance—during the centu felt at liberty to explore their lance into the animal's side, and ries of conversion from paganism to relationship." sees too late the dead snake's body. Christianity. While investigating The result of Berger's exploration This is the account of the "popular" medieval religious prac is a script that unfolds the friar's dis martyrdom of Guinefort based on tices, Berger discovered recent schol covery of the secret ritual in the way Etienne's report. In addition to con arship on that part of Etienne's text that a murder mystery reveals the sulting the thirteenth-century manu recounting his experience with a identity of criminal. Coauthored by script held in the Bibliotheque rustic cult in southern Burgundy. In Berger and Suzanne Schiffman, who nationale, Berger also draws on J.C. the Tractatus, Etienne writes of his served as first assistant to Francois Schmitt's study of the dog legend, discovery of the sect's ancient rite of Truffaut on may films and who The Holy Greyhound (Cambridge Uni pagan worship and of his encounter wrote the script for The Story of Adele versity Press, 1983). "A later edition with the vetula, or woman healer, H., The Sorceress, the Friar, and the of Schmitt's book discusses recent who conducted the rite. Greyhound Saint is now being filmed discoveries that both corroborate The cult, Etienne reports, has re in southern France. Directed by and contradict Etienne's report," tained the ancient Celtic practice of Schiffman, produced by Vincent says Berger. "An archaeological in animal worship; they enact a healing Malle, the associate producer of My vestigation of the site believed to be 12 Courtesy of Pamela C. Berger the burial place of Guinefort shows "As an art historian," Berger says, Castle at Cou that before the grove became a pil "I have always been interested in ches in Burgundy. grimage site, it was the locale of a those aspects of history which were Architecture such modest castrum or dwelling (where not recorded in the written texts, as this will form the background the seigneur who slew the dog in whether it was the everyday life of for a film drama the legend could have lived). This the preliterate peasant depicted in tization of a dwelling was abandoned in the manuscript illustration, or the story that took twelfth century. The thirteenth- dream-life of monks recorded on place in southern century text records the peasant be sculpted capitals. France in the lief that the seigneur's land had be "When the texts are silent about a thirteenth come desolate and uncultivatable, in certain group," she continues, century. punishment for the seigneur's hav "scholars must be prepared to use ing slain the dog in haste," Berger the insights of anthropologists and explains. psychologists, the interpretive Archaeological evidence shows, power of art historians and archaeol view and advise on script and however, that contrary to Etienne's ogists, as well as the vast store of preproduction questions. claim of having extirpated the cult, folkloric scholarship to learn what In the conflict between Etienne de the pilgrimages to Guinefort's grave ever they can about the silent ones." Bourbon and "the forest woman," continued. Fragments of toddlers' Beginning with the Dominican's Berger is recreating for a television shoes and woolen slippers from the text, Berger conducted an investiga audience the conflict between the lit late nineteenth or early twentieth tion far more thorough than that erate, Latinate clerical culture of the century were found, as were what which forms the main plot line of thirteenth-century Church and the must have been votive offerings of her story. She followed the clues oral, folkloric peasant culture still in coins. The most recent coin dated about plants, insects, and ritualized the twilight of paganism. The dram from 1919. This evidence supports actions associated with the vetula atization of the dog legend sheds the findings of a 1979 ethnographic and with those who sought her light on the medieval phenomenon inquiry, which indicated, through cures. of syncretism, the effort to reconcile interviews with local residents in Etienne describes the vetula as a differing religious beliefs and prac their eighties, that the grove was a member of group of "pitiable tices that resulted in small, local in continuous site of pilgrimage from women soothsayers who seek health fluences on the dominant Catholi the Middle Ages right up until this by adoring sambucas (elder trees) or cism. The peasants, still clinging to century. by making offerings to them." ancient superstitions, venerate an Many scenes and dialogues in Berger first went to the folklorists for animal as their ancestral Celts would Berger's script are based on actual more information about the elder have done. Yet in thirteenth-century medieval texts. But although the lan tree. In the Motiv-lndex of Folk Litera France, they transfer the dog from guage and motivations of Etienne ture, compiled by Stith Thompson, the Celtic to the Christian pantheon. are retrievable from his writings, the she learned which parts of the elder As the friar investigates the prac habits and language of the peasants, tree were believed to have therapeu tices of the Guinefort cult, he uncov "can only be arrived at indirectly." tic properties and in what ways they ers for the viewers information would have been prepared. She about those who never left any writ then called on Frank Solomon, a ten record of themselves: their lan professor of biology at the guage, their beliefs, and their prac Massachusetts Institute of Technol tices. The story reveals the disputes ogy, to help research the chemical that frequently existed between the properties and traditional pharmaco landed seigneur and the peasants logical uses of parts of the tree and who tilled his land, as well as the discovered that, in Solomon's tensions between the local curates words, "the elder tree is a veritable who lived among the people and the drugstore." The sap of the tree is .03 visiting emissaries of official Rome. percent arsenic, one of the five sub At the same time, the film treats stances used in medieval healing, themes that are relevant to the mod Berger reports. ern age: struggles of pride versus She consulted with a professor of humility and the universal problem medieval French language and liter of understanding another culture's ature to fix the tone and style of point of view. speech that the rural people might —Linda Blanken have used; with a medieval historian specializing in parish life and medie Engraving of val theological history; and with a "The Sorceress, the Friar, and the Grey elder branches Latinist who reviewed Etienne's hound Saint: A Film on Healing Rites in from the Hand Latin text to make sure that the 13th-Century France (Script, TV, book of Plant script reflected the Dominican's Doc.)"/Pamela C. Berger/Boston and Floral Orna writings. Most of the scholarly College, Chestnut Hill, MA/$88,878I ment by Richard consultants have continued to re- 1985-86/Humanities Projects in Media G. Hutton (1909). 13 ventures and self-discovery of a knight from the Arthurian court, set against a background alive with Celtic magic and mythology. Discussions of these readings will investigate the legend's inception and strip away the popular notions Literary that envision Camelot as, to quote the musical, "a congenial spot for happily ever-aftering." Although Origins of Curley dubs modern versions such as the Arthurian novels by Mary Stewart and T. H. White, or even Arthur the film Excalibur "pseudo-medieval mumbo-jumbo," he admits that they a Legend, examines the development have, in fact, allowed Arthur to live of Merlin's prophecies. on into the 1980s. The seminar will Curley's love of Celtic languages give teachers experience with the also opened the way for Arthurian original Arthurian texts and clarify studies, bringing him a fellowship the traditions that preserved the year at the Center for Advanced story through the centuries without Study of Celtic at the University diminishing its lustre. Richard Burton Distant Avalon ... A magic sword College of Wales, Aberystwyth. Dur The complex human themes and Julie An ... The figure of King Arthur half ing this time, Curley visited a num woven into Arthurian legend ensure drews as King obscured by ancient mists . .. Arthu ber of locations where various inci its long life. The idea of the quest, Arthur and rian legend is probably the most re dents from Arthurian lore are said to for one, is an ancient form of litera Queen Guinevere silient theme to endure the long have occurred. "It would be difficult ture and fundamental in its meta in Camelot, by march of centuries from the Middle to stand on the quiet, overgrown phorical connection with life. The re Lemer and Lowe. Ages into the modern world. sites of Wales and not be inspired to turning hero and his rebirth, based Nineteenth-century poets, romantic explore the myth of Arthur," claims on the life of Christ, also have obvi novelists, Broadway, Hollywood, Curley. "Archaeology's glacial pace ous appeal, as do the themes of even contemporary politicians, have brings only occasional revelations in betrayal—Guinevere's betrayal of all seized on this particular myth to Arthurian history, yet to know more Arthur, for example—and of pas rally public sentiment. about the physical locales illumi sage from youth to age. The leg Why? What still appeals about a nates a literature that is so graphic end's close connection with politics hero who originated in Celtic legend ally tied to the land." contributed to keeping the tale alive, as a primitive hunter at a time in But it is not with archaeology that and Curley hopes the seminar will history that remains obscure to all the seminar will be concerned. By delve into the concept of history and but the most devoted researchers? examining the earliest texts that de the causes behind the rise and fall of "If I knew the answer to that picted Arthur and his court during kingdoms. question, I would make a lot of the course of the seminar, Curley Curley is certain that many of the money!" jokes Michael J. Curley, hopes to give the participants a close Arthurian stories apply directly to professor of Latin and English at the look at the literary roots of the leg our own time. "The myths are very University of Puget Sound and end and the lasting effects the story self-reflective and probe the values scholar of medieval folklore and lit had on history, folklore, politics, of their own society," he remarks. erature. Curley will conduct an and religion. The texts will include: "We see ourselves in this: we too are NEH-sponsored seminar this July to "Kulhwch and Olwen," the first an analytical age and use myths to trace Arthurian material to its story portraying Arthur as a literary probe our value systems, and we sources and discuss the myth's per figure who confronts the forces of ask ourselves many of the same ennial fascination. Fifteen high nature symbolized by a wild boar; questions. There is a direct corre school teachers from the New York Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of spondence here." area, Florida, the Midwest, and the Kings of Britain, in which the elu Quest, romance, betrayal, pas California will meet for the sive folk hunter steps out into the sage. Arthur's kingdom generated seminar—"Arthurian Literature* of light of his great court and legend ideas to last centuries. "This litera the Middle Ages"—at the University ary Round Table and takes on politi ture is bound to succeed with us be of Puget Sound in Tacoma. cal and historical significance; Ywain cause we haven't left any of these Study of the Middle Ages inevita by the twelfth-century French poet things behind," says Curley. bly kindled Curley's own interest in Chretien de Troyes, whose story is —Leona Francombe Arthurian legend. "It's a theme that evidence of the rapid spread of Ar permeates the culture," he main thurian tales from Britain to France "Arthurian Literature of the Middle tains, "and anyone who studies the and establishes the courtly romance Ages"/Michael J. Curley/University of Middle Ages has to come to grips as a style of literature; and, finally, Puget Sound, Tacoma/$37,379/1985-86/ with that." His current project, a Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the Summer Seminars for Secondary School book entitled Merlin, The Anatomy of English romance that follows the ad Teachers 14 ■■
Not since Malory, and perhaps not even then, has prose fiction been the dominant form in Arthu rian literature that it has become in the past forty-five years. Beginning The Age with the publication of the individ ual volumes of T. H. White's Once and Future King (1938-40), Arthurian of the novels have appeared with phenom enal frequency. In England and America alone roughly fifty Arthu Arthurian rian novels have been published since 1940, not including modern stories loosely based on Arthurian characters or situations, mystery Novel novels focusing on supposed Arthu half-savage tribesman and focuses rian artifacts, science fiction on the barbarism rather than the adaptations and continuations, and glory of his reign. Novelists from the the like. Although a few notable sixties onward leaven primitivism works of Arthurian prose fiction with cultural embellishment. were written in the nineteenth cen The realism sought by these nov tury and several more during the elists, however, comes at the ex first decades of the twentieth, only pense of traditional elements of ro Bradley's Mists of Avalon even he is since the 1940s has prose fiction sur mance. Although they sometimes initially given the Celtic name passed poetry as the Arthurian liter appear there is little room here for Gwydion; and in Godwin's Firelord, ary mode par excellence. White may dragons, dwarfs, necromancers, after Arthur has been abducted by well be responsible for this shift, but love potions, or magic spells, and the Prydn or faerie folk, he is called if he is, it is curious that his novel there is likewise little interest in or Druith ("fool"), and after the events has exerted so little influence on this tolerance for Christian mysticism at the Beltane fires he becomes recent generation of Arthurian nov and matters concerning the Holy Belrix ("lord of fire"). The faerie folk elists, novelists who largely eschew Grail. When, for example, in Marion themselves, referred to variously as White's flights of fancy as well as his Zimmer Bradley's Mists of Avalon the "people of the hills," the "little polemics. (1982) Elaine reports that Pellinore dark folk," the ancient ones, or the Obviously, fifty different works and Lancelet (sic) have been burned Prydn, receive extended treatment spanning a forty-five year period re by a dragon (apparently the in some of these novels. A simple flect a wide spectrum of approaches Queasting Beast and the Loch Ness people who have maintained their and concerns, yet some common el Monster rolled into one), Morgaine natural bond with the earth, they ements emerge from many of these scoffs in disbelief, "What nonsense are nearing extinction due to the en novels, especially from the best of is this?" The dragon, "all soft like a croaching "Tall ones." Several works them. The most immediately obvi grub or an earthworm," is quickly suggest an equation between the de ous similarity is an insistence upon a dispatched. velopment of technological sophisti specific historical context. Influenced In conjunction with the general cation and an ensuing alienation by the findings and speculations of setting of Dark Age Britain, much of from the land. Arthur, who is twentieth-century historians and ar the current Arthurian fiction places portrayed as having a foot in each chaeologists (notably R.G. Colling- events in specific locales which have world, ultimately turns away from wood, John Morris, and Leslie received recent archaeological atten the people of the hills, hastening Alcock), these writers attempt to cre tion. Thus the Iron Age hill fort at their demise and contributing to his ate a Dark Age Britain as it might South Cadbury is identified with own. have been during the Celtic Twi Camelot; Liddington Castle, a hill Finally, recent conjectures about light, the century and a half that fort near Swindon, is Mt. Badon, British military tactics and equip separates Roman Britain from where Arthur achieved his most glo ment commonly appear in these Anglo-Saxon Britain. Their notions rious victory over the Saxons; Castle novels also. A notion which occurs of what this period was like differ a Dore in Cornwall is Tristram's again and again is that at the center great deal, from a primitive, brutal homestead; and Glastonbury is the of Arthur's military success against world to the civilized representative site of Avalon, an association long the Saxons was the mobile cavalry and last bastion of Roman culture, predating the twentieth century. unit, which allowed for rapid de even after Rome itself had fallen. It is also the fashion in many of ployment and swift counter-attack. Edward P. Frankland initiated this these novels to use Celtic names, In conjunction with this speculation new Arthurian realism in 1944 with and thus Gwalchmei occurs rather is the suggestion that Arthur's horse the The Bear of Britain a novel of vio than Gawain, Peredur instead of soldiers adopted the use of the stir lence, savagery, and stark realism. Percival, Cei instead of Kay, and so rup, providing the stability and lev Realism becomes even starker in on. Arthur, whose non-Celtic name erage necessary to fight effectively Henry Treece's The Great Captains raises etymological questions, is from horseback. (1956), which introduces Arthur as a commonly called Artos, but in Consistent with such attempts to 15 achieve historical authenticity are to tolerate reasonable liberties with tween realism and romance, which the efforts of these novelists to storyline and character portrayal but undoubtedly contributes to its con render psychologically plausible not outrageous ones. Within the tinuing popularity. characters. Because many of these bounds of acceptability is the Mary Stewart's Merlin trilogy, novels are told from a first-person merging of Lancelot and Bedevere, consisting of The Crystal Cave (1970), viewpoint—by an astonishing array which occurs in Sutcliff's Sword at The Hollow Hills (1973), and The Last of storytellers—it is often the narra Sunset and in Stewart's novels, or Enchantment (1979), has enjoyed tor who is most vividly portrayed. In the splintering of characters which even greater popular success than several novels, predictably, the first- occurs in The Mists of Avalon, where Sutcliff's novel. Narrated by Merlin, person narrator is either Arthur or Viviane, Niniane, and Nimue take these novels recreate an idealized Merlin; in some it is a figure central on separate identities. A marginally and rather romantic post-Roman to the legend, such as Guinevere, acceptable alteration might be Britain, and thus they stand some Lancelot, Bedevere, or Kay; and in Stewart's making Mordred the eld what apart from other works in the others it is a newly created minor est of Morgause's sons rather than recent tradition of realistic fiction. figure such as the old soldier Caius the youngest, which he always is in The first volume portrays the boy Geladius in John Gloag's Artorius medieval tradition. hood of Merlin (he is the illegitimate Rex (1977). In Bradley's Mists of Ava Perhaps the most solemn taboo is son of Aurelius and Niniane) and fo lon, Morgaine, the figure around against treating the Arthurian leg cuses on the education he receives whom the novel revolves, is treated end with disrespect. It is all right to from the hermit in the crystal cave with the greatest compassion and poke a little fun at Arthur and his (the novel's title and the concept of understanding, and her portrait is knights in the fashion of Monty Py the crystal cave stems from a lyric one of the most powerful to be thon, or even to turn the tales into poem by Edwin Muir). Stewart's found in this body of recent litera fabliau, as Nicholas Seare does in chief source is Geoffrey of ture. The creation of a complex but Rude Tales and Glorious, because such Monmouth, and like Geoffrey, her sympathetic figure such as treatments belie a fundamental af Merlin possesses prophetic powers Morgaine, who is traditionally one fection for the legends. But a derog and great intelligence but not the of the villains of Arthurian legend, atory attitude, such as some readers magical powers we associate with reflects another recurrent theme in have sensed in Thomas Berger's Ar wizards. Mary Stewart's novels these novels, man's moral ambiva thur Rex, is anathema. Robert Nye's make an excellent introduction to lence and the difficulty in separating Merlin is perhaps the most widely the legend of King Arthur for good from evil. Characters such as condemned Arthurian novel, for al younger readers. Vortigern, Geoffrey of Monmouth's though it is impressive in several re The American contribution to re principal villain, or Mordred, the gards, it appears to many readers as cent Arthurian fiction surpasses that preeminent Arthurian villain, are an opportunity to use revered mate of the British in quantity and rivals it portrayed more as having been mis rials for pornographic purposes. in quality. Discounting John understood than as true Machiavelli Although it is possible that none Steinbeck's uncompleted The Acts of ans. Perhaps the extreme example in of the Arthurian novels of recent King Arthur and His Noble Knights this trend occurs in Mary Stewart's vintage will survive the test of time, (1976), which is primarily a moderni The Wicked Day, where the novel's several of them now have devoted zation of Malory, Thomas Berger explicit purpose is to exonerate Mor followings. Among these are Rose (Arthur Rex, 1978) is arguably the dred and to demonstrate that he was mary Sutcliff's Sword at Sunset, Mary best of American Arthurian novel simply the victim of overwhelmingly Stewart's Merlin trilogy, Thomas ists. Arthur Rex may be fairly consid unfortunate circumstances. Balanc Berger's Arthur Rex, Parke Godwin's ered one of the great comic works in ing this view of Mordred, however, Firelord and Beloved Exile, and Arthurian literature, taking its place is that found in Catherine Chris Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists alongside White's Once and Future tian's The Pendragon (1978), where of Avalon, novels which have King and Mark Twain's A Connecticut Mordred is presented as a wicked achieved both popular and critical Yankee in King Arthur's Court. Critics homosexual who lures younger success. have been especially fond of linking knights away from King Arthur by Rosemary Sutcliff's Sword at Sunset Berger's spoof of the Arthurian fel corrupting them sexually. (1963) must be considered the first lowship with Twain's, seeing them Like the literature, the critics, major Arthurian novel in the post- as a pair of "literary wise guys." But scholars, and others forming a faith White era. Set in a reasonably civil as noted previously, some readers of ful company of Arthurian readers, ized late fifth-century Britain and Arthur Rex sense a derisive attitude exhibit identifiable similarities. Their narrated by Arthur (Artos), Sutcliff's toward Arthurian literature in this judgment of the modern literature, novel incorporates much of the tra novel, and the opening, especially if for example, depends consistently ditional story while also reflecting read alone, might bear this out. on its relationship—although not current historical theories and However, once readers of Arthur Rex necessarily its fidelity—to the leg paying tribute to some of the Celtic accustom themselves to Berger's endary tradition. motifs. Sutcliff's ending, in which "comic realism" (it's a little like be Extravagant deviations from the the mortally wounded Artos relin coming adjusted to reading Chaucer traditional story such as that in quishes his kingdom in order to seek in Middle English), Berger's true af Stewart's The Wicked Day are likely to the Isle of Avalon, is a satisfying fection for his materials is evident. be viewed with disfavor by most Ar variation. In its tone, the novel Further proof of Berger's sincerity thurian enthusiasts, who are willing achieves an admirable balance be may be found in his remarkable 16 knowledge of Arthurian literature. the conflict between the worship of From the Middle Ages alone Berger Ceridwen (the Celtic "Great Mother" draws on stories form Geoffrey of who in her tripartite form was Monmouth, Chretien de Troyes, Mother, Lover, and Destroyer), and Malory, Sir Gawain and the Green the new male-centered worship of Knight and some of the lesser Ga Christ. This struggle is symbolized wain poems, the Alliterative Morte by Arthur's conflicting loyalties to Arthure, and Bedier's version of the Gwenhwyfar, a devout Christian, Tristram legend, an especially effec and Morgaine, who has been tive episode in the novel. Berger's groomed to replace Viviane as the literary storehouse and comic dis Lady of the Lake, high priestess of tance make Arthur Rex distinctive Avalon; it culminates in Arthur's be among recent Arthurian novels. trayal of Avalon when he flies a ban Parke Godwin's novels (Firelord, ner of the cross at the battle of Mt. 1980 and Beloved Exile, 1984) empha Badon rather than one bearing the size the political maneuvering for dragon, a crime which he com the kingship in the aftermath of pounds by allowing the goddess's Ambrosius's death; the various tribal chalice to be used in the Christian rivalries that divide the Britons and Mass. Behind these actions is make them easier prey for the Sax Gwenhwyfar's desire to cure her ons; and the parallel stories of Ar barrenness, but Arthur's sacrifices thur and his Saxon rival Cerdic. are to no avail. As a result, Avalon is Godwin takes liberties with tradi doomed to retreat into the mists and tional Arthurian characters. Lance to be lost forever, Arthur is doomed lot, for example, is first seen as Gar to have no heir but Mordred, and eth's lad (Gareth himself is an the plan to save Britain conceived by Irishman and is unrelated to Ga Merlin and Viviane fails. The novel wain), and his quick intelligence ends on something of a positive soon elevates him to a position of note, however, as Morgaine per prominence. Lancelot is particularly ceives that the old worship of the adept at military tactics, and it is he goddess has not entirely disap who introduces Arthur to the use of peared because a degree of fusion of the stirrup. Physically, Lancelot is the old and the new has been nondescript ("Going down the achieved in Christian practices and ranks, you wouldn't look at him rituals. twice"), and Godwin has Lancelot A similar fusion of old and new marry Eleyne, who is even more characterizes the thriving subgenre unprepossessing (a "mouse of a of modern Arthurian literature. woman and plain as a boot"). But Whatever the fate of the many Ar Godwin's alterations, as considera thurian novels penned in the last ble as they are, are not overly dis several decades, as a group they at concerting. His handling of the ma test impressively to the current vital jor human relationships—Artos and ity and the continuing imaginative Morgana, Artos and Guinevere, and appeal of the legends of King Ar Artos and Bedivere—is skillful and thur. There are some indications sensitive. In Beloved Exile, told by now that the elements of fantasy are Guinevere, Godwin continues the beginning to return to Arthurian lit story following Artos's death. This erature, and if that is the case, then novel is more somber in mood, as the legend is about to undergo a fur befits the events it describes, but it ther transformation as the age of Ar also portrays Guinevere's growth in thurian realism draws to a close. wisdom, self-knowledge, and com —John Conlee passion, paralleling Artos's develop Mr. Conlee, who has just completed a ment in the first volume. term as chairman of the English depart Marion Zimmer Bradley's The ment at the College of William and Mists of Avalon is an extremely thor Mary, has published articles in Medium ough and suprisingly faithful AEvum, The Chaucer Review, and retelling of the traditional story, Neuphilologische Mitteilungen, from the vantage point of the story's among others. He has recently completed four principal women—Igraine, a critical edition of Middle English De Viviane, Gwenhwyfar, and bate and Dialogue Poetry, to be pub Morgaine. The novel also reflects lished by Colleagues Press, and is cur Bradley's impressive knowledge of rently at work on a critical study of the the Old Religion, and at its center is Middle English Merlin poems. Thomas Aquinas, and other repre sentative philosophers; and the de velopment of scholasticism and its influence on the thinking and values that shaped the social and political life of the times. Lancelot The institute also included work shops on classroom methods of translating what was learned into practical application in the high and the school English or history class. The teachers were required to write a -TL major interdisciplinary research pa per, using library resources to de Lone velop a presentation for classroom instructional use. Topics covered in the papers included medieval archi tecture, laws, medicine, mathemat Ranger ics, farming, and clothing. Each pa per consisted of a discussion of the research topic followed by sugges tions for various classroom applica J f : tions and a bibliography. In a paper on medieval medicine, Lancelot as Like threads in a tapestry, the leg- Tales, the teachers studied not only Regina Simonton of Morrison High depicted by end of Lancelot can be traced along style and technique but Chaucer's School described the medieval doc Howard Pyle the continuum of history from the rendition of the political, religious, tor's basic procedure in treating an in 1903. earliest folktales and fables to their and social life of the Middle Ages as illness. Using a list and charts of latest expressions in the Lone Ran well. Finally, the participants exam planetary movements, eclipses of ger and Luke Skywalker. Yet each ined Malory's treatment of the Ar the sun and moon and other brave warrior who fights valiantly thurian legend, particularly the sig astrological data, the doctor would against evil does so in a different nificance of the legend in the Middle determine which bodily humors— historical and philosophical context. Ages and its development as a yellow bile, blood, black bile, and The Grail and the Force are sepa theme in medieval literature. phlegm—were out of balance. By rated by more than time. Afternoons were devoted to his observing the positions of the moon, To help students from places tory and ideology. The history com he determined from which humor or called Pawnee, Broken Arrow, and ponent, which covered the three combination of humors the disease Wagoner understand the threads ages of medieval Europe looked at originated and then calculated the connecting the medieval past with the ways in which medieval civiliza treatment to be followed. "Although the American present, twenty-five tion differed from the ancient world these calculations may have taken high school teachers of English and as the center of European civilization several hours," said Simonton, social studies gathered at Oklahoma shifted from the Mediterranean to "treatment would not be adminis State University last summer to the broad plains of northern Europe. tered until all calculations were com spend two weeks of intensive study To study the three orders of the pleted." Simonton suggested that of the Middle Ages at an NEH sum Middle Ages—warriors, priests, and students in her class research the mer institute. peasants—the teachers investigated movement of planets, stars, and "Our plan," said project director, feudalism as a functional process astrological signs and attempt to J. Paul Bischoff, assistant professor within the development of the medi chart a modern-day illness by tra of history at Oklahoma State Univer eval social structure, examined the cing the origin of the disease and sity, "was to give these teachers Church with its multidimensional diagnosing the illness by the proce some sense of how the literary, his approach to Christian life, and re dure used in the Middle Ages. torical, and ideological dimensions constructed the lifestyle of the aver Mark Thompson of Wynnewood of medieval times are interrelated age person living in the medieval High School explored the status of and to show them how the Middle period. The history component con women in Chaucer's "Wife of Bath's Ages fit into a larger, unified, and cluded with an exploration of the Prologue and Tale" and Steinbeck's continuous evolution of history, lit physical surroundings of the period, The Pearl. "The social conditions sur erature, and ideas." including housing, commodities, rounding the two women [Alisoun Morning discussions focused on and trade. and Juana], their reactions to abuse three major texts of medieval litera For the philosophy component, from their husbands, and the deci ture. An examination of Beowulf in participants examined the impor sions of Juana and the lusty bachelor the original language considered its tance of the Middle Ages in the his all show that the problem of domi literary elements, as well as its con tory of Western thought; the origins nance . . . has a long tradition," said nection with medieval history and of medieval ideology; the philoso Thompson. "The adventures of ideology. For Chaucer's Canterbury phies of St. Augustine, Maimonides, these characters are varied, but the 18 authors' ideas converge on at least one point: the conception that one must dominate automatically hind ers happiness in a relationship." Thompson devised classroom activi ties requiring students to write a dia logue of an argument between Alisoun and Juana concerning the role of the wife in marriage, or hav ing the students pretend to be law yers handling divorce proceedings and write a legal brief outlining the case for the court. Myra McCurry of Pawnee High School examined medieval physiog nomy and its use in The Canterbury Tales. "Whether Chaucer was a be liever in physiognomy (the science of divining a person's character by outward appearance or form) is not known, but it is obvious that he chose to make use of its principles to present his characters," said McCurry. "Knowing that staring eyes and a high voice indicate glut comparison of the legend of Lance Oklahoma State University for a fi An engraving by tony and licentiousness, smooth lot and the lore of the western cow nal session in which they wrote their Frederic skin reveals a capability to hide boy to add a new dimension to her own evaluations of the institute, Remington one's emotions, and fine yellow hair class in U.S. social studies. Her pa based on a year in which they used (1861-1909) from denotes a lack of virility, the per, "The Code of Chivalry and the the information from the institute in Harper's Weekly, 1890. fourteenth-century audience was Code of the West," discussed how their classrooms. aware of the Pardoner's characteris the literature of these two periods "I think the Middle Ages is an era tics long before he revealed himself reflected the image of the hero-as- about which high school students in his tale." McCurry suggested in fighter: a stoic, pain-ignoring war have sort of hazy romantic concepts, viting a police sketch artist, trained rior, proud and brave, fighting val but about which they have no hard in drawing composites from descrip iantly against heavy odds to save the information," says Bischoff. "The in tions, to draw the characters in The honor and lives of his kinsmen. Like stitute was intended to provide Canterbury Tales from descriptions his nineteenth-century counterpart, teachers with that hard information given by the students. the early chivalric hero is not only a in ways that could be used in the In his paper, "The Possessory As hero in battle—"a person aware of classroom." One of those sizes of Henry II," Robert Owens of his good name," said Irvine—but ways—attempting to diagnose a East Central High School in Tulsa also a representation of the force of modern-day illness using medieval traced many fundamental American good in the struggle against evil. methods—probably helped dispel constitutional guarantees to the time Irvine's paper also compared the hazy romantic notions about the of Henry II's assizes. For example, historical similarities of the two peri Middle Ages. Just as those who ex he said, both the First Amendment's ods. Both eighth- to eleventh- amined the assizes of Henry II right to petition the government for century western Europe and gained a clearer picture of the condi a redress of grievances and the nineteenth-century western America tions that gave rise to the First and Third Amendment's prohibition of were battlegrounds, she said. The Third Amendments, those who the quartering of troops without the people of medieval Europe were compared the code of chivalry with consent of the owner stem from the constantly threatened by invasions the code of the West learned that the assize of novel disseisin, established of Vikings and barbarians from the legends of Lancelot, the Lone Ran between 1166 and 1176. According north and Islamic warriors from the ger, and Luke Skywalker will to this assize, no freeman could be East, whereas nineteenth-century reemerge in another age when the dispossessed of his land unjustly Americans faced the constant tur future again forms a setting in which and without judgment. For the moil of conflicting land claims by the a brave warrior battles for good classroom, Owens planned to have West's original inhabitants against against evil. students conduct independent re invading settlers and the later fights —Caroline Taylor search to prove the thesis that the le between ranchers and farmers. gal reforms of King Henry II of During the year following the in "Medieval Studies for High School Eng England contributed in a substantial stitute, Bischoff visited about two- lish and History Teachers"/John P. way to the American Constitution. thirds of the participants' classrooms Bischoff!Oklahoma State University, Carla Irvine, a sociology teacher to observe how the material covered Stillwater/$59,61811985-861Humanities from North Intermediate High by the institute had been put to use. Instruction in Elementary and Second School in Broken Arrow, used a On June 21, the teachers returned to ary Schools 19 HISTORICISM & ITS DISCONTENTS
.. in hym that shold say or popular in Wales before the eleventh ond coming of Christ—had no his thynke that there was never suche a kyne century, and Geoffrey adapted some torical significance. It was merely a called Arthur myght well be aretted of the Celtic stories to suit feudal time of waiting, of deferment, of ex greted folye and blyndeness, for there be times. The fact that this fictional his ile. The whole period of the Roman many evydences of the contrarye ..." tory had an enormous influence on Empire was, for Augustine, merely later chroniclers—and in fact one of libido dominandi—the desire —William Caxton, in his pref reached its greatest popularity three for domination—and valuable only ace to Thomas Malory's Le Morte and a half centuries later at the ac for the spiritual lessons that could be d'Arthur, published in 1485 cession of the Tudors—is considered derived from it. Many twentieth-century scholars by the critics of medieval historians Until Geoffrey of Monmouth, Au would dismiss all of the many to be illustrative of the simplistic re gustine's approach dominated Eng "evydences" that Caxton goes on to lationship the Middle Ages held lish historiography. The highly influ list. Their standard argument has with its past. ential Historia ecclesiastica gentis been that modern historiography be Patterson, however, draws atten Anglorum (Ecclesiastical History of gan with the Renaissance and that tion to several crucial historiographi the English People), written in the the fanciful chronicles of the Middle cal issues that are confronted by eighth century by the Venerable Ages show a simple, naive cast of Geoffrey of Monmouth. By positing Bede, an Anglo-Saxon theologian, mind unable to sustain a distance a Trojan origin for British civiliza was a historically accurate account, between past and present. In tion, Geoffrey was explicitly re but its whole lesson and purpose Historicism and Its Discontents, a book calling a past model that had hereto was to demonstrate the growth of written with the support of an NEH fore been unrepresented in English the Church. In it, people are histori grant, Lee W. Patterson disputes historiography. This classical, secu cal markers rather than creators of this argument by examining medie lar approach to history is most history. Patterson notes that the val works that articulate the great clearly illustrated by Virgil's Aeneid. Historia ecclesiastica "is as close as founding legends of Britain. At its core is translatio imperii, the ob you can get to pure Augustinian Pivotal among these is the Historia servation that ruling civilizations history." regum Britanniae, written by Geoffrey have moved westward, from Troy to Geoffrey of Monmouth explicitly of Monmouth, bishop of St. Asaph, Greece to Rome, each empire the challenged this mode by rewriting and published sometime between heir of the previous one. The geo the Aeneid for his own time. This 1135 and 1139. Geoffrey begins his graphical succession of these em challenge was recognized by his con history with the settlement of Britain pires was less important to medieval temporaries, one of whom, William by Brutus of Troy, a descendant of chroniclers than the chronological of Newburgh, is said to have noted Aeneas, founder of Rome. Then fol progression. Translatio imperii, says bitterly, "Geoffrey's fictions have low the reigns of early kings, the Ro Patterson, suggested that each em taken the place of Bede's truths." man conquest, and the Saxon infil pire was "the inheritor of imperial Geoffrey's use of the Virgilian ap tration. The culminating point of the glory yet under the shadow of inevi proach provided his Anglo-Norman Historia is the story of Arthur, a glo table decline." Despite the ambiva audience with a model that showed rious and triumphant king who de lence of this model, Continental rul the possibility that the values of the feats a Roman army in eastern ers since the eighth-century past can be recuperated in the pres France, only to be mortally Carolingian kings had invoked Troy ent. This bears witness to a more wounded when he returns home to as a source of legitimation for their complex relationship between past deal with a rebellion led by his rule. and present than many twentieth- nephew Mordred. In contrast, the Augustinian ap century scholars' views of the Mid Geoffrey alleges that the Historia proach to history, formulated in re dle Ages would allow. was translated from "a very old action to Virgil, discounted such sec It also points to a major difference book in the British tongue," but this ular events in favor of wholly between modern and medieval con source, like the narrative it purports spiritual values. Augustine held that sciousness of history. Modern to recount, is almost pure fabrica the current "sixth age" of time—that thought focuses on the differences tion. Stories about Arthur had been between the Crucifixion and the sec between past and present; its goal, 20 suggests Patterson, is "a recovery of beyond, the Arthurian legend was around this time. Its anonymous au the past in all its otherness." In the also invoked for legitimation by the thor chose as his central theme King Middle Ages, the emphasis was kings of England. Edward I, who Arthur's campaign to conquer Rome rather on the continuities between reigned from 1272 to 1307, held tour (translatio imperii). At the moment of past and present. Patterson cites a naments in the best Arthurian style. his triumph, Arthur hears of his medieval proverb, Verum quia vetus Upon subduing unruly vassals in nephew Mordred's treacherous re (True because old), that illustrates Wales, Edward gave the realm and bellion, hurries home to England, the medieval awareness of the the title "Prince of Wales" to his son and is defeated at the Battle of power the past exerts on the pres and heir. Though this was partly a Salisbury Plain. In its relationship to ent. As we see in Geoffrey's gesture to the Welsh, the allusion to its sources, as well as its theme, this conjuring of Trojan antecedents, the Arthur—often conceived in legend poem, says Patterson, shows "an al past is "simultaneously a source of as a Welsh king—added a resonance most obsessive interest in the prob value and an unavoidable pattern of of imperial majesty to the title that lem of past and present," an issue action," notes Patterson. British heirs to the throne carry to that must have been of special ur In 1154, after twenty years of dy this day. gency during the dynastic upheavals nastic crises, Henry II ascended to As Patterson notes, Arthur was of the time. the English throne. Inheritor of the invoked by other political figures as Patterson's original intention had Norman tradition of centralized au well. Edward II was deposed in 1327 been to include a chapter on thority and imperial ambition, by a group of men led by Roger Chaucer and the way that his work, Henry spent his thirty-five-year Mortimer, earl of March, who held like that of Chretien de Troyes, com reign strengthening the cult of king land on the border between England bined the historiographical with the ship. During his reign, often at his and Wales. In the letters we have romantic. This chapter eventually court, were written romans between Mortimer and his cocon became an entire second book, d'antiquite—most particularly the Ro spirators, the leader's code name which Patterson hopes to publish in man de Troie and the Roman d'Eneas. was "Arthur." 1987. Nonetheless, Historicism and Its These romances reflect the political By the end of the fourteenth cen Discontents uses the history of ambitions of the ruling dynasty in tury, dynastic problems had caused Chaucer criticism to highlight points evoking the Trojan empire and a nearly thirty years of crisis. Edward, Patterson wants to make about the time when kings were more than the Black Prince, son of Edward III, modern view of the Middle Ages contractual feudal overlords. died before his father, who was in and about the problem of recon Earlier works composed to articu his dotage and controlled by unscru structing the past. late imperial dreams had not dwelt pulous parties. He was eventually My argument in this book," says long on romantic love; as Patterson succeeded by his ten-year-old grand Patterson, "is that in every case, the notes, "Roland [in the Chanson de Ro son Richard, in whose name a royal desire to recover the past is gov land] and Beowulf did not have council attempted a deal with a erned by imperatives in the pres girlfriends." But the twelfth century peasant revolt and religious unrest. ent." This desire usually arises from was a time of new interest in the pri When Richard finally began to rule discontent with the present, a sense vate life of feeling, and old stories in his own right, he did so with a that the essence of the past has es began to be expanded or recast to re somewhat exalted idea of his own caped. In fact, Patterson's basic flect this interest. For example, in powers and prerogatives. He was premise is that historicism—the ef twelfth-century retellings of the Ae deposed in 1399 by Henry of Lancas fort to make sense of the past—is neid, Aeneas becomes a great lover, ter, who himself faced rebellions both a function of discontent and and the character of Dido undergoes throughout the early part of his necessarily productive of it. "I can a recuperation. It was at this time, reign and uneasy relations with his offer no consolation," Patterson too, that Chretien de Troyes added son and heir at its end. quotes from Freud, whose Civiliza the Lancelot and Guinevere romance An epic poem in English, which tion and Its Discontents he echoes in to the King Arthur legend. has come to be known as "the allit his title. During the twelfth and thirteenth erative Morte Arthure," was almost This dynamic is operative in both centuries, there was an enormous certainly put into its final form modern attempts to understand the proliferation of Arthurian legends, Middle Ages and medieval efforts to some of which ran to seven or eight create a past. Ultimately, we cannot volumes. French authors in particu presume to sneer at Geoffrey of lar used the legends as a formal tap Monmouth or other medieval chron estry on which individual knights iclers. Historia est narratio rei jousted, fought, aided damsels, and gestae—history is the narration of slew monsters. The anonymous things done—is not necessarily truer poem Sir Gawain and the Green now than it was in the Middle Ages. Knight, though it begins with Brutus —Jennifer Newton the Trojan founding Britian, focuses Stained glass almost totally on a challenge to one "Medieval Literature and Legendary roundel of King of the leading knights of King Ar History"/Lee W. Patterson/Johns Arthur riding a thur's court, involving a beheading Hopkins University, Baltimore/$25,000/ camel. Flemish. and erotic temptations. 1984-85/Independent Study and Early sixteenth- However, during this period and Research century.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Cloisters 21 Historians gener ally agree that some time before 600 the Britons rallied against Saxon invaders. This map from Leslie Alcock's Arthur's Britain (Allen Lane, among them were the works of London, 1971) Chretien de Troyes. Born about shows possible 1130, Chretien wrote five romances locations where about Arthur and his fabulous king archaeologists dom: Erec and Enide, Cliges, Lancelot, believe the bat Yvain, and Percival. As we shall dis tles could have cover, Chretien, too, drew on earlier taken place. Both Gildas, a monk sources for his subject matter. With writing in A.D. great originality, however, he 545, and an early reshaped the Arthurian legend by Welsh source, introducing Lancelot and his adul the Annales terous affair with Guinevere, the Cambriae, refer theme of courtly love, and the quest to a final tri for the Grail. umph at Badon. Chretien's sources included Celtic Welsh tradition legends and the first major literary names the trium work concerned with Arthur, The phant commander as Arthur. History of the Kings of Britain by Geoffrey of Monmouth. Geoffrey was born at Monmouth about 1100. He seems to have spent some twenty years in Oxford. Ordained in 1152, he was appointed bishop of St. Asaph in Wales. He died about 1154. Geoffrey combined myth and legend in a learned, but fantastic history of Britain from the supposed arrival of refugees from the sack of Troy to the Anglo-Saxon period. Ar thur appears as a British king who defeated the Romans in France, but was fatally wounded in Britain, in a battle against rebels led by his ictorian poets William alized views of medieval chivalry nephew Mordred. ■ Morris, Swinburne, and and dedication to noble causes, such Even in the twelfth century, then, ■ ^^Alfred, Lord Tennyson as the quest for the Holy Grail, were Arthur was a legendary figure. ^^^a^^rediscovered King Arthur in prominent features of the Romantic What, if anything, was the sub the works of their literary forebears, movement. For the Romantics, the stance behind the legend? For the the inventors of romance, who prime source of information about present-day researcher, this is a dif wrote between the twelfth and fif the legends of King Arthur was the ficult question, which involves the teenth centuries. This literary tradi medieval writer Sir Thomas Malory interpretation of obscure medieval tion has its roots in ancient Celtic (died 1471), author of Le Morte documents. It also involves mythology and in a period of British Darthur, a collection of historical ro evaluating the archaeological record, history for which the records are few mances first published by William in search of a context in which the and very short. Since the 1950s, Caxton in 1485. It was immensely hero may have lived. Medieval however, historical research and ar popular, and appeared in numerous scholars had fewer difficulties. For chaeological excavations have con editions in the sixteenth and early one thing, they were much more tributed evidence to support the as seventeenth centuries. Reprinted in willing than we are to take their sertion of historian Geoffrey Ashe, 1816, it was the direct inspiration of sources at face value. For another, published in The Quest for Arthur's Tennyson's Idylls of the King. their belief in the historical Arthur Britain (The Pall Mall Press, Ltd., Malory's inspiration is, in turn, was supported by a sensational dis 1968): "The Arthurian Legend, how credited in the early editions of his covery. In 1191, the monks of ever wide-ranging its vagaries, is work. In his introduction to Le Morte Glastonbury Abbey in Somerset an rooted in Arthurian Fact." Darthur, Caxton noted that the au nounced the finding of the bodies of Indeed, in Victorian England, in thor acquired his knowledge from a man and woman associated with a terest in the Middle Ages and in ide "certain books of French." Foremost lead cross, which identified the re- 22 iL A r t h u r
mains as those of Arthur and, ac pelled, therefore, to examine the evi Ambrosius Aurelianus. Henceforth, cording to some sources, Queen dence very carefully indeed. First, victory went sometimes to the at According to Guinevere. The historian Gerald of let us consider the documents. tackers, sometimes to the defenders, Geoffrey of Wales, who visited Glastonbury Geoffrey made use of an extraordi until the Britons triumphed at the Monmouth, Ar about 1192, reported that he saw the nary work entitled "On the Ruin siege of Mount Badon, which halted thur is conceived bones, and a drawing of the cross and Conquest of Britain." Appar the Saxon advance. For all its at the castle in appeared in Camden's Britannia in ently written in or about the 530s by obscurity, and despite the fact that it Tintagel when his father Uther, the sixteenth century. The bones dis a monk named Gildas, this is an in does not mention Arthur, Gildas's with the help of appeared during the Reformation, dictment of the crimes of contempo work is as important to us as it was wizardry from and the last mention of the cross rary rulers and churchmen and an to Geoffrey of Monmouth. Merlin, imper suggests that it was in Wells, also in account of what befell them because The reason is revealed by another sonates the hus Somerset, in the eighteenth century. of their wicked ways. In his oblique, of Geoffrey's sources, a work known band of his We have no means today of know polemical manner, Gildas is as "The History of the Britons," mother, Ygeme. ing whether the bones and the cross referring to nothing less than the which is attributed to Nennius, who Excavations have were genuine. In the Middle Ages, end of Roman Britain. He tells how wrote in the tenth century. shown the site to on the other hand, few questioned the Roman province was devastated Nennius's history begins in conven be the locale of a their authenticity; in the twelfth and by barbarians; how the Roman com tional fashion with an account of six Celtic monastery thirteenth centuries, Arthur was as mander in Gaul, Aetius, failed to re ages of the world, from the Creation from the fifth to the seventh cen historical a figure as Washington or trieve the situation, and how in des to the Last Judgment. There follows turies, on which the Duke of Wellington. peration the Britons decided to call a muddled account of Roman Brit a castle was We, unlike our predecessors, be in the Saxons. Soon, however, the ain, partly derived from Gildas. In built in the long to a skeptical age, which de Saxons revolted and began to con describing the Anglo-Saxon con twelfth century mands far more rigorous proof than quer the island for themselves. Their quest, however, Nennius provides and fortified in was sought by Gerald, or Geoffrey, advance proceeded until they were us with a nugget of pure gold. "In the thirteenth or Chretien de Troyes. We are com checked by a British general named those days," he writes, "Arthur century. fought against [the Saxons] with the volved in a series of desperate at vations at Canterbury, London, St. kings of the Britons, but he himself tempts to stop the expansion of the Albans, Lincoln, and York show was the military commander (in Anglo-Saxons after the Romans had that, although the former cities may Latin, dux bellorum)." Arthur took withdrawn from Britain. His greatest have been occupied, the inhabitants part in twelve battles against the victory was at Mount Badon, in the lived in communities that were no Saxons. "The twelfth battle was at early sixth century; twenty years longer urban. There is little, if any, Mount Badon, in which nine hun later, he was killed at the battle of evidence for the survival of Christi dred and sixty men fell in one day Camlann. anity (in contrast to western Britain), from one charge by Arthur." Gildas In many ways, archaeology and or of the use of money, or of the ap told us of the crucial importance of history are ideal partners. While his plication of the "advanced" technol the encounter at Mount Badon, and torical documents, such as "The His ogy of the Romans. The Anglo- Nennius tells us who commanded tory of the Britons," report (or claim Saxon settlers moved into a region the British troops: Arthur. Thus, for to report) on key figures and events, that had abandoned (or was in the Nennius, Arthur was real. He was a archaeology is better equipped to process of abandoning) the trap general (not a king), who played a sketch the broad outlines of social pings of Roman civilization. In the prominent part in the British resist and economic trends. As far as the north and west, local commanders ance to the Anglo-Saxons and who end of Roman Britain, the emer had assumed the administrative won an important victory at Mount gency of independent kingdoms in powers of the Roman governors, Badon. the west and the Anglo-Saxon settle and took what measures they could The text of Nennius's history is ment of England are concerned, ar to stem the tide of Anglo-Saxon ex preserved in several manuscripts, chaeology has made substantial pansion. Gildas's diatribe was di notably a document in The British strides in the last few decades. rected against these rulers, and he Library, known as Harleian Manu While we still have only a hazy idea saw the successes of the Saxons as script 3859. This contains a number of the location of Mount Badon (was retribution for abuses of power. of works, bound together in a single it near Bath?), and no idea at all of Nennius's twelve battles were volume. They include another key the location of Camlann, we do have events in the British attempt to stop Arthurian source, a set of annals the glimmer of an impression of sub- the advance of the Anglo-Saxons. that covers events in late Roman Roman Britain. Several archaeological excavations Britain; there is reason to believe In 367, the historical sources tell contributing evidence of the post- that they were compiled as early as us, barbarians from Scotland and Roman, pre-Anglo-Saxon Britain In 1190 the the fifth century. The annals contain Ireland overran the Roman prov have been at sites also associated reputed relics of two references to Arthur. The first ince, which was recovered—with with the Arthurian legend. Between Arthur and records how he fought for three difficulty—in 369. In 383, a British 1966 and 1970, for example, Leslie Guinevere were days before he beat the Saxons at general, Magnus Maximus, took Alcock, a professor of archaeology at discovered in the Mount Badon, in the year 72, which troops to support his bid for impe the University of Glasgow, exca ancient cemetery may correspond to A.D. 518. The rial power in Gaul. Stilicho with vated Cadbury Castle, a hill fort of of Glastonbury second reference reports the conflict drew further detachments to defend the pre-Roman Iron Age near the Abbey. The tomb of Arthur and Mordred at the battle Italy in 401. Within the decade, village of Queen Camel and West itself was de of Camlann, in which Arthur was stripped of government forces, Brit Camel. His report stated that be stroyed during killed, in 93, perhaps the equivalent ain ceased to belong in any mean tween 400 and 1000, somebody the Reformation of 539. ingful sense to the Roman Empire. and the bones whose style of construction proved dispersed, but Gildas, Nennius, and the annals The door, already ajar, was wide him to be Celtic, not Saxon, there is a con have taken us a long way from the open for settlement from the refortified Cadbury Castle. "As the temporary record world of Camelot, Guinevere, and Continent. Saxons conquered this part of Som of the discovery the Holy Grail. They suggest that After the early fifth century, low erset in the seventh century," from Gerald of Arthur, far from being the ruler of a land Britain presents an almost com Alcock wrote, "the acceptable range Wales. fabulous country, was a general in pletely un-Roman appearance. Exca of time shrank to little more than 200 years. Almost in the middle of it was Arthur." Stripped of his crown, detached from the Round Table and the Holy Grail, Arthur emerges from the Dark Age documents as a historical fig ure, shadowy but real: a British gen eral of the sixth century. —David Whitehouse
g Mr. Whitehouse is the chief curator at £ The Corning Museum of Glass. An ar- o chaeologist by training, he has excavated 5- in Britain, in Mediterranean countries, in Iran and Afghanistan. He is the au thor of more than two hundred articles, reviews, and books. hat began around Six national a kitchen table in themes were de Vermont—book lov veloped by the ers talking about American Library Association for books—has grown into a national reading programs program encompassing 300 libraries at local libraries. and more than 30,000 people from Among them, Not Maine to Hawaii. The process of ex for Children Only panding from small to large scale offers an adult can be a traumatic journey into the reexamination of heart of bureaucracy—a rite of pas the classics of sage out of which good ideas too of children's litera ten emerge unrecognizable. That has ture, and.Being not been the case with Let's Talk Ethnic, Becoming about It, a three-year nationwide American (illus tration on the program sponsored by the American following page) Library Association (ALA) and explores the ten funded by the National Endowment sion between as for the Humanities. By bringing similation and scholars and the general public to the preservation gether to explore themes of past and of heritage. present life and culture through reading and discussion, Let's Talk about It has given a good idea room to grow. When Pat Bates, then program di rector at Rutland Free Library in Rutland, Vermont, was in her kitchen talking about books with friends, it occurred to her that simi > lar discussions could be held on a 3 larger scale in the library. Funded by a grant from the Vermont Council on the Humanities and Public Issues, Bates's first pro gram in 1978, was called "Women in Literature." The plan was to present a ten-week reading and discussion series focusing on five books all re lated to a particular theme. The // // group would meet every two weeks Let's Talk About It with a local humanities scholar to discuss one of the five books. When 150 people registered for the three ingredients that had trans Subgrant proposals from the state "Women in Literature" series, which formed Pat Bates's kitchen table into teams were evaluated by a six- included such works as Jean Rhys's a round table for discussion: inter member selection committee, with Wide Sargasso Sea, it was evident that ested adult readers; challenging, ex thirty states ultimately receiving out-of-school adults would respond citing texts; and scholars willing to funding. Most states are basing their to opportunities to explore the hu devote serious intellectual effort to a programs on one of the six themes manities under the guidance of new audience. selected by the advisory committee scholars. It was decided that money would and developed by scholars with ex The success of that first program be allocated in subgrants of $18,500 pertise in the appropriate field. ALA led to others in Vermont and to library organizations representing supplies all fifty-one states and terri throughout New England; six years individual states. At workshops held tories participating in the workshops later, the Vermont model provided in different regions of the country, with a packet of materials including the framework for a national Let's members of the advisory committee theme pamphlets, which establish Talk about It. Armed with $1.5 mil provided an overview of the Let's the general direction of a theme and lion in funding from NEH, and un Talk about It project and instructed introduce the five texts to be dis der the direction of ALA, the pro teams from the states on how to ap cussed; promotion kits comprised of ject's national advisory committee, ply for a subgrant. The goal of the sample news releases, clip art, ad composed of librarians, scholars, workshops was to give the states the mats, and other promotional ideas; and state humanities council repre background and flexibility necessary and theme posters. These materials sentatives, tackled the daunting job to design pilot projects in such a make it easier for small- to medium- of replicating across the nation the way as to suit their own needs. size libraries with limited resources 25 American Library Association flecting issues central to the human human the to central issues flecting among deliberations extensive ter most committee's advisory hlegn ad noal ts. Af task. enjoyable and challenging programs. effective present to books as Studs Terkel's Terkel's Studs as such books using are, we who to linked bly ex America Changing a Re in Its wards and Work Life: a Making literature. of particular a kind approach to ways show new or forms a literary in of variety expressed is it as life aspect modern of an illuminate theme either The concepts 1987). in use for ready society. contemporary in experience re emerged themes six group, the Arthur Miller's Miller's Arthur inextrica is do we what how plores be will themes additional (Four neous culture, on the one hand, and and hand, one the on culture, homoge neous a into oneself assimilating American: Becoming Ethnic, Being other. This theme is analyzed in in analyzed is theme This other. human universal another at Maxine Hong Kingston's Kingston's Hong Maxine the on roots, ethnic preserving between tension the concern— looks Symbols Successes, Struggles, n h Mountain, the on Warrior, works. Not for Children Only exam Only Children for Not works. Theme selection proved to be the the be to proved selection Theme For example, Making a Living, Living, a Making example, For James Baldwin's Baldwin's James et o Salesman. a of Death and three other other three and Working o el It Tell Go Woman and and
ns hlrns lsis rm h per the from classics children's ines video cassette recorder may not not may recorder cassette the video and television that adults indicates out-of-school 30,000 attracted Fiction. Popular Making in Myth Reads: America and What Community; and Rights Indi vidual Family; Con American the in temporary Seasons the Are: Were, We Way We Way the three are themes remaining The reader. any for humanizing intrinsically are children a "common human craving for for craving human "common reveals a programs discussion and ing executive Swenson, Victor assume. on stranglehold a firm so quite have have themes challenging ranging, White's B. E. as such standards using readers, adult of spective hsetw, ayad ad lo a also and Maryland, in Chestertown, College Washington of Elizabeth dean Baer, touching." to close comes entertainment of the kinds of popular none that cerebral something read of success the that believes commit tee, advisory national Talk It Let's about the of member a Issues and Public and on Humanities Council the Vermont the of director often we as imagination popular the Web numerous discussion groups, echoes echoes groups, in discussion scholar numerous particpating a as well committee as advisory the of member respond." intellectual for "re hunger a markable exhibited has program, audience a the presented has she wher ever that commenting Swenson, ipant's preoccupation with phallic phallic with preoccupation ipant's partic fellow a over dismay ex pressing Missouri, Nevada, in woman a is h shlr a t sy n to and say to has what scholar hear the to hunger a stimulation, find a phallic symbol in a meadow"), meadow"), a in symbol phallic a find rntari ohv hi a. Schol say. their have to afraid readers aren't Adult clear: is thing it," one about wrong you're convinced the discussion of of discussion after the Baer, Elizabeth in telling Vermont woman a is it whether or could he ("Mercy—why, symbols with adults about literature," accord literature," about "Talking adults with audience. an such deal of with ing rewards the on have commented country the throughout ars I'm and twice book the read "I've ing to a scholar in Oklahoma, Oklahoma, in scholar a to ing otc ih mc lre audience larger into much a scholar with the contact brings also It aloof ness." and away isolation me academic keeps from honest, me "keeps That discussions on these wide- wide- these on discussions That And respond they do. Whether it it Whether do. they respond And to show that books written for for written books that show to ie agso Sea, Sargasso Wide Charlotte's
about what Pat Bates and Victor Victor and Bates Pat what brought about has Vermont) in genitor ians have been invaluable. The The invaluable. been have ians librar local and state councils, of humanities efforts the Cooper, director Sandra project including staff ALA, and at committee advisory the addition to In individuals. and different groups many of contributions without the happened hasn't it rev olution," "reading a called have Swenson the local level, offered consultation consultation offered level, local at the scholars identified have former you've gone through a discussion discussion a through gone you've mere than more is literature that real ize who readers critical but just not readers develop to been has It about gather. readers and scholars around which tables kitchen into libraries their transforming as served facilitators, have librarians local larly, cases, some in and, the programs, out actual carrying and designing on arly article is read by five to seven seven to people." five by read schol is article average arly "the notes, academia. Baer in As finds usually one than You understand that many books books many that understand You plot. According to Pat Bates, "After "After Bates, Pat to According plot. Simi funding. additional supplied are like artichokes, where you peel peel you where artichokes, like are read. you how change you series, books from a large van. Awaiting Awaiting van. large a from of books crates unloading cooperative book nelig messages." underlying The heart. the to get to leaves off Virginia, as she watched a woman's woman's a watched she as Virginia, Fairfax, in evening one Baer scholar teaches you to look for the the for look to you teaches scholar books being loaded onto hand carts carts hand onto loaded of being crates books those of image The volved. discus a for registered had read 100 who ers than more were books the in rga i wih ar a in was Baer which in program sion r Ot s h eio f o editor the is Ott Mr. there been had in for sustenance need tellectual The It. about of Talk worth Let's the in belief her confirmed a atal dlvrn te goods. the delivering that actually was project a was here but along, all Adults, Booklist, Booklist, Adults, oriao o Lts akaot It. about Talk Let's for Coordinator irr Ascain Materials Association Library in rgas n mrc' Libraries"/ America's in Programs sion uaiis rjcs n Libraries in Projects Humanities Chicago/$l,585,425/1983-86/ sociation, "Lets Talk about It: Reading and Discus and Reading It: about Talk "Lets Sandra M. Cooper/American Library As Library Cooper/American M. Sandra f e' Tl aot t ad t pro its (and It about Talk Let's If The long-term effect of Let's Talk Talk Let's of effect long-term The It all came into focus for Elizabeth Elizabeth for focus into came all It n i te American the is and Bos for Books il Ott Bill —
A Nation of Readers Ed. note: What is noteworthy about what now must be called a national phe nomenon of adult reading programs is not only the speed with which they caught on, but the variety of ways they have been adapted by the state humani ties councils to serve local readers. How the councils work to bring the humani ties to out-of-school adults is an interest ing study in the relationship between ge ography and culture. Delmont Oswald, executive director The following article points out the of the UEH. But he adds that be differences in approach between cause multiple copies of books are Vermont, where it all began and where often hard to come by, these groups new kinds of programs are being tested, tend to favor book review-style and Utah, where radio and chautauqua meetings rather than book Few of the groups, however, have programs have been enlisted to reach the discussions. scheduled scholars to speak at their state's far-flung populace. As a way of encouraging meetings, even though packages preexisting groups to more active in come with an easy application for a Vermont, a state of blunt green quiry as well as helping new reading quick response mini-grant to cover mountains, has a strong sense of groups form, the UEH developed a the cost of the scholars' honoraria. "town." One of the first state com humanities reading and discussion One participant has commented that mittees to sponsor scholar-led read program for adults to serve the en scholars are the "icing on the cake." ing and discussion programs for tire state, including the sparsely The UEH disagrees. "To conduct a adults, the Vermont Council on the populated areas far from the solid humanities program, we feel Humanities and Public Issues has Wasatch Front. "Books Alive" is they need a scholar," says Oswald. for almost ten years reached transported to all parts of Utah in The UEH plans to augment the communities throughout the state 9"xl2"x4" boxes that include multiple book packages with radio programs. through the local librarian, a pre copies of a book; a study guide pre Four major public stations, along sence in almost every Vermont pared by scholars to provide an with many smaller commercial sta town. analysis of the book; a list of related tions reach most of the state. "Per Utah's jagged mountains jut up resources, including scholars willing haps because of the vast distances from flat salt desert. It takes ten to lecture or lead discussions, films, and the geographic challenges, hours to drive from the top of the and other media material; as well as many stations have very faithful lis state to the bottom. Most of this im a bibliography of additional readings teners." explains Oswald. mense area is sparsely populated, on the theme. One program called "Thinking except for a narrow corridor known Packages have been created for Out Loud" has produced shows on as the Wasatch Front, where most of nine themes, such as Utah's themes such as medical ethics, the people and cultural activities are Changing Population—Cultural Di Egyptian archaeology, ethnic his concentrated. To reach the state's versity with readings that include I tory, George Orwell's writings, widely scattered population, the Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by American nineteenth-century mate Utah Endowment for the Humani Maya Angelou, The Chosen by Chaim rial culture, women's history, and is ties (UEH) has packaged reading/ Potok, Laughing Boy by Oliver La sues in American education. "With a discussion programs that can be Farge, and Barrio Boy by Ernesto magazine format of scholarly con mailed both to libraries and to inde Gallaraza or And the Earth Did Not tent, humanistic approaches, as well pendently organized groups. Utah Part by Thomas Rivera. Other as high audience appeal, why not tie has also piloted to library-based pro themes contain only one or two ti it to Books Alive?" Oswald explains. gram similar to Vermont's. Both tles. The theme, The Sacred and the The programs can be reused by re Utah programs are complemented Secular, for example, features cording them on cassette tapes, by radio programs, "scholars on Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis. thereby literally bringing a scholar's tape," and a traveling chautauqua. The packages are more than a con voice to reading and discussion venience, according to Oswald. groups. UTAH "Nearly half of the groups that have At about the same time Books "In Utah, book clubs and reading used Books Alive reported that they Alive was introduced by the UEH, groups are common. Many have organized because the packages are Let's Talk about It (LTAI), a scholar- been in existence for ten years," says available." led, library-based reading/discussion 27 Roosevelt "the most American thing Chester, claims Anderson. "What about America." A typical program, was once called 'that expensive little sponsored by the Utah Library Asso hobby on Main Street' is now the ciation, contains "something for center of intellectual action." everyone" with a scholar-led reading Anderson is now director of the and discussion of a Willa Cather Vermont Reading Project and is short story, a viewing and discus introducing the program to libraries sion of the American Playhouse's all over the state. "We have towns "Bernice Bobs Her Hair" (produced as small as 600 that are pulling in with funds from the NEH media twenty participants. I recently trav program), a lecture on women's eled to a town which consisted of changing roles in the West, and a one street and that was not paved. performance by a woman assuming Yet, six or eight women attended the character of Willa Cather. the meeting, ready to choose a pro gram and sign up the required num VERMONT ber of people." Last year when the first "About Reading and discussion groups Books and People" program was are now strongly established in planned for Chester, Vermont, al Vermont, and the latest NEH fund most ten years after the first adult ing is being used to test twelve-week reading programs had tested the programs that will examine the topic water in that state, librarian Sally Individual Rights and Community in Anderson expected a modest America with readings from The Re turnout. But when more than fifty public, Coriolanus, Locke's Second people picked up the books, she Treatise, Rousseau's Social Contract, knew she had underestimated. The The Scarlet Letter, and Democarcy in program for adults was piloted in evening program opened to a America. Utah. Sponsored by the American standing-room-only crowd, which in "People want to confront serious Library Association, the pilot pro Chester was seventy-two people. issues," Anderson observes. Yet the gram targets rural areas outside the Librarians like Anderson still col discussions do not polarize the Wasatch Front, as well as under laborate with scholars from the local groups. Participants become close. served metropolitan areas. colleges and universities to plan the Friendships develop. People smile. The majority of Utah's programs. Anderson remembers "We live in a complex and often population—especially outside the "how nervous I was calling profes depressing world; the news from Wasatch Front—are members of the sors at Dartmouth, Middlebury, and out there is not always promising or Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter the University of Vermont. Some uplifting. These programs allow us Day Saints (Mormons). One of the how they seemed way up there and to think about what it means to be first acts of the Mormon pioneers little Chester way down here. Why human, to explore the issues of liv who settled the state in the would anyone drive more than one ing, and to begin to understand bet mid-nineteenth century was to es hundred miles to speak in our small ter our culture and ourselves." tablish public schools. Utah is town?" She found that scholars are — Susan Rasmussen Goodman ranked second in the nation in per in fact "gracious in sharing their centage of high school graduates; time and knowledge. They look for "Vermont Humanities Reading Project"/ The state spends 60 percent of its ward to participating in these Sally C. Anderson/Vermont Library As- budget on education. programs." sociation, Burlington!$210,000/1985- "Mormon church meetings em One of the programs, Myths in 87 Humanities Projects in Libraries phasize discussion as a forum for Marriage, critically examines the exchanging ideas. The women's or myth of "boy meets girl and they ganization sponsors a monthly pro live happily ever after." The partici gram dealing with secular literature pants read Pride and Prejudice by Jane and so it was felt a foundation for Austen, Age of Innocence by Edith LTAI already existed," says Helen Wharton, Tell Me a Riddle by Tillie Cox, director of the Utah Library As Olsen, The Summer before the Dark by sociation's project. Doris Lessing, Rabbit Run by John Another plan for reaching wider Updike, and Portrait of a Marriage by audience in Utah involves a travel Nigel Nicolson. ing program. The group meets every other In the summer of 1984, a traveling week over the twelve-week period. chautauqua complemented Books Scholars introduce the books, then Alive programming in about twenty lead the discussion. communities. The chautauqua The success of the program has idea—a liberal arts education for changed the status of the library in adults and families in an informal setting—was called by Teddy 28 he 573 love letters ex Chalk drawing of changed between Elizabeth Barrett Elizabeth Barrett and Browning by Robert Browning have Field Talfourd af ter a portrait ironicallyT become a very public rec done in Rome in ord of what was in 1845-46 a very 1859. private courtship and secret mar riage. The instant celebrity that de scended upon the Brownings once their secret was known has not abated in 120 years. They are lovers who belong to the public imagina tion, not just the literary world. Within their lifetimes, their great fame caused their Florentine home, the Casa Guidi, to become a kind of literary mecca. Michael Meredith, president of the Browning Society of London and professor of English and librarian at Eton College, has written, "Meeting the Brownings was a cherished memory for many British and American visitors to Flor Meeting the Brownings ence in the 1850s. Upon their mar riage the Brownings found them selves celebrities, and therefore a teacup, a cross, an inkwell, a shared interests and beliefs, and numerous accounts of meetings sur matchbox in the shape of a fish. By their work as leading and beloved vive to tease biographers with a ka presenting such items together with poets of their day. Southwestern leidoscope of impressions. Such the more famous manuscripts and College of Winfield, Kansas, hosted accounts—together with photo letters, the exhibition designers the event, which brought interna graphs, paintings, and draw made it possible to see the Brown tionally known scholars and the ings—are full of half-truths, simplifi ings as people, not just poets and most extensive collection of Brown cations, and distortions, for to meet legendary lovers from the rarified ing materials ever amassed for a the Brownings was not the same as heights of near-myth. single showing to a rural heartland to know the Brownings—and few Meredith, who wrote the text for town of 10,000 to 11,000 people. could claim that distinction." the exhibition catalogue, told the In the words of one of the visitors If few could really "know the Winfield Daily Courier at the time of to the exhibition and conference, Brownings," many at least know the exhibition, "There are numerous "The distance from Wimpole Street more about them as the result of an items that have never been seen in to Winfield was surprisingly short." NEH-funded conference and exhibi public before—the 'prompt' copy of Not only was the city founded in the tion held in Winfield, Kansas, last Browning's first play, Strafford, pre Victorian era and very conscious of spring, "Meeting the Brownings: sented at Covent Garden Theater, its origin, it is also the location of a Their Lives, Their Art, Their Age." London, in 1837; Browning's book of Rossetti society that has been active The exhibition contained 250 items John Donne, important because for decades. The main reason for including rare manuscripts, books, Browning was one of the few in the bringing the Brownings to Winfield, and first editions as well as ordinary nineteenth century who appreciated however, is that a large portion of objects from the Brownings' Donne's greatness; and Browning's the exhibition already resided there. homelife: Robert's christening gown, copy of Wanley's Wonders of the Little The project was the brainchild of World, published in London in 1678 Southwestern College's English pro and the source of the poet's Pied fessor Sandy Feinstein, who worked Piper. The book contains many mar in conjunction with Browning au ginal notes in Browning's handwrit thority and Winfield resident, Philip ing and even a poem by him." Kelley. From his introduction to The approaching centennial of Browning at the age of twelve, via Robert Browning's death (1989), and The Pied Piper of Hamelin, Kelley's an increased interest in Elizabeth love for the Brownings has made his Barrett Browning's poetry, (espe avocation his life. After a career as cially her 1857 poem, Aurora Leigh, editor, printer, and teacher in New with its autobiographical themes of York City and London, Kelley re Earliest known the intellectual and spiritual growth turned to his native state to devote photograph of of a literary woman), made last himself to Browning scholarship. Robert Browning spring's conference a timely new Kelley's Wedgestone Press in Win made in Paris in consideration of Robert and field is editing and publishing the 1856 and discov Elizabeth—their lives together, their Brownings' voluminous correspond ered in 1985. 29 ence: 12,000 letters to appear in sues involved in editorial interpreta January 10, 1845, that she received chronological order, an undertaking tion. Another aspect of the printing the letter that would change her life. that will fill forty volumes. process was offered through tours of "I love your verse with all my heart, Kelley's vast collection of Brown Wedgestone Press, where dear Miss Barrett," wrote the thirty- ing memorabilia formed the back conference-goers had the chance to three-year-old Robert Browning. "I bone of Southwestern's exhibition. see what happens to a manuscript as do, as I say, love these Books with The Armstrong Browning Library at it goes from the editor to the printer all my heart—and I love you too." Baylor University lent its collection, and publisher. At this point only Elizabeth was and by the time the exhibit was actu Early press coverage emphasized famous; her future husband had ally displayed, it included materials the public nature of the conference. grown from a precocious boy into a from forty different locations and Townspeople began to think of the struggling poet whose earliest works had grown too large to be shown in Browning collection as part of their met with critical failure. Not until one place. So it was divided be community, and even before wide 1841 did he begin to find his true tween the college and public spread news coverage, Feinstein re voice, with Bells and Pomegranates. In libraries—a circumstance that served ceived inquiries from the local Girl this collection, Browning was begin to emphasize the double appeal of Scouts, the Chamber of Commerce, ning to meld his important poetic the event for both scholars and the and the Stillwater, Oklahoma, themes with strong writing, and he general public. Browning Society. The conference won recognition from a few for this The conference included poetry presented the opportunity for the work, including a nod in verse from readings at the Winfield Public Li Winfield community to reexamine Elizabeth Barrett. brary, as well as the presentation of its own Victorian past. Plans grew to In an 1844 poem, "Lady papers at the college library. At the include guided tours of Spring Hill Geraldine's Courtship," Geraldine's first of the three public readings, Farm, a two-room farmhouse built lover reads to her: Feinstein led a discussion of Brown in 1872 and in continuous operation . . .at times a modern volume,— ing's use of the dramatic monologue since that time. The tours allowed Wordsworth's solemn-thoughted to portray the Renaissance world. conference visitors to experience idyl, Because the conference sought to "the slower paced era of the 1800s," Howitt's ballad-dew, or Tennyson's place the Brownings within their with such recreational activities as enchanted reverie, time and culture, the papers were horseshoes and picnics, boating and Or from Browning some 'Pomegran divided between discussions of the afternoon tea. ate,' which, if cut deep down the Brownings and their art, and of In short, Winfield became very middle, other Victorian writers and artists like London in 1845 when one of Shows a heart within blood-tinctured, such as members of the Pre- England's most famous poets re of a veined humanity! Raphaelite brotherhood. The exhibi clined on her invalid's couch at 50 tion, in fact, included Dante Gabriel Wimpole Street. Elizabeth Barrett— Browning's delight at this recogni Rossetti's painting, "Hist!—said Kate whose sonnets her contemporaries tion prompted him to write to the the Queen," based on Pippa Passes, a would call the finest love poems in retiring poet, and so he sent his fa work owned by Eton College. England—had achieved interna mous declaration, which began the In a special session, Sandra tional fame with the 1844 publication world's most private, public love Donaldson of the University of of her Poems. This collection grew story. North Dakota conducted a work out of her passionate interest in liter —Allyson F. McGill shop on editing. Donaldson, who is ature and was made possible by her currently coediting The Letters of illnesses: By her late thirties, con "Robert Browning and the Victorians: Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Isa fined to her room and cared for by An Exhibition of Correspondence, Schol Blagden, 1850-1861, explained the her family, Elizabeth was able to de arship, and Poetry” I Sandy Feinstein/ processes of reading handwriting, vote herself to her studies, poetry, Southwestern College, Winfield, KS/ checking references, and dating let and vast correspondence. It was on $37,166/1985-86/Humanities Projects in ters, and talked about the political is Libraries of Michael Meredith, Eton College
Bronze mould of Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning's clasped hands by Harriet Hossner, 1853. THE Humanities i l i n e ■c ■ III a r" f°r those who are V 111 I m J m thinking of applying I L m /or an /VFH grant
Public Programs in Libraries GRANTS DEADLINES PROPOSALS PROGRAMS Libraries have received support letters, while a Dickinson est, but also demonstrates judicious from the Endowment's Division of exhibition—open free to the public use of a library's collection and hu General Programs for projects in all from May 2 to June 30—featured man resources. A good example of fields of the humanities and for a manuscripts and other materials a library that has capitalized on the variety of approaches—reading and from Dickinson's life, as well as strength of its collection in a partic discussion groups, conferences, works by contemporary writers in ular subject and on local interest in and exhibitions—but successful ap spired by her work. that subject is the City Library of plicants have at least one thing in Libraries in relatively small or iso Springfield, Massachusetts. common. They propose projects lated communities can take advan The library's local history depart that are feasible within the context tage of NEH support to bring world- ment is presenting a one-year series of their libraries and their renowned scholars to their of lectures, exhibits, and publica communities. Many successful ap communities. The Durango Public tions examining the history of plicants propose projects that sim Library, for example, sponsored a Springfield and its impact on New ply make their libraries' existing col series of lectures by local and inter England in light of recent scholar lections more appealing and nationally known archaeologists ship by historians and anthropolo accessible to the public. speaking on the "new" archaeol gists. The series coincides with the A case in point is the Folger ogy. The library, in cooperation 350th anniversary of the founding of Shakespeare Library. In celebration with the Fort Lewis College Library, the town, and the library's program of the centennial of Emily capitalized on community interest is one of several celebratory efforts Dickinson's death, the Folger in archaeological finds in south taking place this year. opened its doors to the general western Colorado to familiarize the Panelists reviewing the proposal public in an NEH-funded confer local public with new developments commended both "the attempt to ence and exhibition, "Emily in professional archaeology. The place local history in the context of Dickinson: Letter to the World." program emphasized the essentials a wider historical process" and the During the two-day conference, of human existence, the basic mate use made of local resources and scholars from several countries pre rials of social life, and raised ques talent. Exhibitions draw on the li sented views of Dickinson's life and tions about social organization. brary’s collection of photographs In reviewing the proposal, and records of the town, while panelists applauded the program's many of the guest speakers are as emphasis on promoting under sociated with institutions in the standing of one of the disciplines of Springfield area, including the Uni the humanities. One librarian on versity of Massachusetts and the the panel also stressed the value of Connecticut Valley Historical a cooperative bibliography of their Museum. One panelist thought that outstanding holdings in Southwest the program would "allow the pub archaeology that the libraries plan lic to see how real historians deal to publish. with a community—their commu Several panelists commended the nity, in fact— and expose lay people cooperation between a public and a to the questions that the profession college library, while NEH staff asks and the methods that it uses to pointed out that the topic, which answer them. Thus, the project ful might not attract members of an fills two of the goals of the libraries other community, has strong appeal program, illuminating a series of to residents of the Durango area historical events and providing an because of the archaeological im awareness of the methods and in portance of the region. sights of one of the humanities The successful project proposal disciplines." not only demonstrates the fulfill To ensure the intellectual rigor of ment of a community need or inter a project—an important criterion by 31 FREE ADMISSION
Poster publicizing a lecture series and exhibition on the new archaeology at Durango Public Library in Colorado. Pottery in the exhibition was discovered near Durango. Durango Durango Public Library which NEH panelists weigh the mer Brown University, and Providence All projects funded by the Endow its of a proposal— librarians must in College. One panelist noted that ment's Division of General Pro volve scholars and others with ap "this program will demand a lot of grams should fuflill the legislative propriate credentials. Many the humanist scholars who will lec mandate to foster public under successful project proposals bring ture four to five times and prepare standing and appreciation of the together public librarians, academic an essay and bibliography. How humanities, yet even the most wor librarians, scholars, and members ever, the accompanying letters of thy program will not receive fund of a community. support show great interest in the ing if the proposal describing it is An outstanding example of program." not clear and concise. Applicants coordinated work among libraries, In addition to attracting the sup should avoid the use of jargon and scholars, and the community is port of scholars and other institu turgid prose. They should read the underway in Rhode Island. To an tions in their communities, program Guidelines and follow the Applica swer the question "Is there a Rhode sponsors must demonstrate in their tion Instructions. Island style?" the Rhode Island De proposals that they can attract Every division of the Endowment partment of State Library Services is strong public support as well. Pub funds projects in libraries. If in bringing members of the public and licity, of course, is a key factor in doubt about where to submit a pro humanities scholars together in bringing the public into libraries for posal, prospective applicants libraries across the state. Partici special programs. The successful should contact Thomas Phelps, Di pants include curators from the proposal includes a publicity plan vision of General Programs, Na Rhode Island Museum of Art, and that can be carried out by the li tional Endowment for the Humani the Clara Barton Birthplace brary's existing staff, or with the ties, 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, Museum, as well as scholars from help of additional staff included in N.W., Washington, D .C. 20506 202- the Rhode Island School of Design, the proposal. 786-0271. 32 RGAS GUIDE PROGRAMS direction of several excellent schol ars in subjects central to the humanities. Finally, public, high school, and college or university libraries could be involved in collaborative proj ects to strengthen the curriculum and improve the teaching of the hu manities in secondary school systems.
The Division of Fellowships and Seminars Although there is no direct sup port for libraries in this division, which provides the opportunity for individual scholars, working inde pendently or in collegial seminars, to pursue research and writing in the humanities, the grants made to individual researchers promote the use of library facilities.
The Division of General Programs The Humanities Projects in Libraries Program supports libraries in any of this division's three broad goals for public understanding of the humanities: the appreciation and interpretation of cultural works; the illumination of impor tant historical ideas, people, and events; and the understanding of characteristic approaches, findings, and problems in humanities disci plines. For a more detailed descrip tion of this program as well as ad vice for libraries seeking this kind of support, see pages 31-32 in this issue. The division also supports the Although only one program in the sion, to strengthen teaching and production of television and radio National Endowment for the Hu learning in the humanities. Colleges programs as well as interpretive ex manities explicitly names libraries in or universities that are undertaking hibitions. Many libraries have re its title (Humanities Projects in projects to improve the humanities ceived awards to create exhibitions Libraries in the Division of General curriculum, funded through the di interpreting their collections; many Programs), all five divisions of NEH vision's Central Disciplines in Un others have used NEH-supported as well as the Office of Preservation dergraduate Education Program, films in connection with lectures and the Office of Challenge Grants may request funds for necessary li and discussion programs. provide support of one kind or an brary acquisitions. They may also other for libraries. With the excep propose activities to enhance the The Division of Research Programs tion of challenge grants, which are cooperation between libraries and By supporting research and the the only grants that provide long- humanities departments or to pro development of research tools and range support for institutional de vide instruction in the use of the li resources, this division in a sense velopment, NEH programs fund brary's resources as an aspect of the helps supply libraries with the specific projects to enlarge oppor humanities course. books and reference works that are tunities for education, research, Well-staffed research libraries their raison d'etre. In the Texts Pro and public programming in all fields have received funds from the Exem gram, for example, the division of of the humanities. plary Projects in Undergraduate and fers publication subventions for sig Graduate Education Program to nificant works in the humanities Division of Education Programs conduct institutes that provide and grants for the translation of College and university libraries college and university teachers with such works from other languages frequently play important roles in the opportunity for eight to ten into English. projects, funded through this divi weeks of intensive study under the Several programs in the division 33 provide more direct support for hance collections, to renovate facili bibliographic control and preserva projects in archives and libraries. ties, to increase endowments or tion of U.S. newspapers. Through the Access category, the cash reserves (provided that funds By collecting, organizing, preserv division funds projects to increase are restricted to support programs, ing, and transmitting knowledge, the availability of important re personnel, or activities within the libraries are a crucial resource for search collections and other signifi humanities), and to catalogue, re learning in the humanities, and the cant sources for scholarly research. store, and conserve humanities National Endowment for the Hu Grants are made to organize and texts and materials. manities welcomes applications for describe collections or archives, to Challenge grants are made to pro support of humanities projects from develop catalogues or other biblio mote long-term growth and im these institutions. In addition the graphic controls, to survey records, prove financial stability of educa program staff of NEH welcome pre and to produce various kinds of tional and cultural institutions. liminary inquiries about funding finding aids. A crucial question con Because recipients of challenge and applications. Staff names and sidered when proposals for grants grants must raise three dollars in telephone numbers appear on in this area are evaluated is whether new or increased contributions pages 42^3. the material to be dealt with has na from nonfederal donors for each tional significance for scholarly re federal dollar, these grants provide search in the humanities. opportunities for institutions to ex The Reference Materials Program pand their bases of private and also supports the creation of re nonfederal public support. search tools, such as dictionaries, An award of $300,000, for exam encyclopedias, and atlases. On the ple, was made in December 1984 to NEH occasions when all the relevant ma Allen County Public Library in Fort terials for such reference works Wayne, Indiana, to help establish a have been contained in one library, $1.2 million endowment fund for Notes the library has been central to the the acquisition of books and jour direction of the project. nals in the humanities. Like ail chal and A university whose research li lenge grants, this award will help brary has outstanding holdings in the institution improve its capacity some special area in the humanities to conduct programs and activities News might wish to start a research cen of high quality in the humanities. ter. The Interpretive Research Pro gram of this division provides funds The Office of Preservation for certain start-up costs for such Research institutions engaged in centers. Finally, research libraries the fight against deteriorating re with fellowship programs may apply sources in the humanities will find for funds, which they in turn re help in the NEH Office of Preserva grant to individual research fellows, tion. The office emphasizes two The National Association of from the Centers for Advanced goals: to preserve first the intellec Government Communicators Study Program. tual content, and in some cases, the (NAGC) has awarded Humani materials themselves, of deteriorat ties the first-place Blue Pencil The Division of State Programs ing documents in the humanities Award in the category of gov Libraries are among the most fre and to enhance the capability of re ernment publications serving a quent recipients of funding from search institutions to provide for technical or professional audi the volunteer state humanities the long-term maintenance of their ence. The NAGC Blue Pencil councils, which, with support from collections. Competition, an annual contest the Division of State Programs, Some of the activities that these now in its twenty-fourth year, make grants for projects in the hu grants support have included the recognizes outstanding achieve manities in all fifty states, the Dis following: ment in government publica trict of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and • preservation microreproduction; tions. The winning issues of Hu the Virgin Islands. Library reading • regional cooperative programs, manities are numbers 4, 5, and and discussion programs, described including workshops to teach basic 6 in Volume 6 (1985). on pages 25-28 of this issue, are be preservation methods, disaster pre Judges determined prize ing conducted in nearly every state. paredness planning, information winners in this particular cate In addition, libraries have received dissemination, preservation condi gory to be "clear, precise, and funds for traveling exhibitions, film tion surveys; accurate publications" that were discussions, and lecture series. • training of staff in research "well edited and clearly written" libraries and archives in preserva and that made "skillful and im The Office of Challenge Grants tion techniques; aginative use of artwork." Libraries of all kinds—public, in • the development and testing of This is the second NAGC dependent, and college or products and processes necessary award for Humanities; the first, university—have been notably suc for preservation; an honorable mention, was cessful applicants for challenge • participation in the U.S. Newspa awarded in 1980, the first year grants and have used them to en per Program, a nationwide effort for of publication. 34 RGAS RPSL DALNS RNS GUIDE GRANTS DEADLINES PROPOSALS PROGRAMS In Humanities, the bimonthly review of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the space that other magazines fill with ads is devoted to more of the writing by distinguished scholars and educators that won Humanities a national award for "excel lence in educational journalism."
You'll find writers like: John Canaday on art as the essential historian William H. McNeill on the global repercussions of Columbus's discovery Gregory Rabassa on the power of language Wayne C. Booth on literary criticism Diane Ravitch on American education Robert Penn Warren on his association with This is the Cleanth Brooks only We're glad that federal regulations prevent us from advertisement selling ads. That gives us more room to tell you about current research, education, public program you'll find in ming, and funding opportunities in all fields of the humanities. But federal regulations also require us this to sell Humanities. For only $14, you will receive a year's subscription—6 issues of a magazine packed magazine. with ideas, with reports on NEH activities, with a special section for those who are thinking of ap plying for an NEH grant. Every issue contains a complete listing of NEH grants by discipline • cur rent application deadlines • staff names and tele phone numbers • regular features on exemplary projects AND NO ADS! Well, just one. Humanities
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Please make checks and money orders payable to Superintendent of Documents Mail to Humanities, Office of Public Affairs, National Endowment for the Humanities, Washington, D.C. 20506. Cheney Appointed NEH Chairman Lynne V. Cheney has recently been appointed Chairman for National Endowment for the Humanities. Cheney, who joins the Endowment after serving as a senior editor of Washingtonian magazine is a native of Wyoming and graduated from Natrona County High School in Casper in 1959. A member of Phi Beta Kappa, she earned her bache lor's degree with highest honors from Colorado College and her master's degree from the University of Colorado in 1964. She received her Ph.D. in nineteenth-century British literature from the University of Wisconsin in 1970. She has taught at the University of Wyoming, George Washington University, Northern Virginia Com munity College, and the University of Wisconsin and is a member of the Commission on the Bicenten nial of the United States Constitution. Cheney is the author of two nov els, Executive Privilege (Simon and Schuster, 1979), and Sisters (New American Library, 1981). She is co author, with her husband, Repre sentative Richard Cheney (R-WY), of Nearing the end of her research, a Kings of the Hill (Continuum, 1983), scholar in medieval French litera since the program's inception, has a history of the U.S. House of Rep ture, who is finishing a book on il been increased to $750 because of resentatives. She has also published lumination in medieval manu increases in travel-related costs. many articles on American history, scripts, learns that a library in For areas where travel presents literature, culture, and politics France contains an important manu special difficulties, applicants will which have appeared in such publi script. If she can examine the origi be required to obtain appropriate cations as American Heritage and nal, the scholar may find eccentrici guarantees of access to the collec Smithsonian magazines as well as ties in calligraphy that will provide tion, in addition to the Availability The Washingtonian and has worked new information about manuscript of Collection form already required. as a researcher/writer on the public production or further information Average projected costs of travel television program "Inside about a particular monastery where for applications received in 1985 Washington." manuscripts were produced. Al tended to be about $1,400, with a though the scholar's university can range of $500 to $3,500. Rather than provide travel funds, these do not covering the full expenses of travel, fully cover the costs of a four-day the NEH stipend is intended to sup research trip to Paris. Supplemen plement an existing travel budget or tary assistance is now available from to help leverage additional support NEH for such travel, not only to from other sources. Moreover, ac Europe but to any other destination cording to Cary Messinger, pro worldwide. gram officer for Travel to Collec The Travel to Collections Pro tions, "this additional support is gram, which was established in 1983 often easier to obtain if an applica to provide small grants for travel to tion has been successful in the En research collections in North dowment's rigorous peer review America and Western Europe, has process." been broadened recently to include The program will continue to of support for research travel any fer two application deadlines each where in the world. The flat $500 year: July 15 (changed from Sep stipend, which has been offered tember and January 15. Lynne V. Cheney 36 RECENT NEH GRANT AWARDS
Some of the items in this list are offers, not final awards.
Archaeology & FM. To conduct a two-day symposium on plan a meeting to coordinate a replacement rare Japanese wartime films and the develop of Moulton and Milligan's Vocabulary of the Anthropology ment of a program guide with an essay on Creek Testament, to determine further each film screened during a concurrent film Greek lexicographical projects for the New Durango Public Library, C O ; D aniel P. series. GP Testament period, and to assess the use of Brassell: $17,400. To conduct a series of pub National Committee for the History of Art, computer technology. RX lic lectures on the new archaeology. Glossa Inc., Princeton, NJ; Irving Lavin: $10,000 OR; Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY; ries and bibliographies of archaeological re $25,000 FM. To plan the 26th International Thomas S. W. Lewis: $88,371. To conduct a sources in the Durango Public Library and Congress for the History of Art, which is four-week summer institute for 30 secondary the Fort Lewis College Library will be pre meeting for one week in Washington, D C in school teachers from the New England and pared to complement the lectures. CL August 1986. RX Middle Atlantic areas who will study Greek Folktale Film Group, Delaplane, VA; Tom SUNY Research Foundation/Albany, NY; civilization of the fifth and fourth centuries Davenport: $115,000. To produce one Anne F. Roberts: $73,919. To plan a collabo B.C. ES 30-minute live-action dramatic adaptation of rative effort between SUNY Albany and local U. of Idaho, Moscow; Cecelia A. Luschnig: the Appalachian trickster tale, "Soldier Jack." libraries to examine the artistic and cultural $15,000. To develop a collaborative relation The program, accompanied by a short re significance of synagogues and churches in ship between the University of Idaho and the source guide, is intended for young people, Albany. Exhibitions, bibliographies, and state school system on the subject of the an ages 8 to 18, and their families. GN guides to the churches will be developed cient world. ES Harvard U., Cambridge, MA; Jane Ayer and disseminated through the libraries. CL Scott: $2,170. To publish a monograph that San Francisco Symphony, C A ; Peter describes the contents and architecture of Pastreich: $24,700 FM. To expand an existing History—Non-U.S. the row of Byzantine shops unearthed at the series of lectures and preconcert programs Turkish site of Sardis. RP and to plan a new series of programs de Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, IL; U. Press of New England, Hanover, NH; signed for the symphony's Mozart and Arthur Voobus: $30,000. To prepare research Thomas L. McFarland: $5,377. To publish a Beethoven festivals. GP tools and reference works on manuscript compilation of folklore tales and traditions Spelman College, Atlanta, GA; Rebecca T. sources for the history of the culture of the from four native American tribes of southern Cureau: $10,000. To conduct a conference Syrian Orient. RT New England, which range from the 17th on the history of the relationship between Newberry Library, Chicago, IL; David J. century to the present. RP historically black colleges and community- Buisseret: $257,074. To conduct two four- U. of Florida, Gainesville; Barbara A. Purdy: based culture, with a special focus on Willis week summer institutes and related activities $10,000 OR; $2,961 FM. To conduct a re James, a musicologist and folklorist at for 30 college and university faculty members search conference on wet-site archaeology, Spelman College. RX of the reciprocal effects of the contact be at which an international group of archaeolo Unicorn Projects, Inc., Washington, D C; Ray tween American and European civilizations gists will discuss significant new evidence A. Hubbard: $500,000 O R; $400,000 FM. To during the 15th and 16th centuries. EH about diet, technologies, art, and environ produce a 60-minute television film based on New York U., N YC; Warren Dean: $130,248. mental adaptation contained by excavations David Macaulay's book Pyramid, which tells To conduct a four-week institute with exten in waterlogged deposits. RX the story of how and why pyramids were sive follow-up activities on Latin American U. of Nebraska, Lincoln; Paul A. Olson: built, starting with the Old Kingdom's Fourth history and culture for 60 fifth-grade New $10,000. To conduct a conference to examine Dynasty in Egypt. The film will be the third in York City area teachers. ES the interaction between Plains Indian and a series based on Macaulay's books. GN Princeton U. Press, NJ; Margaret Case: Euro-American cultures, in comparison with U. of Chicago, IL; Penelope J. Kaiserlian: $7,000. To publish a book that examines the other semiarid regions. RX $6,700. To publish an edition in modern no roots of agrarian rebellion in Mexico to de tation of the four volumes of motets printed termine why a peasant-led revolution was by Andrea Antico in Venice in the early 16th successful in 1910 but unsuccessful a century Arts—History and century. RP earlier. RP U. of Illinois, Urbana; Michael A. Mullin: Princeton U. Press, NJ; Margaret Case: Criticism $26,878. To plan programs and an interpre $4,275. To publish a comparative analysis of tive exhibition drawn from library collections the act of state formation on the political or on stage designers as interpreters of dra ganization and social structure of rural Arena Stage, Washington, DC; David matic literature. Set and costume designs by Tunisia and Libya. RP Copelin: $75,000. To conduct postperform a group of designers will be the focal point Princeton U. Press, NJ; Margaret Case: ance symposia, program essays, and commu of the exhibition and programs. G L $4,000. To publish a study of the changing nity events providing critical and historical WGBH Educational Foundation, Boston, MA; composition of Barcelona's ruling class from background for the theater's offerings. CP Judith Wechsler: $175,000. To produce one the 16th to the 18th century. RP Connie Goldman Productions, Inc., W ash 30-minute television program and to write Princeton U. Press, NJ; Margaret Case: ington, D C ; Connie J. Goldman: $26,251. To the script for one additional program in a $5,075. To publish a biography of Mustafa write four 30-minutes radio scripts that ex proposed 13-part series on painting and the Ali, a Muslim bureaucrat and historian whose plore the late-life creations and styles of a world of the painter from the Renaissance to writings provide information on and insight number of classical and jazz composers. GN the present. GN into late 16th-century Ottoman history. RP Indianapolis Museum of Art;, IN; Helen, Syracuse U., NY; James M. Powell: $8,000 ' Ferrulli: $15,000. To plan a series of OR; $6,000 FM. To conduct an international noncredit courses exploring contemporary Classics conference relating Leopold von Ranke's culture as manifested in the architecture and philosophical ideas and his notion of history interior design of the American home. CP Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ; as a calculable set of general laws to the de Japan Society, Inc., N YC; Peter Grilli: $30,000 Donald F. M cCabe: $7,500 O R; $8,000 FM. To velopment of 19th-century intellectual his 37 tory and to the development of history as a Frances Perkins Film Project, Inc., N YC; Rob experience of General Joseph Stilwell discipline. RX ert A. Potts: $192,817. To produce a (1883-1946) in China. GN U. of Chicago, IL; Keith M. Baker: $25,000 60-minute documentary film on the life and American Council of Learned Societies, FM. To conduct an international conference work of Frances Perkins, Secretary of Labor NCY; Frederick Burkhardt: $100,000 OR; to investigate the nature of French political (1933-45) and the first woman to be a mem $40,000 FM. To plan the edition of the corre culture under the ancien regime and the ber of the president's cabinet. GN spondence of Charles Darwin. RE processes by which revolutionary attitudes, Made in U.S.A. Development Corporation, American Council of Learned Societies, fomented during an absolute monarchy, led NYC; Elsa Rassbach: $20,000. To revise a NYC; Christina M. Gillis: $50,000 OR; to the French Revolution. RX script for a 90- to 120-minute drama examin $1,865,000 FM. To continue fellowships of 6 U. of Hawaii, Honolulu; Edward J. Shultz: ing events at America's first large-scale indus or 12 months' duration for scholars engaging $19,715. To plan a 60-minute documentary trial enterprise, the textile mills at Lowell, in postdoctoral research in the humanities. that will examine the cultural traditions of Massachusetts, during the years 1837-46. GN RR Korea's Silla Kingdom (second century—A.D. New England Institute for Human Resources, American Council of Learned Societies, 935) and introduce viewers to the work that Bangor, ME; Mary S. Lampson: $65,000. To N YC; Thomas Noble: $85,000 O R; $720,000 archaeologists and historians have done on write a script for a 60-minute documentary FM. To continue fellowships of 6 or 12 this subject during the last 20 years. GN about the history of young people in the months' duration for beginning scholars U. of Kansas, Lawrence; James W. Woelfel: work force in 19th- and 20th-century America whose doctoral degrees have been conferred $120,000. To improve the Western civilization for high school audiences. GN within the three years preceding the award. program by involving senior faculty mem Ohio U., Athens; Gary A. Hunt: $15,000. To RR bers, revising the program's readings, plan exhibitions with an interpretive cata American Council of Learned Societies, purchasing additional audiovisual resources, logue and symposium on the history of edu N YC; Thomas Noble: $10,000 O R; $415,000 and training teaching assistants. EK cation in the old Northwest. Activities would FM. To conduct a program of grants-in-aid of U. of New Mexico, Albuquerque; Elizabeth coincide with the bicentennial of the North up to $3,000 for postdoctoral research in the C. Hadas: $2,400 FM. To publish the first west Ordinance. GL humanities. RR translation into English of an early 17th- Past America, Inc., Miami, FL; R. Shepherd Asia Society, Inc., NCY; Marshall M. Bouton: century account of life in Brazil. RP Morgan: $525,000 O R; $215,000 FM. To pro $100,000 O R; $50,000 FM. To develop a new U. of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill; duce "John Punch and the Servants of Colo series of public lectures, short evening Lewis A. Bateman: $5,000 O R; $1,250 FM. To nial Virginia," a 90-minute drama which is the courses, educational workshops, and guides publish the third volume in a comprehensive fourth program in the series "A House Di devoted to Asian cultures. CP history of the Roman Catholic Church in vided, A History of Slavery in America." The Athens State College, AL; Mildred W. Cau Ireland in the 19th century. RP program examines the origins of slavery in dle: $44,487. To improve two sequential hu U. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; Thomas M. Virginia through the case of John Punch. GN manities courses through faculty develop Rotell: $4,000. To publish a history of the Springfield City Library, MA; Joseph ment activities, the purchase of library and Merced Order, which was founded in the Carvalho III: $30,330. To plan six lectures, audiovisual materials, and cultural enrich 13th century to ransom Christians held cap four exhibitions, and a publication that will ment programs and students. EK tive in Spain and North Africa. RP reexamine the history of Springfield and its Babson College, Wellesley, MA; Albert A. U. of Pittsburgh, PA; Catherine Marshall: role in New England to be held in conjunc Anderson: $76,411. To plan and develop 15 $10,000. To publish a translation of the Italian tion with the 350th anniversary of the city. GL courses to integrate the humanities with work that analyzes the descriptions of the U. of Georgia Press, Athens; Karen K. Or courses in the social sciences and business. New World recorded by the earliest Spanish chard: $4,045. To publish an analysis of the Faculty will participate in workshops on the navigators and explorers. RP impact of the Civil War on leadership pat teaching of speaking and writing in content Yale U ., New Haven, CT; David E. terns in the 19th-century South. RP courses in the humanities. EK Underdown: $105,000 OR; $40,000 FM. To U. of Mississippi, University; Charles W. Ea Beaver College, Glenside, PA; Elaine P. prepare the edition of all surviving sources gles: $7,500. To plan a conference in which Maimon: $127,846. To conduct a series of on the Parliaments of 1625 and 1626. RE scholars will examine the historical back summer institutes and follow-up activities ground and causes, growth and develop over the course of 20 months to improve hu ment, and accomplishments of the civil manities instruction in 12 suburban and rural History—U.S. rights movement. RX school districts. Beaver College faculty will U. of Nebraska, Lincoln; Paul W. Wilderson: guide teachers in exploring the teacher's role Arkansas Resource Center, Little Rock; $10,000. To publish the first volume of text in through the study of seminal texts. ES Kenneth R. Hubbell: $68,744 OR; $12,500 a new edition of the Journals of the Lewis Bethany College, West Virginia; William FM. To create a traveling exhibition and a and Clark Expedition. RP Daniel Cobb: $100,000. To plan a compre comprehensive series of public programs on U. of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill; hensive curricular reform program in the hu the roles played by blacks in Arkansas from Lewis A. Bateman: $5,000. To publish an eco manities through course development work the earliest settlement until the state's ses- nomic and social history of the Chesapeake shops, faculty research activities, a visiting quicentennial in 1986. CP region in the 17th and 18th centuries. RP scholars program, and the acquisition of li Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY; U. of Oklahoma, Norman; John N. Drayton: brary materials. EM Mark H. Lytle: $112,780. To conduct a four- $10,000. To publish an atlas that portrays the CUNY Research Foundation/Queens week institute and follow-up activities for 30 history of the Indian in the Great Lakes re C o lle ge, NYC; David Cohen: $63,320. To high school social studies teachers from gion of the United States and Canada from conduct programs that will further the un around the country on the social, diplomatic, 1600 to the 1870s, when treaty making ended derstanding and appreciation of the and economic history of the United States in between the tribes and the United States. RP multiethnic cultures in Queens and Nassau the period 1929 to 1945, using the Franklin D. U. of South Carolina, C o lu m b ia; David R. County, New York. Book and film discussion Roosevelt Library for primary research. ES Chesnutt: $120,000 O R; $5,000 FM. To pre programs will be held in 36 branch libraries. CUNY Research Foundation/La Guardia Com pare the edition of the papers of Henry GL munity College, Long Island, NY; Richard K. Laurens, the 18th-century statesman from Carleton College, Northfield, MN; Perry C. Lieberman: $50,860. To write scripts for a South Carolina. RE Mason: $103,804. To plan faculty and curricu series of eight 30-minute radio programs ex W G BY-TV, Springfield, MA; Robert B. lar development for an arts and sciences amining and recreating the years 1934-46 to Toplin: $70,000. To write a script for a seminar program in the humanities through the Fiorella H. LaGuardia mayoralty in New 90-minute drama about Lincoln and Fort the use of released time, summer stipends York City. GN Sumter, the pilot program in a six-part series for faculty members, and consultants. EL Crossways, Inc., Washington, DC; Candyce about presidential decision making in times Catawba College, Salisbury, N C ; Bruce F. Martin: $135,000. To write a script for three of crisis. GN Griffith: $120,000 O R; $75,000 FM To develop 60-minute dramatic programs about the Wesleyan U. Press, Middletown, CT; required freshman and junior courses in the Sager family who emigrated and settled in Jeannette E. Hopkins: $5,337. To publish a humanities through curriculum development the Pacific Northwest between 1844 and 1848. study of the legal status and treatment of the and new faculty positions in history, Spanish, GN native American in colonial Massachusetts. and the classics. EM East Tennessee Historical Society, Knoxville; RP Catholic U. of America, Washington, DC; Charles F. Bryan, Jr.: $80,000. To conduct Ingrid G. Merkel: $99,667. To develop two reading and discussion groups at senior citi core sequences in the humanities for the zens' centers in 15 counties in eastern Interdisciplinary university's honors program by providing Tennessee. Participants will read selected summer stipends for course preparation and books on recent American history and will American Asian Cultural Exchange, W ashing development as well as released time for the hear lectures by scholars from the University ton, DC; Shirley Sun: $25,000. To write a initial teaching of the courses. EK of Tennessee and from the ETHS staff. GP script for a 90-minute documentary on the Central Michigan U., Mt. Pleasant; Benjamin 38 F. Taggie: $287,632. To improve and update D C; Mary B. Bullock: $162,500. To continue eral education humanities curriculum the academic preparation of 100 secondary the scholarly exchanges and related activities through the development of a new required school teachers in selected Michigan school in the humanities involving the People's Re introductory course and the enhancement of districts through integrated tracks of gradu public of China. Rl existing courses. EM ate courses in the humanities, workshops in New England Conservatory of Music, Boston, Unicorn Projects, Inc., Washington, D.C.; the schools, faculty symposia, and summer MA; Bruce McPherson: $182,780. To develop Larry Klein: $19,967. To plan a feature-length institutes. ES and implement a new core curriculum by dramatic film drawn from James Agee's ac Cooper Union for the Advancement of Sci providing salaries for three faculty members count of his trip through Alabama with ence & Art, NYC; Michael C. Sundell: and fees for consultants. EM photojournalist Walker Evans in 1936. GN $106,542. To plan faculty and curricular de Post Office Project, S par ki 11, NY; U. of North Carolina, Charlotte; Stanley R. velopment to make the required courses in Christopher Lukas: $35,000. To write a script, Patten: $131,965. To plan faculty and curricu literature and history more coherent, and to which will include dramatizations of two lar development activities related to the revi design a series of new required senior semi fictionalized memoirs, for a 60-minute docu sion of seven introductory courses in Eng nars. EM mentary film on the late poet Charles Olson lish, history, religious studies, and Cornell U. Medical College, NYC; Valerie (1910-70), a leader of the Black Mountain philosophy by providing release time, sum Mike: $48,000. To conduct research by a School of poets. GN mer stipends for faculty, and consultants. EK biostatistician to assess the contribution that Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY; Washington U., St. Lo u is, M O ; Linda B. statistics can make to the clarification of David H. Porush: $200,186. To plan faculty Salamon: $227,774. To create a minor values and ethical issues associated with the and curricular development for an introduc concentrating on significant humanities texts uncertainty underlying decision making in tory interdisciplinary course for freshmen by for preprofessional students by providing the biomedical sciences and technology. RH providing summer stipends and released faculty released time and summer study, sti Cuesta College, San Luis Obispo, CA; Daniel time. EK pends for advisers, and the initial costs of J. Canney: $5,550. To plan a two-semester, Social Science Research Council, N Y C ; coordinating the courses for the minor. EM interdisciplinary humanities course. EK Kenneth Prewitt: $300,000 OR; $1,810,000 Ellensburg Public Library, WA; Alice Yee: FM. To continue the International Research $48,770. To examine native American history Program of the American Council of Learned Jurisprudence and culture as witnessed by a 100-year-old Societies and the Social Science Research native American. A videotape, an exhibition, Council, consisting of the planning and re American Academy of Judicial Education, lectures by scholars, a bibliography, and dis search activities of 11 joint area-studies com Washington, D C ; Douglas Lanford: $14,888. cussion meetings are planned. CL mittees and a program of research awards. Rl To plan a six-month program of seminars for Fisk U ., Nashville, TN; Jessie C. Smith: Sonoma County Library, Santa Rosa, CA; state court judges on the role of the humani $157,724. to conduct three public seminars, Linda M. Haering: $14,375. To plan programs ties in the process of judicial decision each followed by a series of programs, on to be undertaken by the Sonoma County Li making. GB Martin Luther King, Jr., and the civil rights brary, Santa Rosa College., and Sonoma State Webster U., St. Louis, MO; Fred Stopsky: movement. The focus will be on cultural ex University on the theme, Sonoma Genera $126,664. To conduct a three-week institute pressions of the civil rights era, literature tions: Utopian, Familial, and Literary-Artistic. with extensive follow-up activities on juris from the movement and King's writings, and CL prudence for 30 St. Louis middle-school prin its historical context, 1954-74. CL South Puget Sound Community College, cipals. ES Harvard U., Cambridge, MA; Nathan Clazer: Olympia, WA; Jaime O'Neill: $14,730. To $35,000. To plan a conference exploring cul conduct long-range planning for an im tural relations between the United States and proved humanities curriculum in an institu Language & Linguistics the Republic of India. CP tion that was formerly a technical college by Hope College, Holland, Ml; John D. Cox: providing consultant assistance and either re Language Project, NYC; Gene Searchinger: $58,200 O R; $12,800 FM. To develop paired leased time or stipends for faculty partici $70,000. To write scripts for two 60-minute courses in the humanities, designed to pro pants. EK programs and develop two outlines for a mote better integration within the curricu SUNY Research Foundation/Albany, NY; four-part series about language: what it is, lum, by means of a series of faculty develop Kathryn Gibson: $84,394. To conduct a series how it works, and how it defines our species, ment workshops and topical symposia. EM of programs that will examine 20th-century based on recent developments in the field of Independent Broadcasting Associates, Inc., black literature by employing in-theater talks linguistics. GN Littleton, MA; Julian C. Hollick: $149,256 based on the production of a new play by Linguistic Society of America, Washington, OR; $37,000 FM. To produce a 10-part series Toni Morrison, lectures in public libraries, DC; D. Terence Langendoen: $70,000 OR; of 29-minute radio documentaries on Indian and scholar-led reading and discussion $30,000 FM. To conduct a comprehensive, culture and society, 10 shorter modular ex groups. GL two-year project designed to clarify and tracts from the full series for "All Things Con SUNY Research Foundation/Albany, NY; strengthen the role of linguistics in the un sidered" and "Morning Edition," and a Phyllis Bader-Borel: $140,000 OR; $34,950 dergraduate curriculum. EH 24-page study-listener guide to accompany FM. To plan faculty and curricular develop Michigan Technological U., H ough ton ; the series. GN ment activities for a course to be given at Sandra M. Boschetto: $4,216. To use a Institute for the Study of Human Issues, nine community colleges on the relation consultant to evaluate the undergraduate for Philadelphia, PA; David A. Feingold: ships between the humanities and technol eign language program and to recommend $429,906. To produce a three-film series for ogy. EK ways of making foreign language offerings a television depicting the development of Susquehanna U., Selinsgrove, PA; Hans E. greater part of the undergraduate general ed Asian art and culture as presented by a major Feldman: $134,672. To develop the universi ucation curriculum. EL Thai intellectual, artist, and scholar, Kukrit ty's core curriculum by creating seven new Modern Language Association of America, Pramoj. CN courses, a new tenure-track position in for N YC; Richard I. Brod: $9,965. To conduct a Manhattan College, Riverdale, NY; Albert J. eign languages, and a summer workshop for conference on graduate education and train Hamilton: $92,516. To develop a unified four- faculty members and by using consultants ing in foreign languages, literature, and lin year core curriculum in the School of Arts and visiting speakers. EM guistics. EH and Sciences through the use of workshops Tacoma Community College, WA; Carolyn A. U. of California, Berkeley; Leanne L. Hinton: to enable faculty to study primary texts from Simonson: $127,221. To develop new degree $8,902. To conduct a three-day conference various disciplines and to incorporate these requirements and three new courses to cre on the nature, extent, and genesis of sound materials in their courses. EM ate a more coherent and rigorous humanities symbolism and to study the relationship be Milwaukee Public Library, W l; Kathleen M. curriculum at the college. EM tween sound and meaning in language and Rabb: $14,982. To plan a series of pilot pro Temple U., Philadelphia, PA; David M. its place in linguistic theory. Proceedings will grams about the exploration, discovery, and Bartlett: $4,389. To publish a study of the provide an important reference for research expansion of the American frontier. Lectures, aged in Boston from 1890 to 1950 that exam ers and students. RX reading and discussion groups, and an exhi ines the effects of industrialization, the New U. of the Pacific, Stockton, CA; Francis M. bition of maps and photographs will be Deal, and Social Security on that segment of Sharp: $3,416. To use a consultant to aid the planned and tested. GL the population. RP Department of Modern Languages and Liter Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA; Texas A&M U., College Station; Herman J. ature in a review of its curriculum. EL Margaret L. Switten: $218,256. To develop Saatkamp, Jr.: $100,000 O R; $10,000 FM. To Westminster College, New Wilmington, PA; curricular materials on the literary and prepare three volumes in the edition of the Nancy B. Mandlove: $115,132. To restructure musicological aspects of the medieval lyric works of the American philosopher George the curriculum in foreign-language literature and a six-week institute for 25 college and Santayana. RE and culture through faculty and curricular university teachers. EH Texas Lutheran College, Seguin; Philip N. development centering on two new core National Academy of Sciences, Washington, Gilbertson: $90,083. To strengthen the gen courses, Concepts in Language and Con 39 cepts in Culture. EL William Austin: $199,836. To conduct illustrated with photographs taken by scholar-led reading and discussion programs London. RP in 70 Louisiana parish libraries. Titles of some U. of California, Santa Barbara; Elizabeth H. Literature programs are: Reading in American Themes, Witherell: $160,000 OR; $12,000 FM. To pre The Southern Eye, Nobel Authors, Women's pare the edition of the writings of Henry D. Arizona State U., Tem pe; Kristin B. Voices, and In a British Manner. CL Thoreau. RE Valentine: $182,000. To conduct a series of Louisiana State U., Baton Rouge; Beverly U. of Georgia Press, Athens; Karen K. Or programs that engage the public in discus Jarrett: $3,260. To publish a biographical chard: $2,860. To publish the last volume in a sions of the body of fiction about the west study and critical analysis of the American three-volume work that explores the fiction ern United States, such as as the works of poet Wallace Stevens. RP of Herman Melville. RP Wallace Stegner, Leslie Marmon Silko, Louisiana State U., Baton Rouge; Lewis P. U. of Illinois, Urbana; Marvin A. Lewis: Edward Abbey, Alberto Rios, and others. For Simpson: $8,500 O R; $7,016 FM. To conduct $10,000. To conduct a research conference mats include a readers' theater, reading and a literary conference, similar to and com on Zora Neale Hurston to consider the im discussion, workshops, and essays. CL memorative of the one that heralded the cre portance of her work in fiction, folklore, an Cornell U., Ithaca, NY; Bernhard Kendler: ation of the "Southern Review" 50 years be thropology, and in the development of Afro- $4,500. To publish one volume in the com fore, which will consider the dual subject of American literature. RX plete edition of W.B. Yeats's surviving manu southern letters and modern literature. RX U. of Kentucky Research Foundation, scripts of poems, plays, and selected prose. Magus, Inc., Silver Spring, MD; Charles Lexington; Gurney M. Norman: $111,957. To RP Sessoms: $60,000. To write scripts for a two- conduct an institute with a four-week sum Cultural Uplink Productions, NYC; Anthony part, two-hour series on contemporary mer component and extensive follow-up ac D. Korner: $20,000. To write a script for a American black history as seen by black writ tivities for 35 junior high school teachers 60-minute documentary on author ers from World War II to 1968, including from eastern Kentucky school districts on Christopher Isherwood, largely devoted to James Baldwin, Amiri Baraka, John Oliver texts in Appalachian and classic literature. ES interviews with him and prefaced by an intro Killens, John A. Williams, Gwendolyn U. of Massachusetts, A m herst; Richard J. ductory segment tracing his literary career. Brooks, Paule Marshall, Toni Morrison, and Martin: $8,874. To publish an examination of CN others. GN English Renaissance literature that relates to Duke U ., Durham, NC; Marcel Tetel: Mercer U., Macon, GA; JoAnna M. Watson: rehetoric and fiction. RP $129,361. To conduct a six-week institute for $10,705. To adapt a great books program as a U. of Massachusetts, Amherst; Bruce G. 25 college and university teachers on the lit required component of Mercer University's Wilcox: $4,630. To publish an analysis of erary and historical contexts of the essays of established degree program at Central Cor Milton's "Paradise Lost" that contrasts the Michel de Montaigne. EH rectional Institution. EC pre- and postlapsarian pedagogy and poetics East Texas State U., Commerce; Dorothy New York Center for Visual History, N Y C ; of the book. RP Hawthorne: $93,122. To conduct reading and Lawrence Pitkethly: $350,000 OR; $75,000 U. of Mississippi, University; William R. discussion programs in 50 Texas libraries FM. To produce one film on Langston Ferris: $61,162. To write a script for a based on representative works portraying the Hughes as part of a 13-part series for PBS on 90-minute dramatic film of William Faulkner's people, history, and regions of the state. The the world and work of American poets. GN novel As I Lay Dying. CN project will coincide with the sesquicenten- New York Public Library, NYC; Diantha D. U. of Nebraska, Lincoln; Willis G. Regier: nial of the Republic of Texas. CL Schull: $52,000. To conduct a series of pro $5,800. To publish a translation with com English Literary Life Project, Pasadena, CA; grams on themes in Spanish culture and liter mentary and annotation of Jacques Derrida's Gary Conklin: $19,975. To plan a television ature at the Central Research Library, the Clas, a book that simultaneously discusses film about English literary life from the end Donnell Library, and three branch libraries. Hegel's philosphy and Jean Genet's fiction of World War I to the Suez crisis of 1956, fo The programs will coincide with "Treasures and shows how two such seemingly distinct cusing on English writers born in the early from the National Libraries of Spain," an ex kinds of criticism can reflect and affect a 20th century, the influence of their shared hibition at Gottesman Hall in the Central Re reading of the other. RP background and education, and the political search Library. CL U. of Vermont, Burlington; Ralph H. Orth: and economic climate of the time. GN Princeton U. Press, NJ; Margaret Case: $55,000 O R; $3,000 FM. To plan an edition of Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, $4,170. To publish a collection of essays on Ralph Waldo Emerson's journals and note D C ; Katharine E. Zadravec: $84,188. To con Chinese lyric verse from the 2nd to the 10th books. RE duct a public conference and an exhibition century. RP about Emily Dickinson, her life and work. Public Communication Foundation for N. The exhibition will include manuscripts, let Texas, Dallas; Patricia P. Perini: $312,000 OR; Philosophy ters, monographs, and artifacts from the col $75,000 FM. To produce a 60-minute televi lections at Amherst. The conference sessions sion program on the early life and work of Columbia U. Press, NYC; Maureen L. will explore the significance of Dickinson's Katherine Anne Porter, featuring a dramatiza MacGrogan: $5,841. To publish a discussion contributions to American letters. CL tion of "The Grave" and excerpts from "The of critical social theory from Hegel's critique Friends of the Monroe County Library, Key Witness" and "The Circus," relating these of natural right theories through the work of West, FL; Lynn M. Kaufelt: $59,880 OR; stories of her Texas childhood and the myths the Frankfurt School to Habermas's program $16,000 FM. To conduct programs about she created about it. GN of linguistically mediated communication. RP Tennessee Williams, his work, and his times. Shoe String Press, Inc., Hamden, CT; James Columbia U. Press, N Y C ; W illiam P. Several formats will be employed, including Thorpe, III: $2,500. To publish one volume in Germano: $5,000. To publish a translation of discussions following the production of one a 12-volume reference work that provides a a 12th-century Chinese text on neocon- of his plays, a four-day public conference, commentary and bibliography on all aspects fucianism that will be accompanied by an in cable television interviews, and traveling ex of medieval English literature. RP troduction, annotations, and a glossary. RP hibitions and programs. CL Soundscape, Inc., Alexandria, VA; Martha D. Florida State U., Tallahassee; Alan R. Mabe: Indiana U. of Pennsylvania; Ronald G. Fehsenfeld: $35,616. To produce one radio $160,540. To conduct an eight-week summer Shafer: $103,538. To conduct a four-week play, All That Fall, by Samuel Beckett, plus a institute for 40 college and university summer humanities institute and academic documentary on Beckett to be broadcast in teachers, who will explore recent develop year follow-up activities for 45 high school 1986 in honor of his 80th birthday. GN ments in epistemology and the implications teachers from western Pennsylvania to study Southwestern College, Winfield, KS; Sandy of those developments for research and eight Shakespearean plays. ES Feinstein: $37,116. To conduct programs on teaching. EH Indiana U., Bloomington; John G. Gallman: the Victorians with particular emphasis on Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., $10,000. To publish a reference work on tra Robert Browning and his place in Victorian Indianapolis, IN; William H. Hackett: $1,500. ditional Chinese literature that includes es letters. Activities include lectures, reading To publish a monograph on the philosoph says on the major genres and provides infor and discussion sessions, and exhibitions ical question of weakness of will, a debate mation on 500 individual authors and works, displaying holdings from a major private col that has its origin in the ethics of Aristotle. with bibliographies. RP lection of Browning materials. CL RP Learning in Focus, Inc., NYC; Robert Geller: Stanford U., CA; Grant Barnes: $3,000. To Review of Existential Psychology & Psychia $600,000 OR; $75,000 FM. To produce publish a study of the public masquerade in try, Seattle, WA; Keith Hoeller: $4,236. To 60-minute television adaptations of four 18th-century English society that examines publish an English translation of an early es American short stories for young people ages the historical phenomenon and discusses the say by Michel Foucault on an article by 13 to 18. The stories have been selected for uses of masquerade in the novels of Fielding, Ludwig Binswanger that relates to existential their literary merit, relevance to the theme of Richardson, Inchbald, and Burney, RP ism and phenomenology. RP coming of age, and diversity in presenting as Stanford U., CA; Grant Barnes: $3,000. To U. of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu; David J. pects of American culture. GN publish the third volume in an edition of the Kalupahana: $125,888. To conduct an eight- Louisiana Library Association, Baton Rouge; letters of Jack London, which will be week institute for 20 college and university teachers on selected topics in comparative American Studies Center, Washington, DC; Division of Education Programs Asian and Western philosophy. EH Marc Lipsitz: $27,800. To write scripts for 88 EB Central Disciplines in Undergradu U. of Illinois, Chicago Circle; Edwin M. three-minute radio programs to be aired ate Education Curley: $9,000 O R; $10,000 FM. To conduct a daily during the bicentennial of the Constitu EK Improving Introductory Courses six-day international conference to present tional Convention. GN EL Promoting Excellence in a Field and assess new research on Spinoza, includ Bowling Green State U., O H ; Ellen F. Paul: EM Fostering Coherence Throughout ing the evolution of his views from his $150,000. To conduct a two-year program of an Institution earliest to his latest works, and the likely di public conferences on the history and philos ES Humanities Instruction in Elemen rections for future scholarship. RX ophy of economic rights under the Constitu tary and Secondary Schools U. of Santa Clara, CA; George R. Lucas: tion. The program will include two confer EH Exemplary Projects in Undergradu $110,510. To conduct a six-week institute for ences, publications, and videotapes. GB ate and Graduate Education 25 college and university teachers on the sys Catholic U. of America, Washington, DC; Ju EG Humanities Programs for tematic philosophy of Alfred North White dith E. Greenberg: $59,990. To conduct a Nontraditional Learners head and the critics of that philosophy. EH four-week institute on the Constitution with U. of Virginia, Charlottesville; Richard M. extensive follow-up activities for 30 Division of General Programs Rorty: $7,494. To conduct a three-day confer elementary- and middle-school teachers. ES CN Humanities Projects in Media ence on Kant's moral philosophy—his idea of Center for Study of Democratic Institutions, CM Humanities Projects in Museums the autonomy of the moral agent and his ac Santa Barbara, CA; Robert Hutchins: $84,078. and Historical Organizations count of the moral foundations of To conduct a three-year program of research GP Public Humanities Projects politics— in commemoration of the 200th an and public activities on the bicentennial of CL Humanities Programs in Libraries niversary of the publication of Kant's Funda the Constitution through a series of scholars Division of Research Programs mental Principles of the Metaphysics of Mor in residence, public lectures, and dialogues. RO Interpretive Research Projects als. RX ce RX Conferences Western Washington U., Bellingham; Delaware Heritage Commission, Greenville; RH Humanities, Science, and William P. Alston: $140,016. To conduct a six- Claudia L. Bushman: $10,500. To plan a Technology week institute for 30 faculty members on the 60-minute dramatic videotape on John RP Publication Subvention philosophy of religion. EH Dickinson and other Delaware delegates to RA Centers for Advanced Study the Constitutional Convention who de Rl Regrants for International Research fended the rights of the small states. GN RT Tools Religion Educational Broadcasting Corporation, N YC; RE Editions Jac Venza: $20,000. To rewrite the script for a RT Translations Knox College, Galesburg, IL; R. Lance Fac 90-minute historical drama on the role of RC Access tor: $88,986. To develop five new courses in James Madison in the Constitutional Conven religious studies by defraying the costs of re tion of 1787. CN Office of Preservation leased time, summer stipends for faculty Federalist Society for Law & Public Policy PS Preservation members, fees for consultants, a visiting Studies, Washington, DC; Eugene B. Meyer: PS U.S. Newspaper Program scholar, and a student assistant, and by cov $150,000. To conduct a two-year series of ering the cost of library acquisitions. EL public conferences and lectures on the con U. of Georgia Press, Athens; Karen K. Or stitutional principles of separation of powers chard: $3,603. To publish a book that studies and economic liberties. The first conference the sermons and preaching practices of four will be held in Atlanta, the second in prominent New England ministers: John Cot Chicago. The lectures will be held around Coming in ton, Benjamin Coman, William Ellery the country. Printed material will be pro Channing, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. RP duced. CB U. of Notre Dame, IN; Thomas V. Morris: Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, PA; August $8,500. To conduct a conference on the phil D. Grier Stephenson, Jr.: $14,937. To plan a osophical implications of the major doctrines four-year lecture series on the role of the of Christianity and how these beliefs have modern Supreme Court under the Constitu contributed to the development and shape tion. GB INTERPRETING of Western thought and culture. RX Maryland Public Television, Owings Mills; Sheilah Mann: $145,000 O R; $100,000 FM. To HISTORY: continue preparation of six instructional tele Social Science vision programs for the television-assisted The Impact of the course "The U.S. Constitution." EG Wellesley College, MA; Arjo A. Klamer: New Images Production, Inc., Berkeley, CA; Present on the Past $10,000 OR; $2,400 FM. To conduct a confer Avon Kirkland: $198,788. To script a four- ence of literary theorists, philosophers, hour miniseries of docudramas based on economists, and journalists to discuss and Simple Justice, Richard Kluger's history of with analyze the use of rhetorical devices to gain a the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision better understanding of economic discourse Brown vs. Board of Education Topeka, 1954. and its presuppositions. RX GN ♦ Suzanne F. Wemple on New School for Social Research, NYC; Jacob Landynski: $100,000. To conduct a two-year Carolingian Women U.S. Constitution program of public conferences, lectures, and seminars on the 200-year dialogue between ♦ Harry L. Watson on African American Museums Association, American and European thinkers on the Washington, D C; Adrienne Childs: $15,000. American constitutional order. There will be Jacksonian Politics To plan a program for black museums in the printed materials in addition to two confer United States on the history of Afro- ences and the series of lectures and semi ♦ Harold Marcus on Americans and the Constitution. GM nars. GB Amagin, Inc., McKean, PA; Robert J. Tennessee State U., Nashville; Clayton C. modern Africa Chitester: $32,000. To script two television Reeve: $60,000. To conduct a four-week insti documentaries, each examining the life and tute for 32 high school juniors on the Consti ♦ Robert Anchor on the ideas of an important political philosopher, tution and American culture. ET with emphasis on ideas that underlie the European Enlightenment Constitution and Bill of Rights. CN American Bar Association, Chicago, IL; Rob and ert S. Peck: $60,000 O R; $20,000 FM. To con duct a nationwide series of community fo- ♦ NEH support for , rums, which will occur in 1987 for the Capital letters following each grant amount bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution, and a have the following meanings: OR Outright education, research, and series of newspaper feature articles to clarify Funds; FM Federal Match. Capital letters fol constitutional concepts, trace constitutional lowing each grant designate the division and public programs in history. history, and examine contemporary constitu the program through which the grant was tional issues. CL made. 41