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Module 4 - Part
2: Explorations and Exercises
Other parts of this module include:
Index | Part
1: Overview | Part
3: Texts and Contexts | Part
4: Web Resources
Variations on the Theme of Romantic Love in the Middle
Ages
To respond to these exercises, it helps to have some appreciation
of the cultural assumptions explored in them. Click on Web
Resources for further insights into the way ideas about
the human and divine in each culture colors the literary
texts that we are studying.
These questions are arranged into three color-coded categories.
Level A invites you to look closely
at some specific aspects of individual texts. Answering these
questions shows that you have read carefully and understand
the significance of important words and ideas as they appear
in context.
Level B asks you to think more
deeply about the implications of some of the details that
you have isolated.
Level C allows you to build on
the findings of the first two categories to theorize broadly
about the relationship of the text to social and historical
forces beyond the work itself.
Topics in this module's Exploration and
Exercises section include:
Focus on The Tale of Genji
Level A
- "The Broom Tree" begins on a cautionary note. How does
the narrator encourage readers to maintain a critical
distance from "the shining prince"?
- We are in Genji's own quarters as he talks with his
brother-in-law, To no Chujo, in Chapter 2. What is the
significance of the pieces of colored paper that lie
on a shelf?
- Outline the class system that To no Chujo constructs:
What are the "three ranks" of women who attract the notice
of the amorous young men of the sort we meet in The
Tale of Genji? How low is the lowest rank?
- Discuss the significance of Genji's having fallen
asleep at the moment when the guards officer talks about
marital problems? Why does the narrator tell us about
To no Chujo's annoyance at this point?
- What turn does the conversation take when Genji wakes
up? How do the experiences of the guards officer define
a range of possible romantic relationships?
- What is your opinion of the way Genji treats the wife
of the governor of Kii? How have the opening paragraphs
of "The Broom Tree" provided a perspective in which to
view his behavior and feelings?
- Explain the source of the titles that Seidensticker
provides for his translation of The Tale of Genji. What,
for example, are the attributes of a broom tree? What
are "evening faces"? What habits of mind lie behind the
designations chosen?
Level B
- Note the frequency with which the narrator informs
us about season and the weather. Why, for example, does "The
Broom Tree" discussion occur on a rainy night? How is
this kind of scene setting related to the poetic tradition
that forms so integral a part of The Tale of Genji?
- "The Broom Tree" establishes many patterns for the
conduct of romantic relationships in Genji's world. Men
together reflect on their attachments to various women
and also provide distractions for each other when those
attachments fail or seem impossible. When Genji does
not want to spend time with his wife, he finds a substitute
in her brother. How is this mirrored by the events described
in the editorial notes that precede Chapter 2, and then
even more specifically by the set of events that conclude
Chapter 2? Who substitutes for whom in each case? How
deep is the involvement of Genji with the person who
replaces his original object?
- What events drive Genji toward and then away from
Suma? How does the natural world become a vehicle for
establishing the narrative's perspective on his character
and motives?
Level C
- Note the persistence of jealousy as a theme in The
Tale of Genji. Why is this so strong a concern
in the literature of high romance? What sorts of phenomena
are associated with sexual jealousy in the literature
of medieval Europe? Compare and contrast the treatment
of this theme in Marie De France's Laustic and
in comparable stories from Boccaccio's Decameron.
Who tend to be the jealous parties in The Tale
of Genji? Who is jealous in Laustic and
the Decameron narratives? How might the differences
reflect the different understandings of marital relations
in Heian Japan and medieval Europe?
- "In women as in men, there is no one worse than the
one who tries to display her scanty knowledge in full" (p.
2195). Why is there so much scorn in literature for intellectual
pretension? Do you believe that male and female characters
are in fact treated equally for parading their knowledge
in public?
- Discuss the emphasis on taste and aesthetic refinement
throughout The Tale of Genji. How, for example,
does Genji adjust his feelings about his lovers while
he sits in exile in Suma? What kinds of activities does
he pursue in Chapter 12 that seem to signal to the reader
how complicated must be an evaluation of his risk-taking
behavior and his moral failings in general?
- Why are dreams so important in romance literature?
Discuss some of Genji's dreams and relate them to the
dreams of Aeneas (see pp. 1071–72 in Volume A).
How much freedom is given to Aeneas in the Western classical
tradition to pursue his own desires?
- Compare the conversations in which Genji considers
the value of romantic fiction with the role of the book
as seducer in Canto 5 of Dante's Inferno. Genji
points out that even a strict Buddhist might distinguish
between "the good and the bad in a romance. If one takes
the generous view, then nothing is empty and useless" (p.
2267). What kind of literature does Dante seem to approve?
Where does one meet love poets in The Divine Comedy?
Focus on Marie de France's Lanval and Laustic
Level A
- Why is the hero "sad and forlorn" as Lanval begins?
Why might his state of mind be an important element in
the attraction he holds for his mysterious lover?
- How does he prove his worthiness by the way he reacts
to the bounty he so suddenly receives?
- How does Lanval violate the promise he has made to
his lady? What drives him to do so?
- To what kind of judicial procedure is Lanval subjected?
- Why does Lanval remain mute as the entourage of ladies
approaches Arthur's court? What might have happened if
he had acknowledged his acquaintance with them to Gawain
and the other knights who want to help him?
- Why does the narrator insist that the married knight
in Laustic had chosen "a wise, courtly, and
elegant wife" (p. 1774)? What motives lead her to love
a man who is not her husband?
- Why does the husband have his servants set traps for
the nightingale? Why is it important that the bird is
taken alive?
- Laustic is a very short story. How does
it nevertheless offer us a rich portrait of the husband?
What details tell us about his character?
Level B
- Marie de France is very precise about the physical
surroundings in which events take place. Discuss the
importance of topical and architectural details in these
stories.
- Why does Lanval first see his lady in a meadow?
Why does she pitch a tent in which to entertain him?
- Where is the Queen standing when she spies Lanval?
What is significant about the way she is framed?
- From what point does Lanval leap onto the lady's
horse? What is the general purpose of the place?
- How do the lovers in Laustic come to know
each other?
- Why do these townspeople live in fortified houses?
How might we read these fortifications as a metaphor
for the social dilemma that Laustic explores?
- Since the narrator makes a point of specifying the
time of year in which events occur in each of these lais,
it is worth speculating on the role played by these temporal
details.
- Lanval begins "at Pentecost" (p. 1769)
and reaches its crisis "after Saint John's day" (p.
1771). What kind of celebrations took place in Europe
on these two days (note that St. John's Day was also
known as Midsummer Day, as in Shakespeare's Midsummer
Night's Dream )? How might these dates be relevant
to the appearance of the mysterious lady and the Queen's
behavior? How do they prepare the audience for the
outcome of the story?
- What is the importance of time of year and time
of day in Laustic?
- Each of these two stories describes rich manmade ornaments,
like the silken robes of the lady in Lanval and
the exquisite resting place of the dead nightingale.
How do these details add texture to the series of visual
tableaux offered here? Why is medieval literature so
rich in pictorial details? How do such details contribute
to our conception of romance?
Level C
- In what ways may we see the effect of the author's
gender in these two lais? Whose point of view
does she enter in Lanval? Is the sympathy she
shows for the sad hero unusual for a woman author? With
whom does the reader tend to experience events in Laustic?
Do you think male authors would have focused on the details
stressed in these two stories?
- How are the two powerful women in Lanval contrasted
with each other? Compare and contrast their attitudes
toward the hero with the attitudes of the various women
with whom Genji is involved. With what kind of women
do Marie de France and Murasaki Shikibu seem to identify?
How does each treat court politics?
- Discuss the endings of Marie's Lanval and Laustic :
Where is Avalon? What is the function of a holy relic
such as the neighbor knight makes to contain the mangled
nightingale? What view of the "real world" do these endings
posit?
- Compare and contrast Laustic with the Ninth
Story of the Fourth Day of Boccaccio's Decameron,
in which Guillaume de Roussillon tears out the heart
of Guillaume de Cabestanh and has it presented in an
elegant dish to his wife, who eats it. Show how the stories
are related to each other, and then explain the difference
in scale and sensibility in the narratives. What role
do the husbands play in each?
Focus on Boccaccio's Decameron
Level A
- What sequence of events brings the wife of Guillaume
de Roussillon in the Ninth Story of the Fourth Day to
commit adultery? Why do you think she falls in love with
her husband's good friend?
- The Eighth Story of the Fifth Day tells of the horrible
vision that Nastagio degli Onesti comes upon in the woods
on a Friday in May. What does he see and how is it explained?
- The later days of the Decameron increasingly
examine situations in which class and rank influence
behavior. Where does the Sixth Story of the Ninth Day
take place? Would this narrative make sense in an aristocratic
household?
Level B
- Compare and contrast the lady's original reasons for
her rejection of Nastagio degli Onesti in the Eighth
Story of the Fifth Day with her change of mind after
what she sees in the woods outside Classe. How would
you compare her emotional development with that of the
wife of Guillaume de Roussillon?
- Discuss the two women in the story of the misplaced
cradle. How do they handle their predicaments? How does
their social class contribute to their response to a
challenge? Compare and contrast their behavior to that
displayed by the women we meet in other tales in the Decameron,
as well as to the women in Marie de France's lais.
Level C
- Many of Boccaccio's novellas influenced later writers
like Chaucer and Shakespeare; his work also made a great
impact on visual artists, among them Botticelli. Read
the section of Brown University 's Decameron Web with
links to paintings made of the Nastagio degli Onesti
story, and comment on the features of the text that the
painters emphasize. Why should this story in particular
have attracted so many illustrators? Compare and contrast
the ways in which visual and verbal artists reach their
audiences and make their points.
- The anthology's headnote to Boccaccio's Decameron calls
attention to the portable cradle of the fabliau told
in the Sixth Story of the Ninth Day, noting that it functions
not only as a plot device but also as "a metaphor for
the circulation of sexual favors, much as commodities
circulate throughout the mercantile world" (p. 1964).
Compare and contrast the circulation of letters and poems
in The Tale of Genji. How do the color, perfume,
and calligraphy of a letter embody the writer? What other
objects in these romance narratives do double duty? (Consider,
for example, the tureen with the lover's heart in the Decameron and
the reliquary in Laustic. )
- What perspectives on sexual love distinguish serious
romance from fabliaux? What makes the difference between
comic infidelity and tragic betrayal? How would you compare
the nature of tragic love in the west with the forces
that produce it in the Japanese tradition, citing evidence
from The Tale of Genji?
- The protagonists of romance literature are often punished
for giving in to illicit love. Judging from Canto 5 of
the Inferno, how would you say Dante weighed
the sins of Paolo and Francesca? How would you contrast
that view of punishment with the Dantesque vision in
the story of Nastagio degli Onesti? Compare the ways
in which Genji is punished: At whose hands does he suffer?
How does the scope of a novel permit a wider view of
the scale and nature of punishment than can be described
in the brief narratives of Dante and Boccaccio? How much
do you think different religious traditions account for
the different ideas of punishment in these narratives?
Focus on Bhakti Poetry
Level A
- Mahadevi's poems consistently compare her desire to
be with Siva to a wife's passion for a lover. What idea
of marriage underlies these comparisons? How would you
describe her diction, even in translation, in a poem
like 114 ("I can't manage them both") or 119 ("don't
give us your nows and thens!")?
- Discuss the contrast between the housewife's domestic
world and Krishna 's tumultuous natural domain in the
poems of Chandidasa.
- Color is at the heart of Mirabai's poem 37 ("I'm colored
with the color of dusk, oh rana"). Explain its relevance
to Krishna worship and discuss the sensual intensity
with which Mirabai imagines the impact of color.
Level B
- Mahadevi is almost an exact contemporary of Marie
de France, while Mirabai lived centuries later, during
the Early Modern Period (or the European Renaissance).
Do you sense a gap of centuries between their Bhakti
poems? How relevant are the realistic details that permeate
prose romance to the mystical poet's concerns?
- Asian poets are much more likely than their Western
counterparts to use biographical details in their lyrics.
Read the materials about Mirabai's life in the Resources
section of this site and comment on the ways in which
the author uses her personal experiences in these ecstatic
utterances.
Level C
- Class distinctions seem to be very important in medieval
Japanese and European literature, and we know that caste
was a central component of South Asian culture. Explain
why class is so explicitly unimportant in Bhakti poetry
(see, for example, Mahadevi's Poem 294, and consult the
Carthage College site on Bhakti poetry and devotional
practice in Resources).
- The flute is an attribute of the divine lover in the
popular stories of Krishna and Radha. Note that courtly
lovers generally count among their accomplishments their
musical ability (see, for example, the description of
Chaucer's Squire), and that Genji is a talented musician.
Why do you suppose music is identified with desire in
so many cultures? (To write a full-scale paper on this
topic, you may want to consult the Study Guide for Medieval
Love Songs in the Web Resources section of this site.
Consider as well Marie's treatment of Tristram as artist
in Chevrefoil, in Texts and Contexts.)
- Climate has an important impact on the values different
cultures assign to the same natural phenomena. Discuss
the distinctive connotations, and thus the meaning and
mood, of storm and tempest in the Suma chapter of The
Tale of Genji and the dark cloudbursts in the poems
of Chandidasa and Mirabai.
- Compare the importance of personal, biographical detail
in the literature of romantic longing. How, for example,
does Dante use Beatrice in his Comedy? What do we know
of Murasaki from reading The Tale of Genji?
How do the Bhakti poets use their own situations in creating
their lyric scenarios? Do writers who distance themselves
from their own fictions by definition then ignore their
personal experiences? This is a complex topic, worthy
of a long essay.
Texts and Contexts
Level A
- Compare and contrast "Balade," a charming poem by
Charles d'Orleans in the Anthology (p. 1823),
with the Rondel by him entitled "To his Mistress, to
Succour his Heart that is Beleaguered by Jealousy." Discuss
the role of class in both of these short poems and comment
on the significance of the imagery in each case.
- What is the implication of the lady's selling her
kisses to the lover?
- The equation between the heart and the castle is
a standard motif in medieval and Renaissance love poetry.
What is the significance of this sort of architectural
imagery?
- Why is the lover jealous? To whom is the Rondel addressed?
- Repetition and compact rhyme scheme characterize
a "Rondel." Note that the opening line of this poem
is repeated at its conclusion. What does this structural
device tell us about the poet's dilemma?
- In Marie's Chevrefoil, one of the great
extended tragic romances of the Middle Ages receives
a typically miniaturized treatment. What does the narrator
expect the audience to understand about the relationship
between Tristram, Mark, and Iseut (the Queen)? At what
point in the story does this episode occur?
- By what signs does Tristram expect the Queen to recognize
his presence? What symbolic value might the distinctive "lover's
stick" have?
Level B
- Charles D'Orleans' speaker can objectify his jealousy
and try to banish it. Judging from the narratives discussed
in this section, how often do jealous lovers succeed
in controlling this emotion?
- Compare Murasaki's use of plants and natural phenomena
to distinguish her leading characters with Marie's discussion
of the honeysuckle and the hazel tree. How is the natural
world used by each writer?
- Chevrefoil may be considered a companion
piece to Lanval. What motifs do the two texts
share? How are Lanval's and Tristram's situations similar?
What role does Pentecost play in the two narratives?
- Explain Colleen P. Donagher's argument in "Socializing
the Sorceress." What evolution in the treatment of the
fairy lady does she trace? How does Marie de France treat
the figure in Lanval? Compare and contrast
the Wife of Bath's version of the sorceress in her Tale.
What kind of commentary do these texts make on medieval
society and the ideal image of the Arthurian world?
Level C
- Read the essay on "Marriage, Rank and Rape in The
Tale of Genji " by Royall Tyler (in Resources),
who has recently published a new translation of Murasaki's
novel. Although he takes most of his examples from
chapters of the novel not available in the anthology,
he raises many issues worthy of general discussion.
Genji certainly forces himself on a woman in "The Broom
Tree." How are we to regard his act? What moral issues
seem central to the novel's treatment of sexual relations?
If its morality differs from our own, can we still
find value — even virtue — in the study
of Genji's career?
- Contemporary readers continue to buy romance novels.
How would you say the genre has changed over the centuries?
This is a topic for an extended paper, using examples
from your current reading to supplement the selections
in the anthology.
- Read the selection from the misogynistic medieval
treatise, The Fifteen Joys of Marriage, and
imagine a conversation about it on a rainy night between
Murasaki, Marie de France, and Mirabai. What would they
have to say to each other? What do they think of men?
Can you see any ways in which they might reconcile their
very different ideas of religion, society, and sexuality?
Do they share any common understanding of human psychology?
- Read the selections from The Art of Courtly Love by
Andreas Cappellanus. How does he explain the derivation
of the word for love ( amor )? Does love really
ennoble the lover? Do you think the author wants us to
take these ideas seriously? Is he right, for example,
to say that love does not exist without jealousy? Choose
one or two of the rules he outlines and apply them to
some of the reading you have done, explaining how they
relate to the fictional characters you have encountered.
(Consult Larry Benson's article, "Courtly Love and Chivalry
in the Later Middle Ages," in Web Resources.)
- The Art of Courtly Love refers to European
society. How would you evaluate its usefulness for discussing The
Tale of Genji? Note, for example, Rule 6: "A male
cannot love until he has fully reached puberty." Why
is there no similar rule about a female? Or Rule 12: "The
true lover never desires the embraces of any save his
lover."
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