For Friday: 100 Years of Gawain Criticism

For Friday:

Adding to Anonymous—the Criticism of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Choose one of the following essays in the back of our edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight to read and respond to for Friday.  Of course, you can read more than one essay—or indeed, all of them!—but only answer the questions below in regard to a single essay.  Try to choose a general topic or essay that interests you, since you will be using this later on Paper #1 (if you choose to do it). 

ESSAYS (Read ONE, your choice):

·         Burrow, “Recognition and Confession at the Green Chapel” (pp.104-113)

·         Davenport, “The Hero and His Adventure” (pp.131-143)

·         Hanna III, “Unlocking What’s Locked: Gawain’s Green Girdle” (pp.144-158)

·         Johnson, “Regenerative Time in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” (pp.158-173)

·         Nicholls, “The Testing of Courtesy at Camelot and Hautdesert” (pp.173-194)

·         Heng, “Feminine Knots and the Other Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” (pp.194-213)

QUESTIONS (answer 2 of the following...)

1. What common assumptions about the poem does this author acknowledge and then either try to expand, complicate, or refute?  What did he/she think other readers (or critics) had missed before them?

2. In general, how did this essay help you understand a specific aspect of Sir Gawain that you either didn’t understand or didn’t see before?  Cite a specific passage that you feel does this particularly well.

3. Is there a passage or idea in this essay you either don’t agree with or simply don’t understand?  Why is this?  Explain how you either don’t get or don’t agree with this passage.  Be specific—don’t say “I didn’t get the entire essay, etc.” 

4. Should you have read this essay before reading the poem itself?  Why or why not?  Again, be specific: why might this function as the perfect Introduction to the poem...or why might it ruin the experience of simply reading it with your own eyes?