Approaches to Teaching the Romance of the Rose
- Editors: Daisy Delogu, Anne-Hélène Miller
- Pages: 308
- Published: 2023
- ISBN: 9781603295680 (Paperback)
- ISBN: 9781603295673 (Hardcover)
One of the most influential texts of its time, the Romance of the Rose offers readers a window into the world view of the late Middle Ages in Europe, including notions of moral philosophy and courtly love. Yet the Rose also explores topics that remain relevant to readers today, such as gender, desire, and the power of speech. Students, however, can find the work challenging because of its dual authorship by Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun, its structure as an allegorical dream vision, and its encyclopedic length and scope.
The essays in this volume offer strategies for teaching the poem with confidence and enjoyment. Part 1, "Materials," suggests helpful background resources. Part 2, "Approaches," presents contexts, critical approaches, and strategies for teaching the work and its classical and medieval sources, illustrations, and adaptations as well as the intellectual debates that surrounded it.
Acknowledgments (vii)
Introduction
The Rose, a Medieval Bestseller (1)
PART ONE: MATERIALS
Strategic Selections (11)
Editions and Translations (12)
Works That Work with the Rose (12)
Background Reading (13)
List of Principal Characters (19)
Principal Episodes and Concordance (19)
PART TWO: APPROACHES
Context and Framing
The Rose and Its Readers: Structure, Voices, and Interpretation (25)
Jean de Meun’s Intellectual Milieu (40)
The Ethics of the Rose (54)
Classical Mythology and Its Functions in the Rose (64)
Critical Approaches
A Psychoanalytic Approach: Beyond Narcissism; or, The Elusiveness of the Erotic Object (73)
Gender and Sexuality in the Rose I: Theory and Discourse (85)
Gender and Sexuality in the Rose II: Clerical Culture and Medieval Masculinities (101)
Humans, Animals, and Nature in the Rose (113)
Gardens of Love, East and West: Reading the Rose in a Cross-Cultural Context (126)
Teaching Strategies
Teaching the Rose through Performance (142)
Allegorical Literature and Dream Visions (149)
Placing the Rose in Its Material and Artistic Context (160)
Team-Teaching with Art Historical and Literary Approaches (170)
Teaching the Digital Rose (191)
Receptions of the Rose
French Poetic Continuations and Adaptations of the Rose (203)
Sixteenth-Century French Poets and the Rose (215)
Teaching Middle English Literature with the Rose (227)
Il Fiore and the Italian Reception of the Rose (237)
Teaching the Debate about the Rose (245)
Appendix A: The Anonymous Conclusion (259)
Appendix B: A Sample of Glossed Text (266)
Notes on Contributors (269)
Survey Respondents (273)
Works Cited (275)
