Introduction to the Troubadours

Instructor: William D. Paden
Thursdays, 2 pm-5pm, January 10, 2008 - March 13, 2008

Course Description
This course will introduce the students to the troubadours, poets of the South of France in the Middle Ages, and the Occitan language in which they wrote. The troubadours blazed the trail that would be followed by vernacular poetry in Europe, and provided brilliant expression of themes ranging from love to war. We shall study the language in Paden, An Introduction to Old Occitan, and learn to translate troubadour poetry in that book; read a book of English translations, Paden and Paden,Troubadour Poems from the South of France (2007); and refer to selected essays in two recent collaborative histories, Gaunt and Kay, The Troubadours: An Introduction, and Akehurst and Davis, A Handbook of the Troubadours. We shall consider the performance of troubadour poetry in song as well as historical issues including the court, gender relations, and desire.