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E211: British Literature to 1760 Marie de France Study Questions Alfred Drake | Uni Hall 329 | W 3-4 | ajdrake@ajdrake.com "Lanval" 1. What does this brief romance tale reveal about chivalric or "courtly" love? For example, how do the two lovers treat each other? What qualities do they seem to find most attractive in each other? 2. How does the poet represent King Arthur’s Court? How much nobility in word and deed is in the place, and how much politics? How does the Court present an obstacle to Lanval and his lover? 3. Explain what makes the happy ending possible—how does Lanval’s lover win the day? Why is it appropriate, nonetheless, that the pair should disappear after their victory? "The Wolf and the Lamb" and "The Wolf and the Sow" 4. In Aesop’s Fables (which may have been a source for Marie, at least indirectly), what we might call "power relations" between very unequal parties is often at the center of the story’s significance. In the case of Marie’s lamb and sow, what is required of these underlings if they are to survive? 5. What are the predatory wolf’s defining characteristics? How does he get what he wants? How can he be foiled? Edition: Abrams, M.H. et al. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Vol. 1A. 7th. edition. New York: Norton, 2000. ISBN: 0393975657.
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