Humanities Core 1A Lectures Notes PDF

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Lecture notes from the Human 1A lectures of fall quarter 2019. This year's theme was on Animals and is the first year of the Animal theme which will be continuing for another 3 years or so....

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Hum Core UCI Writing Center, 193 Science Library, M-TH 9am-5pm, F 9am-4pm HumCore Reading Group, ALP 3700, M 4-5pm Professor Davis (Medieval Studies) [email protected] for appointment

Fall Medieval ● Time periods: Old English 450.-1066 CE, Anglo Norman (French) 1066-1 Middle English 1150-1500 CE ● Roman Britain 43-410 CE ○ They bring Latin and Christianity ● Anglo-Saxons 400-600 CE ○ Common language was English, Roman Britain spread Christianity to ● The Norman Conquest 1066 CE ○ Norman’s dominate England with French culture known as Anglo-No ● Middle English Period 1150-1500 CE ○ English dominance, tales like Chaucer’s Canterbury tales were made Q: What did Medieval ppl think about animals, how did their meanings get ma how were they represented? ● Thesis: animals not only exist for consumption but for thought, to teach and enforce social norms ● Bestiary: book of beasts, Etymology: study of origin of words ● Augustine of Hippo 354-430 CE focused on a spiritual understanding of world, encouraged to interpret understand the world instead of enjoying spiritualness Bestiaries ● Are basically dictionaries of animals to refer to ○ Organized hierarchically ○ Focused on anthropocentrism, belief that humankind is the most im being above all else ○ Is about symbolical things, such as blue tigers, so it’s not really scie ● Are grouped into four families ○ The Physiologus and Isidore of Seville etymology are in 1st family an

the idea of bestiary Aberdeen and Bodley bestiaries produced in 13th century are in 2nd Folio 1v = page 1 right side, folio 1r = page 1 turned-over side Allegory is simply a story that has two meanings ○ Primary or literal meaning ○

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Name “lion” taken from Greek “leon” which means king Lion hides his tracks else hunters will find him: the vehicle is hiding and the tenor is Christ’s hidden divinity EXAMPLE 2: night owls as anti-semitism or anti-Jewish prejudice ○ Night owls only fly at night and cannot stand light ○ Vehicle is owl and tenor is that they symbolize Jews turning away fr Christ’s light and sticking to their king Caesar in the darkness ○

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Fables ● Feature talking animals but perspective purpose is still anthropocentric ● Pragmatism vs idealism, offers practical advice for surviving in real world with morales that would make the world a better place if everyone follow ● Are attributed to Aesopic tradition, didactic or used as elementary texts ● Defamilarization makes what’s familiar seem unfamiliar so it can be eval new perspective ● Marie De France ○ Born France, lived England, highly educated, wrote in Anglo-Norman ○ Known for works (c. 1155-1189) Lais, Fables, The Purgatory of St Pa ○ Wants to be remembered, signs off her works in such a way ○ Audience likely to be friends of high status ○ She "fuedalizes" the Fables by introducing social class ● Feudalism: dominant social system in medieval Europe, nobility held land King in exchange for military, vassals served the nobles helped control th peasants obliged to live in lords land and give labor produce they get mil protection ● Thesis: world of the Fables look like Marie's 12th century world: she som enforces the social structure at the time and sometimes critiques it ● Naturalizing social hierarchies: making hierarchies seem as if it's natura man made ○ one of primary strategies Marie uses to uphold and critique the fued ○ EX: City Mouse and Country Mouse ◆ Country mouse experienced the City mouse life and could not s to each their own ○ EX: The Vole Who Sought a Wife ◆ Kept seeking a higher status wife only to be led back to the low of a mouse, suggests the lower class may be strongest in their

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humbleness. Morale is that those who seek higher than they de only end up lower than their original level. Abuses of power ○ EX: The Dog and the Sheep

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EX: The Lion and the Peasant ◆ Lion acknowledges fact that humans can paint and represent th dominance over animals because lions are not capable of those representations

Pre-Writing of Fall Essay 1: summarize fable 21 and analyze Marie’s rheto strategies ● Fable 21, The Wolf and the Sow, is about a wolf tempting a pregnant sow birth and eat the piglet in exchange for sparing the mother’s life. The mo by shaming the wolf for attacking her personal space and thus cannot gi such a situation. The morale is not think twice about lying if it can save a one’s life. ● What strategies Marie use to make her case against a certain audience? ○ The audience is women, especially pregnant ones ○ Marie uses the sow as the vehicle to represent the tenor that lying is always a bad thing; if used correctly, it can save a life ○ The sow employs the use of pathos to invoke a sense of guilt and sh the wolf for demanding her to give birth while attacking her persona This convinces the wolf to back off since he believed that being too the sow won’t allow her to give birth. Skins and Transformations ● Lai is short poem or narrative, like sung poetry ○ Related to narrative genre of romance since Lais feature stories abo and adventure ○ Marie's lais are from Breton sources, or from Celtic ppl of Britain ◆ Common features of Breton ◆ lais are supernatural, transformation, etc. ● Bisclavret ○ Word means werewolf in Breton ○ This story presents questions rather than a stated morale that a fab have ^ ○ Davis’s thesis: Bisclavret invites readers to ponder the relation betw humans and animality and to think about the similarities differences human and animals ○ Aberdeen Bestiary suggests Christian reference baptism how throw

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old clothes to wear new clothes symbolizes purity, relates to wolf an must be clothed to turn back into man Chivalry ○ Derives from French cheval meaning horse

board Fall Essay 1 Brainstorm ● My Fable: The Women Who Tricked Her Husband (Fable 44) ● Summary: A peasant comes home catching his wife in the act with anoth The husband is astounded, but his wife convinces him he was seeing illu using the analogy of his reflection in the water and how he is not actually water. Marie gives the takeaway that common sense and intelligence are most valuable traits, more valuable than having a wife. The Most Delectable Story of Reynard the Fox ● Beast Epic ○ Ysengrimus first beast epic about wolf, Roman de Renart was spin-o that featured Reynard ○ Do not state morales explicitly, but are rather amoral ● Thesis: Davis argues that Reynard stories extends the pragmatism or Ma Fables, the focus on survival in a brutal world without any of their idealism ● Story ○ Isegrim eloquently pleads the king to consider Reynard the fox’s crim against his family ○ Tibert defends Reynard by saying everyone has done bad actions ○ Grimbard also defends Reynard against the idea of hanging him ○ Bruin goes to convince Reynard to go back to the court, however Br controlled too much by his appetite and Reynard lures Bruin to getti in a log searching for honeycomb and getting beat up by peasants ○ Malepardus name of Reynard’s house means 1000 holes which sugg Reynard’s versatility and how he always gets out of a bad situation ● Anticlerical satire ○ Cleric means priest ○ satire is a work that uses humor, irony, etc to ridicule or criticize foo or immorality, like a social political commentary ○ This term therefore means satire aimed at clerical issues, such as m of priests, and are meant to urge clerical reform Animals and Storytelling ● Geoffrey Chaucer ○ Known for The Canterbury Tales

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Is a frame setting or basically story within story Good story is made of sentence and solaas ○ Sentence is the tenor or morale and meaning of story while solaas is vehicle or entertainment of story...