Section 12/11/14

Write a sufficient amount to answer the questions.

Guido Cavalcanti

About 2 men, one named and one unnamed Go out and look for beautiful women Spot an ugly looking woman In normal situations, these two people would openly mock an old woman looking like this

o However, her appearance as dressed up and higher status -> Would not laugh at her Talks about how laughing can be a coping mechanism Ugly woman with appearance risks shattering world view Two men are not good people, openly mock people

Similar to Narcissus (mock people for their looks) One must be careful about one’s reactions to beauty, always mutable and

changeable

How did Narcissus’ mother and father meet? What does Teiresias’ prophecy mean? What is Echo’s fate? Is it true that Echo simply repeats Narcissus’ words, or does she change and alter them, and if so, how?

Tiresias’s propechy about Narcissuso His prophecy continues thru

Echo’s fateo Fall in love with Narcissus and watch him dieo Echo cannot be seen, only can be heard o Juno has condemned Echo to repeat only the last words of which she hears

Narcissus would call out and Echo would respond with only last three words He thought he was being tricked

What is the social status of the two main characters? What is the topic of Longus’ novel? Comparing the different chapters of the novel think about the way they are structured. What is the relation between men, animals, and the gods in Longus’ text?

Characters are shepherds Learning about sex and love, methods taught to them Chapters are chronological (children to playmates to lovers) Learn things about love, themselves

o Chloe learns about someone admiring hero Progression of love thru finding, unified at the end

Life at the beginning of novel -> herd sheep, play in the meadows, act as childreno As book goes along… Chloe is kidnapped and almost rapedo Pirates invade the country, resulting in full war

End of novelo Takes place in a kingdom/farm/estateo As turn into adults, deal with situations that occurred when they were kids as well

Come to know the world as they come to know love Relationship between men and animals

o Animals are inherently connected in all wayso Survival, livelihood

Taught Daphnus sex Philaetus teaches both of them how to kiss, kissing is an important part of love

To which kind of literary genre does Jaufre Rudel’s poem belong? How does it compare to the poem we read by Sappho? Note the allusions to historical events of the time when the poem was written. To which events do they refer? What can you say about the rhyme scheme when you look at the original?

Lyrical poetry Each stanza had the same rhyme, continues to loop around

o More songlike, connecting to lyrical poetryo Topic of poem is love from afaro Hypothetical woman is far away, turns and turns and the repeats

Apparent in rhyme scheme Talks about Christian God

How does Heinrich von Morungen’s poem compare to Ovid’s story about Echo and Narcissus? How does it compare to the story about Echo’s origins in Longus’ novel Daphnis and Chloe? What is the function of mirror? What about the little bruise on the lover’s lip?

Both deal with reflection, breaks the illusion of beauty o Often times we can be clouded with the idea of what beauty is, might not be actual

reality Function of mirror is connected to Ovid’s story Bruise on woman’s lip symbolizes death

o Echo’s speaking problem, not able to fully articulate herself Minne: translation of name of ideal lover, also courtly love

o How does the poet feel about courtly love? Blemish on lip alludes to mortality

Love is not perfect, ideal image of somebody that doesn’t exist, constantly turn somebody down when idea doesn’t exist (Narcissus)

Imperfection in the idea of courtly love, shatters illusion

What do you think of the lady in Marie de France’s story about the nightingale, or La¨ustic? Has she been unfaithful? Is she innocent? And what about her husband, her lover? What is the role of the nightingale?

Nightingale is the symbol of their love Married woman can only communicate across the tower with her lover Question is very opinionated, defend POV Husband kills nightingale

o Kills it in front of her, snaps the neck of the bird o Makes husband look like an asshole o Gives reason for why she would fall in love with someone else

o Act of extreme violence Disturbs her

o Snapping the bird’s neck = warning the he could kill her lover, nightingale can no longer sing, snaps the line of communication and excuse that she had for doing it

Symbol is broken, actual bird itself can no longer communicate, also deado Night puts the nightingale in a coffin of gold? Symbolizes the woman who he loved

Do you recognize some of the characters in this Canto? How does Dante react to the story of Paolo and Francesca, and why does he react in this way? Compare Canto V of Dante’s Inferno to Jaufre Rudel’s poem When Days Grow Long, to Heinrich von Morungen’s The Mirror, as well as to Marie de France’s La¨ustic? Why do Dante’s lovers end in hell? What do you make of the two lines: “Thus it is willed where there is power to do / what has been willed ...” (Lines 23-24)

4 of them are connected by problems of love o Always love from afar, cannot touch/come to the lover, idea of someone he will never

be with, only talk to each other, distance in a significant way appears in all of these, distance is the inherent/biggest problem that can affect love, two-sided coin to love -> never get full harmony with person

“thus it is willed…”o Refers to God, only way he knows how to term it

Dante is written in Italian o Dante would have not known about stories without Virgil

Virgil is the bridge to the characters Virgil communicates for them

The act of writing is huge

Dante’s Divine Comedy was written about two centuries before Columbus set sail for the so called New World. How does this bold enterprise compare to Dante’s tale of Odysseus’/Ulysses’ last voyage?

Age of discovery All leaving from Spain, Portugal Must pursue knowledge Odysseus acts as a literary symbolic father figure for the age of discovery