Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, text and images
Conference at Maison de la Recherche de la Sorbonne in Paris
December 7th to 9th, 2023
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is an entertaining, intriguing and vibrant work, full of images and visual representations, a source of learning and initiation which continues to give rise to the most varied interpretations. Descriptions are given pride of place, without cutting through the adventurous narrative or presenting themselves as conventional purple patches. The work has been ‘translated into pictures’ in many ways, starting with the composition of the manuscript itself (ca 1400), with four full-page illustrations related to the poem, that combine humour and realism. Illustrations also appear in many modern adaptations of the work for children’s literature. The verse narrative has been adapted into several films, the most recent being David Lowery’s The Green Knight (2021). In France, painter David Balade has dedicated a series of paintings to the poem based on the theme of vegetality.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight also appears to be a founding work for the eco-critical approach in English-language literature. It is also a masterful work within the alliterative tradition, which had never entirely disappeared since Old English poetry. The questioning of the chivalric ideal invites a reflective look at the stereotypes attached to the Arthurian tradition.
The poem and the film are the subject of a question on the syllabus for the 2024 agrégation externe d’anglais; the poem is studied in a bilingual edition which offers a translation into modern English by poet Simon Armitage, who is as familiar with medieval works as he is with very contemporary themes. Among the many possibilities, here are a few avenues of research that could be considered:
- images, imagination, the imaginary in the poem
- literarity, orality, theatricality
- remanence and impermanence; ideal and fracture; play and seriousness…
- SGGK and the eco-critical perspective
- place and space, the narrative construction of space
- spirituality and physicality
- Simon Armitage’s translation: restitution / transformation of the poem
- the relationship between the text and the images in the manuscript
- the ‘translation into pictures’ in the context of an illustrated modern edition
- paintings based on the poem as independent works
- the poem and its filmic adaptations
- the film The Green Knight, as an independent work, or analysed through its links with the Arthurian world (literature, films, series, or even video-games)
Contributors should be able to provide the text of the article based on their paper one week after the end of the conference for immediate online publication. Proposals for papers (title + abstract) must be sent before 30 June 2023 to Claire Vial: [email protected]
This conference is being held as a partnership between the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, the Université de Lorraine, the Université de Perpignan, the Centre d’Etudes Médiévales Anglaises (Sorbonne Université), the Association des Médiévistes Anglicistes de l’Enseignement Supérieur, and the éditions Garnier.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, text and images
Conference at Maison de la Recherche de la Sorbonne in Paris
December 7th to 9th, 2023
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is an entertaining, intriguing and vibrant work, full of images and visual representations, a source of learning and initiation which continues to give rise to the most varied interpretations. Descriptions are given pride of place, without cutting through the adventurous narrative or presenting themselves as conventional purple patches. The work has been ‘translated into pictures’ in many ways, starting with the composition of the manuscript itself (ca 1400), with four full-page illustrations related to the poem, that combine humour and realism. Illustrations also appear in many modern adaptations of the work for children’s literature. The verse narrative has been adapted into several films, the most recent being David Lowery’s The Green Knight (2021). In France, painter David Balade has dedicated a series of paintings to the poem based on the theme of vegetality.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight also appears to be a founding work for the eco-critical approach in English-language literature. It is also a masterful work within the alliterative tradition, which had never entirely disappeared since Old English poetry. The questioning of the chivalric ideal invites a reflective look at the stereotypes attached to the Arthurian tradition.
The poem and the film are the subject of a question on the syllabus for the 2024 agrégation externe d’anglais; the poem is studied in a bilingual edition which offers a translation into modern English by poet Simon Armitage, who is as familiar with medieval works as he is with very contemporary themes. Among the many possibilities, here are a few avenues of research that could be considered:
Contributors should be able to provide the text of the article based on their paper one week after the end of the conference for immediate online publication. Proposals for papers (title + abstract) must be sent before 30 June 2023 to Claire Vial: [email protected]
This conference is being held as a partnership between the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, the Université de Lorraine, the Université de Perpignan, the Centre d’Etudes Médiévales Anglaises (Sorbonne Université), the Association des Médiévistes Anglicistes de l’Enseignement Supérieur, and the éditions Garnier.
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