The Romance
Wendy Steiner profile
TR 3-4:30
The romance is a pattern of plot and ideas that has woven its way
through every period of western literature. It is the story of a
longing--for lover, god, home, of self--a desire so intense that it
eclipses everything else in life, propelling the quester on a journey
full of adventure and peril. Romance cuts across high and low art.
It is the stuff of Shakespeare and video games, of T.S. Eliot and
Harlequin novels. Romances are meditations on values, idealism,
compromise, and the meaning of love. As such, they are mirror-images
of pornography, delaying gratification, valuing uniqueness over
variety, seeking permanence, stability, and beauty over repetition,
discontinuity, and allure. And they are always about learning, about
the process of stepping out of the familiar into a realm where
everything waits to be known. This course includes such classical
romances as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and The Tempest, and sets
them against modern works by Conrad, Puccini, Eliot, Joyce, Hammett,
Pynchon, and Sondheim. Assignments: two 7-page papers and a final
take-home exam.
updated 2006-10-05
