Dear Students,
It is possible to access these assigned readings electronically from our library’s website. I hope this URL will get you to the book: https://libsearch-cuny-edu.remote.baruch.cuny.edu/F/9HQ2P62ABSC9SCFQVK6P1AKNTCCDYGD3PNABDI2TJXQFBF522M-22018?func=full-set-set&set_number=027607&set_entry=000003&format=999. If not, make sure you access the translation we are using for our class, as there are several choices: de Troyes, Chrétien. Perceval: The Story of the Grail. translated by Burton Raffel. New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1999.
The first two readings are also on this blog. The last two, which we will discuss in class on 10/28 and 10/30 are as follows: Lines 2912-3383, which are in the portion of the epic poem where Perceval leaves Blanche Fleur and meets the Fisher King, and Lines 6300-6420, which take place on Good Friday, a Christian holy day that, as is apparent in the reading, is a day of mourning and of cleansing of the soul. It is the day in the Christian calendar that marks the crucifixion of Christ. Just before the latter reading begins, there is a disturbing instance of anti-Semitism expressed by a passerby; Raffel’s footnote calls attention to the unfortunate fact of Medieval history it reflects. Should you be interested in this subject, an excellent scholarly investigation is Colum Hourihane’s Pontius Pilate, Anti-Semitism and the Passion in Medieval Art (Princeton University Press, 2009).