Wondrium's "King Arthur" and Thoughts on Literart Criticism

 

     First of all, Wondrium (formerly Great Courses) is a fantastic way to learn or brush up on something, and they give senior rates. I started with them during the pandemic.

 https://www.wondrium.com/?utm_source=Branded_Search&utm_medium=Google&utm_campaign=1004587&mkwid=s_dc&pcrid=526184903219&pkw=wondrium&pmt=e&c3apimn=526184903219&intent=&gclid=CjwKCAiA-9uNBhBTEiwAN3IlNDwTKaRTD3Lmrw6K9RR6EkbfGzmkWr0ZYU1HNQw4EpuF10fXBJRF3hoCvukQAvD_BwE

    Currently, I am taking "King Arthur", offered by Purdue's Dr. Dorsey Armstrong. In 2001 I took a course on him at Drew offered by Dr. Jeffrey Fisk, starting my doctoral program off well.

     When I was in graduate school at Berkeley and Irvine (UC system, mid-1970s, in German) I often ran afoul of the dictum to consider the text and the text only, which included the reader's interaction with guess what? Yes, the text! If I asked whether the text actually described a real-life, historical situation, I was told Bleiben Sie beim Text!/ Stay with the text!

     Not that I could do anything about it, at least in the seminar. Then as now, I believe that a text has some grounding or relevance to the world around it, both in the times in which it was produced and when one reads it. Perhaps my disenchantment with those studies stemmed from those times; more likely they were the catalyst for my doing other things.

    When Dr. Armstrong talks about how an author's contemporary times influence a text, I was excited. Vindication after all these years! The example I will give is her talking about how Sir Thomas Malory wrote his 15th-century classic Le Morte d'Arthur to offer an example of a nobler age than his contemporary times. Imprisoned during the War of the Roses, Malory lived during the end of the Middle Ages and saw negative changes to the old order. King Arthur and Camelot presented an ideal that could reinvigorate his contemporary times. Not a bad idea, actually, as other legends or actual historical times could do the same since.

    Brava, Dr. Armstrong! I conclude by giving a link to the title poem to my poetry book, Accents (now on Amazon KDP). At the 2:30 mark I talk about those days in graduate school

https://soundcloud.com/arthur-turfa-1/accents

To most of my other books.....

https://www.amazon.com/Arthur-Turfa/e/B00YJ9LNOA%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share

And to my novel!  

https://www.blurb.com/b/10799783-the-botleys-of-beaumont-county