LTWL 172  Parzival

Wed., April 14: Parzival Book I     No quiz today

Fri., April 16:  Parzival Book II    Possible Quiz:  Question 6. 

Mon., April 19:  Parzival Book XV  No quiz today

Wed., April 21: Parzival Book XVI and section from PSML Possible Quiz:  Question 9. 

Fri., April 23:  Parzival wrap-up—intro to Guillaume de Palerne   Possible Quiz: Question 5 or Question 7

Week Six:

Tues., May 9: Parzival.  Books I and II (pp. 1-65)  Possible Quiz:  Question 6.

Thurs., May 11: Parzival Book XV (p. 383-409)    We will not have a quiz. 

Week Seven:

Tues, May 16: Parzival XVI  (p. 410-431).  Possible Quiz:  Question 9. 

Books I and II

1. What are some of the values praised in the opening of this text?  What is an ideal woman like? An ideal man?

2.  Who is Gahmuret?  Why must he leave home and where does he travel?

3.  How are Moors portrayed in this text?  How does this compare to other Christian authored texts we’ve read?

4.  Who is Belacane and why is she under siege? Why does Gahmuret eventually leave Belacane?

5.  Look at the opening paragraph of the text and consider the focus on black and white.  What difference does skin color make in this text?  Is this racism–why or why not? 

6.  Throughout the text we are getting a picture of the poet/narrator, often associated with Wolfram himself (and the narrator does identify himself as Wolfram).  What type of narrative voice is this?

Some elements to consider in a thesis: How does this narrator seem to relate to women?   Do you accept his statement on page 65– “Ine kan decheinen Buochstap” –I don’t know a single letter of the alphabet?”  Why or why not? 

7.   I want to try to consider the genre of romance itself.   Consider these two quotes in light of Parzival:

“A self-portrayal of feudal knighthood with its mores and ideals is the fundamental purpose of the courtly romance” Erich Auerbach, Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature, trans. Willard R. Trask, Princeton UP, 1968) 131. [original German text written in Istanbul between May 1942 and April 1945].

“It has been suggested that romance is an evasion of history (and thus perhaps attractive to a people trying to evade the recent past).  But I am more persuaded by arguments that find in it the head-on encounter with very real, pressing historical forces and the contradictions inherent in them as they came to be experienced by writers.  Romance, an exploration of anxiety imported from the shadows of European culture, made possible the sometimes safe and other times risky embrace of quite specific, understandably human, fears...” Toni Morrison, Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination.  Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP, 1992, page 36.  Cited in Geraldine Heng, “Cannibalism, the First Crusade, and the Genesis of Medieval Romance,” Differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies 10.1 (1998): 98-174. 

8.  What do you make of the fight between the two half-brothers, Feirefiz and Parzival?  What do we learn about Feirefiz? 

9.  What does Feirefiz symbolize in Parzival?  If this is a text about the development of Parzival as a knight, what role does Feirefiz play in this narrative progression?  What are we meant to learn through his character?

10.  Do you accept Feirefiz’s conversion as a sincere one?  How is it described?  How does it compare to the conversion of Bramimonde in Roland?

11.  What is the Grail?  What do you see as its significance?

Summaries of Books XV and XVI

My rough trans. from Joachim Bumke, Wolfram v. Eschenbach. Sixth ed. Stuttgart: Metzler Verlag, 1991.  Sammlung Metzler series #36. 

Book XV: In the woods, Parzival encounters a magnificently bejeweled Knight. With exchanging a word they begin to fight, with the result that P’s sword breaks.  Bravely and generously the stranger knight throws his sword into the woods and reveals himself as P’s half-brother, Feirefiz.  He is there with a huge army in search of adventure and his father, Gahmuret.  P brings him back to where Gawan and Arthur are.  The next day Arthur holds a feast to honor Feirefiz and takes him into the Round Table fellowship.  As they are all festively gathered at the Round Table, Cundrie the sorceress appears and summons P to the Grail.  He may bring someone with him to Munsalvaesche and he chooses Feirefiz.  The two then depart for the Grail castle.

Book XVI: In Munsalvaesche sorrow reigns.  Anfortas wishes for death, but his is kept in life by glimpses of the Grail.  As Cundrie appears with the two brothers the sorrow turns to joy.  P goes before Anfortas and asks the healing question, the King is immediately healed and becomes wonderful to behold.  P takes over the rule of the Grail.  He rides to Condwiramurs and encounters Trevrizent along the way.  Trevrizent asks his nephew’s pardon for trying to divert him from the Grail.  At the spot where P saw the three blood drops he find Condwiramurs and after five years the couple reunites and P sees for the first time his two sons.  They return to the Grail castle and on the way find Sigune’s cloister; she lies dead within.  In Munsalvaesche P and Feirefiz experience the festive procession of the Grail.  Feirefiz falls in love with Repanse de Schoye and renounces his love Secundille and embraces Christianity to win her.  Feirefiz is baptized and marries Repanse de Schoye.  They depart.  Later Repanse de Schoye gives birth to a Son named John who goes on to convert people to Christianity in India.