The Arthurian Legend in Literature and Film

King Arthur of Camelot has fascinated writers and artists for centuries. This seminar interrogates the grip the legend has had on Western imagination, beginning with 20th- and 21st-century novels and films. How do such works "read" Arthur and what do these interpretations imply about their own contexts? Tracing the legend back to its earliest (5th c.) manifestations in Latin chronicles, students explore the creation, deployment, and transmission of myth over time and thereby develop their ability to perform close readings of different media as well as more nuanced understandings of both the present and the past.