The Bayeux Tapestry:
Record, Artifact, Narrative

Wednesday, 14-18
Országh Seminar Room [119]

Novák György (SzTE)
gnovak@lit.u-szeged.hu
http://www.jate.u-szeged.hu/~gnovak/

University of Debrecen
autumn 2000

Course Description

The course considers and discusses this unique 11th-century embroidery from various aspects. The Tapestry will be discussed as a historical record, a source of information about the past; as a work of art, trying to create order, beauty, aesthetic value; as a narration empoying various (unusual and usual) means to tell a story. The approaches will include, among others, the structural, where the various relationships between the whole and its parts will be considered; and the intertextual, where sub/inter"texts" will be sought to elucidate othervise unintelligible "passages", etc. Special attention will be paid to the upper and lower borders, which abound in scenes and figures that have (so far) defied all attempts at elucidation.

Course schedule

No.

Date

Topic

Texts

1-2

13 Sep

The history; the Tapestry as historical source

2, 16, 19, 29, 33, 34

3-4

27 Sep

The Tapestry as narrative; means and limits

2, 3, 8, 15

5-6

11 Oct

Sub/intertexts: the borders

1, 12, 22, 31, 36

7-8

1 Nov

Readings: Aelfgyva, Harold’s blinding, etc.

1, 4, 17, 22, 27

9-10

15 Nov

Hands and fingers — a hidden code?

 

11-12

29 Nov

Close reading

10, 14, 32

13-14

13 Dec

Summing up; Final test

 

Assignments, grading Participants will be asked to make oral introductions (5-10 minutes), as part of their classroom activity, on various aspects of the Tapestry based on their readings of the literature, which may be made available by the instructor. Participants will be asked to submit a short mid-term essay (3-4000 characters) on any aspect of the subject. The course will be concluded by a written end-term test. A final essay (8-9000 characters), which may be a more detailed elaboration of the mid-term essay, is to be submitted by 30 December, 2000 the latest. The class will take no more than 20 participants

For grading, [1]classroom activity, including the introduction (25%),
[2]the mid-term essay (20%),
[3]the final essay (30%), and
[4]the end-term test (25%) will be considered.
(91%- 5/excellent, 76%- 4/good, 61%- 3/average, 46%- 2/pass, -45% 1/fail)
Passing the end-term test and the final essay is a precondition of grading.

 

Compulsory/recommended texts/readings
 = available from master copy
 = compulsory reading

1) (for Oct 11, Nov 1)
Aesop’s fables (e.g.: Aiszóposz meséi, fordította Sarkady János. Bp: Magyar Helikon, 1969; Aiszóposz meséi, fordította Bodor András. Bukarest: Kriterion, 1970); Aisopos meséi, fordította Czímer József. Bp: ABC, 1943; Aesopus fabulái, Pesti Gábor szerint. Bp: Magvetõ, 1980; Phaedrus, Augustus szabadosa, Aesopi meséinek öt könyve, fordította Sárváry Jakab. Bp: Aigner Lajos, 1876)

2) (for Sep 27)
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle C, D, E 1066, in: Douglas, D. C.—Greenaway, G. W.: English Historical Documents 1042-1189. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1953, pp. 142-146.

3) (for Sep 27)
Baudri de Bourgeuil: Adelae Comitissae. Appendix III in: Brown, Shirley Ann: The Bayeux Tapestry. History and Bibliography. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 1988.

4) (for Nov 1)
Bernstein, David: "The Blinding of Harold and the Meaning of the Bayeux Tapestry." Anglo-Norman Studies V. Proceedings of the Battle Conference. 1982. 40-64;

7) (no deadline)
Bertrand, Simone: The Bayeux Tapestry. Rennes, Éditions Ouest-France, 1992.

8) (for Sep 27)
Brooks, N.P. and Walker, H.E.: "The Authority and Interpretation of the Bayeux Tapestry." In: Proceedings of the Battle Conference on Anglo-Norman Studies 1 (1978), 1-34.

10) (for Nov 29)
Brown, Shirley Ann: "The Bayeux Tapestry: Why Eustace, Odo and William?" Anglo-Norman Studies XII. Proceedings of the Battle Conference. 1989. 7-28;

12) (for Oct 11)
Chefneux, Hélene: "Les Fables dans la Tapisserie de Bayeux." Romania. Revue Trimestrielle consacré a l'étude des langues et des littératures romanes. LX. 237 (Janvier 1934) 1-35; (Fevrier 1934) 153-194.

14) (for Nov 29)
Cowdrey, H.E.J.: "Towards an Interpretation of the Bayeux Tapestry." Anglo-Norman Studies X. Proceedings of the Battle Conference. 1987. 49-65;

15) (for Sep 27)
Dodwell, C.R.: "The Bayeux Tapestry and the French Secular Epic." The Burlington Magazine. Volume 108 Number 764 (November 1966) 549-560;

16) (for Sep 13)
Freeman, Edward A.: The History of the Norman Conquest. Bielefeld und Leipzig: Velhagen & Klasing, 1893.

17) (for Nov 1)
Gibbs-Smith, Charles H.: "The Death of Harold at the Battle of Hastings." History Today X (1960) 188-191;

18) (no deadline)
Grape, Wolfgang: The Bayeux Tapestry. Monument to a Norman Triumph. Munich, New York: Prestel, 199?

19) (for Sep 13)
Kiff, Jennie: "Images of War: Illustrations of Warfare in Early Eleventh-Century England." Anglo-Norman Studies VII. Proceedings of the Battle Conference. 1984. 177-194;

21) (no deadline)
MacLagan, Eric: The Bayeux Tapestry. London, New York: King Penguin, 1943 (Copy in KLTE Library — 32pp text, + plates)

22) (for Oct 11, Nov 1)
McNulty, J. Bard: "The Lady Aelfgyva in the Bayeux Tapestry." Speculum 55/4 (1980), 659-668;

24) (no deadline)
Musset, L.: The Bayeux Tapestry. Nentes: Artaud Freres Publication, s.a.

27) (for Nov 1)
Porter, Roger S.: The Puzzles of the Bayeux Tapestry. Hastings: Ferndale Press, 1986.

28) (no deadline)
Setton, Kenneth M.: "900 Years ago: The Norman Conquest." National Geographic 130/2 (August, 1966), 206-251.

29) (for Sep 13)
Stenton, Sir Frank (General editor): The Bayeux Tapestry. A Comprehensive Survey. London: Phaidon Press, 1957.

29a) Stenton, Frank Merry: Anglo-Saxon England. Oxford : Clarendon, 1947. The relevant chapters. Available from KLTE Library

30) (no deadline)
Stothard, Charles: "Some Observations on the Bayeux Tapestry." Archaeologia 19 (1821), 184-191.

31) (for Oct 11)
Varga Vanda Éva—Jójárt Júlia (eds), A Bayeux-i faliszõnyeg. Második, átdolgozott kiadás. Documenta Historica 34. Szeged, JATE Történész Diákkör, 1998. (Available from KLTE Library or from instructor)

32) (for Nov 29)
Werckmeister, Otto: "The Political Ideology of the Bayeux Tapestry." Studi Medievali 17/2 (1976) 535-595.

33) (for Sep 13)
William of Jumièges: description of the invasion of England by William the Conqueror, in: Douglas, D. C.—Greenaway, G. W.: English Historical Documents 1042-1189. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1953, pp. 215-216.

34) (for Sep 13)
William of Poitiers: "The Deeds of William, duke of the Normans and king of the English", in: Douglas, D. C.—Greenaway, G. W.: English Historical Documents 1042-1189. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1953, pp. 217-231.

36) (for Oct 11)
Yapp, W.B.: "Animals in medieval art: the Bayeux Tapestry as an example." Journal of Medieval History 13 (1987), 15-73.

5) Bernstein, David J.: The Mystery of the Bayeux Tapestry. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1986;

6) Bertrand, Simone: La Tappiserie de Bayeux et la maniere de vivre au onzieme siècle. Zodiaque, 1966;

9) Brown, Shirley Ann: The Bayeux Tapestry. History and Bibliography. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 1988.

23) McNulty, J. Bard: The Narrative Art of the Bayeux Tapestry Master. New York: AMS Press, 1989.

35) Wilson, Sir David M.: The Bayeux Tapestry. London: Thames and Hudson, 1985.

 

Some useful websites: