The Song of Roland Across Time

Presented by Basic Program instructors and open to all, these lectures also complement the texts and ideas from our curriculum and always include a Q&A session.

This First Friday Lecture is supported by the Anastaplo Lecture Series Fund in memory of Basic Program Instructor George Anastaplo.

How does the way we read a text change across time? This lecture will explore the many ways in which the canonical medieval poem The Song of Roland has been circulated, read, used, and understood in a variety of contexts across the centuries, up to the present day. The poem itself invites us to think across time, as it retells the story of a battle from centuries before through the invention of new protagonists and new enemies, remaking the historical event at its center for the ideological purposes of the 11th century. Frequently referenced as a model of knightly bravery (or knightly folly?) and long considered a foundational text for French identity and the concept of Christendom, we will see how one poem can reflect the light of many historical moments and bring our own way of reading into focus.