This short paper assignment asks you to analyze The Song of Roland and The Song of the Cid from a perspective of postcolonial theory. Choose two critical readings that we’ve read so far to use as proof-texts for your reading of the epic. You may choose from the following:

Said, Edward W. Orientalism. 1st Vintage Books ed. New York: Vintage, 1979.

Lampert-Weissig, Lisa. “Chapter 1: The Future of the Past.” Medieval Literature and Postcolonial Studies. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2010.

Kinoshita, S. “‘Pagans Are Wrong and Christians Are Right’: Alterity, Gender, and Nation in the Chanson De Roland.” Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 31.1 (2001): 79–112.

Carpenter, Dwayne E. “Social Perception and Literary Portrayal: Jews and Muslims in Medieval Spanish Literature.” Convivencia: Jews, Muslims, and Christians in Medieval Spain. Ed. Vivian B. Mann, Thomas F. Glick, and Jerrilynn D. Dodds. New York: George Braziller, 1992. 61–82.

Possible list of themes identified by postcolonial critics (not exhaustive)

1. Depictions of Muslims, Jews, and Christians in the poems
2. War and religion
3. Masculinity, femininity, and gender
4. Race and racialization in The Song of Roland

Or, you may choose your own based on your own interests. ‍

Instructions

Choose a theme or a connective link between either The Song of Roland or The Song of the Cid and your critical text(s). Define it for your reader and explain how it functions in your texts. Describe how a reader, either medieval or modern, might interpret this. 

Everything in a literary text symbolizes something else—both connotatively and denotatively. Consider multiple, or even contradictory, meanings to your chosen symbol. Cite frequently, to demonstrate and prove your points, using page numbers and/or line numbers from poetry.