Thomas Hahn

Last updated

Thomas Hahn (born 1946) is an American professor of medieval literature and English who has taught since 1973 at the University of Rochester. After undergraduate studies at Fordham, he completed a Ph.D. at UCLA in 1974. He is especially known for his work on medieval European travel narratives, [1] race in pre-modern Europe, [2] and the modern reception of Robin Hood. [3] He has advised over three dozen Ph.D. students during his fifty years at Rochester. Hahn's interest in medieval English literature, as well as its intersection with popular culture, is reflected both in his publications and in the conferences he has organized. [4] [5]

Contents

Career

Becoming an assistant professor of English at the University of Rochester in 1973, Hahn was promoted to associate professor in 1979 and full professor in 1993. [6]

Hahn edited a collection of the medieval poems about Sir Gawain for the TEAMS Middle English Texts Series, Sir Gawain: Eleven Romances and Tales, in 1995. [7] His work with the Middle English Texts Series and the Chaucer Bibliographies has been supported with grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities. [8]

Hahn was the editor of Robin Hood in Popular Culture: Violence, Transgression, and Justice. [9] The book published conference proceedings from a 1997 conference at Rochester that was billed as the first devoted entirely to Robin Hood and related characters. [4] He also co-edited a festschrift for Russell Peck, Retelling Tales: Essays in Honor of Russell Peck; [10] and has been a leading contributor to advances in digital projects at the University's Rossell Hope Robbins Library. [11] [12] Most recently, he edited a volume of essays titled A Cultural History of Race in the Middle Ages, [13] the second volume of a six-volume series.

In 2022, Hahn was honored with a festschrift co-edited by former Ph.D. students Valerie Johnson and Kara McShane entitled Negotiating Boundaries in Medieval Literature and Culture: Essays on Marginality, Difference, and Reading Practices in Honor of Thomas Hahn. [14]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robin Hood</span> Heroic outlaw in English folklore

Robin Hood is a legendary heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature, theatre, and cinema. According to legend, he was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. In some versions of the legend, he is depicted as being of noble birth, and in modern retellings he is sometimes depicted as having fought in the Crusades before returning to England to find his lands taken by the Sheriff. In the oldest known versions, he is instead a member of the yeoman class. Traditionally depicted dressed in Lincoln green, he is most famous for his attribute of stealing from the rich to give to the poor.

<i>Sir Gawain and the Green Knight</i> 14th-century Middle English chivalric romance

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a late 14th-century chivalric romance in Middle English alliterative verse. The author is unknown; the title was given centuries later. It is one of the best-known Arthurian stories, with its plot combining two types of folk motifs: the beheading game, and the exchange of winnings. Written in stanzas of alliterative verse, each of which ends in a rhyming bob and wheel, it draws on Welsh, Irish, and English stories, as well as the French chivalric tradition. It is an important example of a chivalric romance, which typically involves a hero who goes on a quest which tests his prowess. It remains popular in modern English renderings from J. R. R. Tolkien, Simon Armitage, and others, as well as through film and stage adaptations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">English mythology</span>

English mythology is the collection of myths that have emerged throughout the history of England, sometimes being elaborated upon by successive generations, and at other times being rejected and replaced by other explanatory narratives. These narratives consist of folk traditions developed in England after the Norman Conquest, integrated with traditions from Anglo-Saxon mythology, Christian mythology, and Celtic mythology. Elements of the Matter of Britain, Welsh mythology and Cornish mythology which relate directly to England are included, such as the foundation myth of Brutus of Troy and the Arthurian legends, but these are combined with narratives from the Matter of England and traditions from English folklore.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gawain</span> Knight in Arthurian legends

Gawain, also known in many other forms and spellings, is a character in Arthurian legend, in which he is King Arthur's nephew and one of the premier Knights of the Round Table. The prototype of Gawain is mentioned under the name Gwalchmei in the earliest Welsh sources. He has subsequently appeared in many Arthurian tales in Welsh, Latin, French, English, Scottish, Dutch, German, Spanish, and Italian, notably as the protagonist of the Middle English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Other works featuring Gawain as their central character include De Ortu Waluuanii, Diu Crône, Ywain and Gawain, Golagros and Gawane, Sir Gawain and the Carle of Carlisle, L'âtre périlleux, La Mule sans frein, La Vengeance Raguidel, Le Chevalier à l'épée, Le Livre d'Artus, The Awntyrs off Arthure, The Greene Knight, and The Weddynge of Syr Gawen and Dame Ragnell.

<i>Pearl</i> (poem) 14th-century English poem

Pearl is a late 14th-century Middle English poem that is considered one of the most important surviving Middle English works. With elements of medieval allegory and from the dream vision genre, the poem is written in a North-West Midlands variety of Middle English and is highly—though not consistently—alliterative; there is, among other stylistic features, a complex system of stanza-linking.

Cleanness is a Middle English alliterative poem written in the late 14th century. Its unknown author, designated the Pearl poet or Gawain poet, also appears, on the basis of dialect and stylistic evidence, to be the author of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, and Patience, and may have also composed St. Erkenwald.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Green Knight</span> Character in Arthurian legend

The Green Knight is a heroic character of the Matter of Britain, originating in the 14th-century poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and the related medieval work The Greene Knight. His true name is revealed to be Bertilak de Hautdesert in Sir Gawain, while The Greene Knight names him "Bredbeddle". The Green Knight later features as one of Arthur's greatest champions in the fragmentary ballad "King Arthur and King Cornwall", again with the name "Bredbeddle".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rush Rhees Library</span> Library of the University of Rochester in New York, US

Rush Rhees Library is the main academic library of the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York. It is one of the most visible and recognizable landmarks on the university's River Campus. Construction began in 1927 with the other original River Campus buildings and the library was dedicated in 1930. It is named after Benjamin Rush Rhees, the university's third president. A major addition was added in 1970, which now houses the main computer lab, additional stacks and office space. Rush Rhees is the flagship of the River Campus Libraries System, which holds about 3 million volumes. The library featured an elevator completely original from 1930 until 2021 when it received a full modernization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Medievalism</span> System of belief and practice inspired by the Middle Ages of Europe

Medievalism is a system of belief and practice inspired by the Middle Ages of Europe, or by devotion to elements of that period, which have been expressed in areas such as architecture, literature, music, art, philosophy, scholarship, and various vehicles of popular culture. Since the 17th century, a variety of movements have used the medieval period as a model or inspiration for creative activity, including Romanticism, the Gothic revival, the pre-Raphaelite and arts and crafts movements, and neo-medievalism . Historians have attempted to conceptualize the history of non-European countries in terms of medievalisms, but the approach has been controversial among scholars of Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

"The Marriage of Sir Gawain" is an English Arthurian ballad, collected as Child Ballad 31. Found in the Percy Folio, it is a fragmented account of the story of Sir Gawain and the loathly lady, which has been preserved in fuller form in the medieval poem The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle. The loathly lady episode itself dates at least back to Geoffrey Chaucer's "Wife of Bath's Tale" from The Canterbury Tales. Unlike most of the Child Ballads, but like the Arthurian "King Arthur and King Cornwall" and "The Boy and the Mantle", "The Marriage of Sir Gawain" is not a folk ballad but a song for professional minstrels.

<i>The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle</i> 15th-century English poem

The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle is a 15th-century English poem, one of several versions of the "loathly lady" story popular during the Middle Ages. An earlier version of the story appears as "The Wyfe of Bayths Tale" in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, and the later ballad "The Marriage of Sir Gawain" is essentially a retelling, though its relationship to the medieval poem is uncertain. The author's name is not known, but similarities to Le Morte d'Arthur have led to the suggestion that the poem may have been written by Sir Thomas Malory.

"King Arthur and King Cornwall" is an English ballad surviving in fragmentary form in the 17th-century Percy Folio manuscript. An Arthurian story, it was collected by Francis James Child as Child Ballad 30. Unlike other Child Ballads, but like the Arthurian "The Boy and the Mantle" and "The Marriage of Sir Gawain", it is not a folk ballad but a professional minstrel's song. It is notable for containing the Green Knight, a character known from the medieval poems The Greene Knight and the more famous Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; he appears as "Bredbeddle", the character's name in The Greene Knight.

<i>The Outlaws of Sherwood</i>

The Outlaws of Sherwood is a retelling of the legend of Robin Hood by Robin McKinley. In McKinley's afterword, she says, "The retellings through the centuries have echoed concurrent preoccupations." The story includes both the traditional Robin Hood characters — Little John, Much, Friar Tuck, Marian and Alan-a-dale — and characters of McKinley's own invention. Notably, three of the most important characters are women, all of whom escape marriage to prospective spouses chosen by their fathers.

<i>Wolfshead: The Legend of Robin Hood</i> 1973 British film

Wolfshead: The Legend of Robin Hood is an adventure film directed by John Hough and starring David Warbeck, Ciaran Madden, Kathleen Byron, David Butler and Kenneth Gilbert. The film was the debut movie of actor David Warbeck as Robin Hood. The film was originally a 1969 television series pilot but was released in movie theatres in 1973, as a support feature to the musical Take Me High. The film was also released on VHS under the title The Legend of Young Robin Hood.

Sir Gawain and the Carle of Carlisle is a Middle English tail-rhyme romance of 660 lines, composed in about 1400. A similar story is told in a 17th-century minstrel piece found in the Percy Folio and known as The Carle of Carlisle. These are two of a number of early English poems that feature the Arthurian hero Sir Gawain, the nephew of King Arthur, in his English role as a knight of the Round Table renowned for his valour and, particularly, for his courtesy.

The Knightly Tale of Gologras and Gawain is a Middle Scots Arthurian romance written in alliterative verse of 1362 lines, known solely from a printed edition of 1508 in the possession of the National Library of Scotland. No manuscript copy of this lively and exciting tale has survived.

Ralph Warren Victor Elliott, was a German-born Australian professor of English, and a runologist.

Russell A. Peck was an American medievalist, scholar of medieval literature, and author. At the time of his retirement in 2014, he was John Hall Deane Professor of English at the University of Rochester, where he began teaching in 1961.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Constance Bartlett Hieatt</span> American scholar of medieval cooking, language, and literature

Constance Bartlett Hieatt was an American scholar with a broad interest in medieval languages and literatures, including Old Norse literature, Anglo-Saxon prosody and literature, and Middle English language, literature, and culture. She was an editor and translator of Karlamagnús saga, of Beowulf, and a scholar of Geoffrey Chaucer. She was particularly known as one of the world's foremost experts in English medieval cooking and cookbooks, and authored and co-authored a number of important books considered essential publications in the field.

The Avowing of Arthur, or in full The Avowing of King Arthur, Sir Gawain, Sir Kay, and Baldwin of Britain, is an anonymous Middle English romance in 16-line tail-rhyme stanzas telling of the adventures of its four heroes in and around Carlisle and Inglewood Forest. The poem was probably composed towards the end of the 14th century or the beginning of the 15th century by a poet in the north of England. It exhibits many similarities of form and plot with Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and other romances of the Middle English Gawain cycle. Though formerly dismissed as an ill-organized collection of unconnected episodes, it has more recently been called a "complex and thought-provoking romance" with an effective diptych structure, which displays a wide knowledge of Arthurian and other tales and gives a fresh turn to them.

References

  1. ↑ Staff, C. T. (11 March 2006). "Hahn gives medieval lecture". Campus Times. Retrieved 15 December 2023.
  2. ↑ Hahn, Thomas (1 January 2001). "The Difference the Middle Ages Makes: Color and Race before the Modern World". Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies. 31 (1): 1–38. doi: 10.1215/10829636-31-1-1 . Retrieved 15 December 2023.
  3. ↑ Hahn, Thomas (14 May 2020). Robin Hood in Popular Culture: Violence, Transgression, and Justice. Boydell & Brewer. Retrieved 15 December 2023.
  4. 1 2 Applebome, Peter (26 October 2009). "A Hero (or Villain) for the Left (or the Right)". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
  5. ↑ Staff, C. T. (29 December 2009). "Merry men, meet the media". Campus Times. Retrieved 15 December 2023.
  6. ↑ Coletti, Theresa (21 March 2022). "Chapter 1 Reimagining Medieval Studies: The Career of Thomas Hahn". Negotiating Boundaries in Medieval Literature and Culture. Medieval Institute Publications. pp. 9–18. doi:10.1515/9781501514210-002. ISBN   978-1-5015-1421-0 . Retrieved 15 December 2023.
  7. ↑ Wasserman, Julian (2001). "Review of Sir Gawain: Eleven Romances and Tales; The Weddynge of Sir Gawen and Dame Ragnell". Arthuriana. 11 (1): 116–118. ISSN   1078-6279. JSTOR   27869618 . Retrieved 24 March 2023.
  8. ↑ "News from the MLA MLA Members Receive 2023 NEH Grants". news.mla.hcommons.org. Retrieved 15 December 2023.
  9. ↑ Hahn, Thomas, ed. (2000). Robin Hood in popular culture : violence, transgression, and justice. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer. ISBN   9780859915649.
  10. ↑ Lupack, Alan; Hahn, Thomas G. (1997). Retelling Tales: Essays in Honor of Russell Peck. D.S. Brewer. ISBN   978-0-85991-477-2 . Retrieved 15 December 2023.
  11. ↑ "Rochester Review • University of Rochester". www.rochester.edu. Retrieved 15 December 2023.
  12. ↑ "Rossell H. Robbins, 77, Ex-Professor at SUNY". The New York Times. 7 March 1990. Retrieved 15 December 2023.
  13. ↑ Hahn, Thomas (June 2023). A Cultural History of Race in the Middle Ages. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN   978-1-350-06743-1 . Retrieved 15 December 2023.
  14. ↑ Johnson, Valerie B.; McShane, Kara L., eds. (2022). Negotiating boundaries in medieval literature and culture : essays on marginality, difference, and reading practices in honor of Thomas Hahn. Berlin: Medieval Institute Publications. doi:10.1515/9781501514210. ISBN   9781501520563. S2CID   247959191 . Retrieved 24 March 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.