Approaches to Teaching the 'Song of Roland' (review)

As its title suggests, this book is a teaching aid and not a study of La Chanson de Roland. Among its numerous contributors are some distinguished senior scholars of the Old French epic as well as younger ones, all of whom have recent experience of teaching the text in universities and colleges, mainly in North America. Nevertheless, its wide-ranging survey of the major issues and approaches relating to 'the Roland' will be useful to all teachers in the anglophone world and probably beyond. Limitations of space do not permit a full review of the thirty-six essays, some marvels of concision, which are arranged into two main parts of uneven length, 'Materials' (pp. 9–41) and 'Approaches' (pp. 45–280). These are preceded by a preface (pp. 1–5) and followed by a bibliography of works cited (pp. 287–309) and indices (pp. 311–17). The most innovative feature of the book is perhaps the inclusion of a CD-ROM. The first part, largely practical, surveys editions and translations, basic studies for teachers and students, audiovisual and electronic resources (including musical ones), and maps. Numerous approaches are covered in the second part, many essays describing personal experiences of teaching the text, some with lesson-plans and specific suggestions for how to communicate major aspects of the text to students. Approaches are discussed under the following headings: 'Historical, Intellectual, and Literary Contexts' (Charlemagne, Rencesvals, origins, versions of the poem, feudalism, military history, postcolonialism); 'Avatars of the Song of Roland' (Italian, Spanish, nineteenth-century); 'Text, Language, and Poetic Techniques' (England, translations, orality and reading, phonetics, versification); 'The Song of Roland in the Classroom' (curriculum, levels of teaching, teaching in translation, history, world and medieval literature courses); 'Major Characters and Episodes' (Roland vs Olivier, the death of Roland, the Baligant episode, the trial of Ganelon, Aude and Bramimonde); 'Critical Approaches' (violence, readings of Roland's desmesure, the swords of Roland, Charlemagne and Thierry, structuralism and beyond, political uses). Given the relationship, however tenuous, of the old French epic with oral and musical traditions, the CD-ROM is of some interest as a means of suggesting to students that medieval literature is not just text but that it also has a performative dimension. Since there is no extant music in the manuscript tradition of La Chanson de Roland, the performance of extracts from the poem recited or sung in the nineteen short tracks is speculative, although within certain medieval musicological parameters that render it at least plausible. Whether students will be inclined to listen to, or attempt to perform, the poem's 4000 assonating decasyllables after listening to the CD-ROM is another issue. However, colleagues will be grateful to William Kibler and Leslie Morgan for coordinating this useful collection of essays which will henceforth provide a stimulating point of departure for reflections on teaching La chanson de Roland.