Instruction
TOPIC: The “Monstrous” in Marie de France’s “Bisclavret”
Write a clearly organized essay, of four pages, in which you develop and support an argument (thesis)
addressing the following question: who is more “monstrous,” Bisclavret or his wife? Why?
Base your paper ONLY on your careful reading and interpretation of the primary text – that is, Marie de
France’s “Bisclavret” – and the following secondary source, which you will find online through the
Library:
Classen, Albrecht. “The Monster Outside and Within: Medieval Literary Reflections on Ethical
Epistemology. From Beowulf to Marie de France, the Nibelungenlied, and Thüring von
Ringoltingen’s Melusine.” Neohelicon, vol. 40, no. 2, Dec. 2013, pp. 521–542. EBSCOhost,
doi:10.1007/s11059-013-0198-5.
Focus on the following sections/pages of Classen’s article: "Abstract"; "Introduction: medieval
teratology"; "The meaning of the monster/monstrous" (pp. 521 – 525)”; “The Monster Within:
Marie de France’s Bisclavret” (pp. 532 – 535); and "Conclusion" (pp. 538 – 540).