Lancelot or The Knight of the Cart

Chretien de Troyes

The Legacy Lives

Mission Statement

Much of what we have discussed this semester has centered around making connections. By offering a historical, social, and literary basis for our discussion, the goal is to present you with a well-rounded picture of how Chretien de Troyes connects to the rest of what we've studied of Western culture this year and how he fits into the broad social and literary web as well.

The main purpose of this project is to show to you a big picture about Chrétien de Troyes and his work Lancelot, also know as The Knight of the Cart. Since many of us are familiar with the figure of Lancelot but have little idea where this character, or the ideas of Arthurian legend, originated our group decided to focus on the story of Lancelot instead of exploring de Troyes' less commonly known works. We hope to give you an idea of how Chretien de Troyes used figures and ideas that were prevalent in the world around him and synthesized them into a presentation of his own understanding of his society.

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