NORRIS J.
LACY
Edwin
Erle Sparks Professor Emeritus
of French and
Medieval Studies
The Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA 16802-6203
- Office: 317 Burrowes
Bldg.
- Phone: (814) 206-6380
- Fax: (562) 502-3672
- E-Mail: NJL2@psu.edu
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here for my . . .
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professional interests (summary)
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and medieval page , with
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vitae
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PROFESSIONAL (AND OTHER) INFORMATION
A medievalist with a Ph.D. from Indiana University, I have held previous academic positions at Indiana, The University of Kansas, UCLA (visiting), and Washington University in St. Louis. I also served as department chair at Kansas (French and Italian) and at Washington University (Romance Languages and Literatures) for a total of fourteen years. In 1998 I accepted appointment at Penn State as the Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of French (with the "Medieval Studies" title added in 2002). I retired 30 June 2012.
My research and teaching focus principally on the Arthurian legend (medieval and modern) and on medieval narrative, especially romance and fabliau. In the area of Arthurian studies I have written The Craft of Chrétien de Troyes, co-authored The Arthurian Handbook , edited The Arthurian Encyclopedia (and its successor, imaginatively titled The New Arthurian Encyclopedia), and edited and translated the Tristran of Béroul. I also directed a five-volume translation of the French Vulgate (or Lancelot-Grail) and Post-Vulgate Cycles of Arthurian romance, providing the translation of one of the romances, La Mort Artu; later revised, this set was reissued in ten paperback volumes. In addition, I have edited a number of other Arthurian volumes including A Companion to Chrétien de Troyes (co-edited), The Fortunes of King Arthur, A History of Arthurian Scholarship, Perceval/Parzival: A Casebook (co-edited), and The Grail, the Quest, and the World of King Arthur. I also ventured briefly into Arthurian fiction with A Camelot Triptych. The majority of my articles and papers have also treated Arthurian subjects; most of those are on medieval French literature, but some deal with other medieval literatures (e.g., Dutch and Norse) and with modern literature (French, English, and American) as well as film.
My non-Arthurian volumes include a book titled Reading Fabliaux, a co-edited volume on The Old French Fabliaux: Essays on Comedy and Context, and three critical editions: 26 chansons d'amour de la Renaissance (a collection of sixteenth-century French chansons populaires); a "modern medieval" romance (that is, a nineteenth- or twentieth-century counterfeit) titled L'Istoyre de Jehan Coquault ; and Les Voeux du heron, a fictionalized medieval account of the genesis of the Hundred Years War.
In the classroom, my experience includes both the full range of undergraduate French courses (language, literature, and civilization) and a wide variety of graduate offerings. Among the latter are From Arthur to the Grail, Chansons de geste, Medieval Romance, Epic and Romance, Fabliaux, The Literature of Courtly Love, Medieval Lyric, FrançoisVillon, Problems of Genre in Medieval Literature, The Medieval Literary Arts, Paris in the Middle Ages, The Tristan Legend, Textual Criticism and Editing, Old French, History of the French Language, Introduction to Graduate Studies, Literary Criticism, Renaissance Literature, and Medieval Comedy, Parody, and Irony. My Arthurian seminars, in French and Comparative Literature, have treated major medieval authors, texts, and themes (e.g., Chrétien de Troyes, the Vulgate Cycle, Grail Literature, Quests and Tests in Arthurian Literature). I have also offered comparative courses that deal with the entire spectrum of Arthuriana from archaeology and chronicles to literature, painting, music, film, the decorative arts, and popular culture.
I
have been very fortunate to receive several honors over the
years. Among them
are a knighthood in France's Ordre
des Palmes Académiques
(Chevalier,
1988; elevated to Officier, 2003
[photo from latter
ceremony at right]), my election as President (1984-87; then
as Honorary
President) of the International Arthurian Society, and the
decision of the
editors of the journal Arthuriana
to name a
scholarly prize for me. I am also particularly pleased by two
publications in
my honor. In May 2000, I was presented with "Por
le soie amisté":
Essays
in Honor of Norris J. Lacy (ed. Keith Busby and
Catherine M. Jones),
a collection of articles by colleagues in eight countries. And
in Summer 2008, Arthuriana
published an issue (a "Lagniappe
Festschrift") dedicated to me; it was edited by two of my
former students
(Kristin L. Burr and David S. King) and featuring articles by
them and by
several more of my former students.
Much of my spare time these days is spent on art (especially photography and digital painting). In addition, following retirement, I returned after exactly fifty years to what had financed my undergraduate education: the saxophone. After a couple of months of practice, I played my first gig, with a band that does Motown, soul, and funk. A few weeks later I sat in with a different band, which plays primarily swing. Lots of fun in both instances!
Finally, but by no means least, I am a lover of cats, books, tropical beaches, and good food.