What importance does Mary serve in the first two fitts and how is this influenced by her being a woman?

What are the overall main themes in The Tàin (give examples)? Was there any part that confused you or left you questioning throughout the last sections of the book?

In the closing chapters of The Táin, there are three female figures studied somewhat closely by the text: Medb, Finnabair, and the perhaps more elusive Morrígan. What do these figures have in common, besides their femininity? Which of these characters suffers the most because of her gender and why?

Within chapter 1, of the reading in Manne’s Down girl, She analyzes misogyny and its misogynistic attitudes. What are some examples of misogyny that you found within our sections of The Tain? Also, have you personally experienced and/or witnessed a form of misogyny?

In this week’s reading from Kate Manne’s Down Girl, we read about the Isla Vista Killings and the media character study that followed of Elliot Rodger. Manne brings in many articles that examine Rodger’s behavior and attitudes towards those he killed, particularly the women he decidedly targeted in his YouTube video. How do Rodger’s actions and attitudes compare or contrast with the men of The Táin? What similarities or differences do you recognize in how they treat women and others around them?

Many female characters in the tales Before the Tain are pregnant when introduced and that pregnancy makes up most of their character. What does it say about modern values at this time that the important women are pregnant? How does the pregnancy being a main trait of the female character effect how they are presented in the book: description, personality, background, etc?

Consider this first reading from The Táin—bearing in mind that the first 8 tales are actually separate ones known as the remscéla, not directly part of the extended story of The Táin but connected to it. Considering all of these different narratives, what struck you about the ways one or more women are represented? You might focus narrowly on one woman, or offer a generalization that is appropriate to more than one woman.

Marie’s poems tend to focus on the desire of female character by men, such as in “Equitan” and “Le Fresnse” , rather than a woman being in love with a man. How does the man in a story “wanting” a woman and then pursuing her reflect Medieval ideals? How does the woman in “Equitan” challenge this trope?

In Marie’s poems, we have encountered some women who are certainly not idealized, such as Guinevere in Lanval; others who serve purposes that harm other women (for instance, the husband’s sister who tells on the wife in Yonec); and others who are punished within the text for their problematic behavior (the wife in Bisclavret, and perhaps the wife in Equitan). 

Consider how Manne’s definition of the term “misogyny,” in the introduction you read for class on Jan 21, applies to one or more of these (or other) examples from within the lais of Marie de France. (In particular, the question is NOT about the “naive conception” of misogyny that Manne presents on p. 18 but rather the alternative understanding of misogyny that she develops in the introduction, on p. 19 and elsewhere.)

How is our understanding of culture through Medieval literature influenced by the disproportionate amount of writers at the time who came from ruling classes? (From Conrad-O’Briain, Were Women Able to Read and Write in the Middle Ages?)