Great Books: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Dr. L. Michael McCloud, vice president of academic affairs, presents "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," a masterpiece of medieval romance. Young Gawain takes up the absurd deal of trading beheading blows with the Green Knight as a game. Accepting the deal because he is allowed to go first, Gawain is amazed as the Green Knight's body casually picks up its head and announces that Gawain’s turn to go under the axe will come in one year’s time. Gawain’s journey to meet his fate highlights issues of personal honor, fairness, social obligation and what it means to be caged by the expectations of others. This presentation, in the new JCCC CoLab, is part of the spring 2017 Great Books Mini-Lecture Series, which is designed to introduce you to watershed texts that have changed their readers’ views of the world. It’s a series of short talks on great books. The Great Books series is sponsored by the JCCC English/Journalism Common Read program. For more information on this and other happenings at the college, visit http://www.jccc.edu.