Adam Miyashiro

Postcolonial theory and the medieval epic

Analyzing The Song of Roland and The Song of the Cid from a perspective of postcolonial theory. Students will write short papers identifying themes and images in medieval literature read through postcolonial frameworks.

Reading the medieval epic

A reading list to expand students' understanding of the medieval epic by incorporating texts that decenter Europe.

‍

Comparative medieval literatures

Originally designed as a response to British and French imperial projects in Africa, Asia, and the Americas, postcolonial theories have posed challenges to the medieval and broader premodern world.

Comparative epics: Teaching The Epic of Sunjata

The Sunjata is just one of many cultural touchstones from a highly sophisticated and capacious literary and arts culture that remains understudied in most medieval literature classrooms.

‍

Comparative epics: Teaching El Cantar de Mio Cid

A mainstay of medieval literature classrooms, El Cantar de Mio Cid expands upon crusades rhetoric in the multicultural and multilingual Iberian Peninsula.

Comparative epics: Teaching La Chanson de Roland

Contextualizing the political and racializing mission of La Chanson de Roland offers students a perspective on how epics shaped
—and were shaped by—the values of their historical moment.

Teaching the medieval epic

Teaching The Epic of Sunjata alongside La Chanson de Roland and La Poema de Mio Cid helps students decenter Euorpe and gain a deeper understanding of the complexities of the medieval world.

Contextualizing The Epic of Sunjata

The Epic of Sunjata is a living, evolving text, still performed by griots and griottes. Taught alongside more traditional European epics, The Sunjata offers students a wider lens with which to look at the medieval world.

La Chanson de Roland and white supremacist medievalisms

La Chanson de Roland as a national epic was a product of both European nationalist and colonial aspirations. It's important for students to understand how the poem and its histories can reiterate Eurocentric white supremacist values if not properly contextualized.

Representations of Muslims in El Poema de Mio Cid

El Poema de Mio Cid, when taught contrapuntally with La Chanson de Roland and The Epic of Sunjata, reveals complex and layered representations of Muslims in the medieval Iberian Peninsula.

‍