This afternoon members of Maureen Quilligan's Medieval and Renaissance Literature class (English 173) were outdoors sword fighting. Yes, you read that correctly—sword fighting.
Quilligan, R. Florence Brinkley Professor of English, gave her students an option of dressing in medieval and renaissance attire, sword fighting and reading Chaucer aloud in the Great Hall at 4:30 p.m. in order cut their final twenty page paper in half."I remember watching A Knight's Tale and thinking what a beautiful story and wanting to experience it," said junior Tony Jiang. "This was pretty close, plus who doesn't like sword fighting?"
Before the actual sword fighting took place, David McClutchy, stunt choreographer and coordinator, instructed the students on how to spar for six hours upon the request of the students, said Quilligan.
That's good to know. Those swords looked pretty darn realistic, as did their outfits.
The students seemed to be enjoying themselves, as did Quilligan who watched and clapped enthusiastically.
When asked why she decided to take the course, senior Yujin Chun said, "I didn't need to take this course because I had already fulfilled my ALP credit, but Professor Quilligan is known for being such a great professor."
Their paper is half its original length and they got to strut around in those cool medieval threads sparring each other and read Chaucer aloud to a (Great) Hall full of people. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me.
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