ESP Biography

Who was the real King Arthur? The short answer is that we don't know exactly who this legendary King of the Britons was, or even if this person every really existed. What we do know is that the idea of Arthur has captivated audiences for over a thousand years. In the Middle Ages, he evolved from brave warlord and national British hero to the chivalrous king of French romance. Centuries later, writers as diverse as Alfred Tennyson, Mark Twain, John Steinbeck, and Meg Cabot continue to write new adventures for Arthur – and that's on top of his many appearances in artwork, movies and TV shows. So, who is King Arthur, really? In this class, we will work together to find our own answers to this tricky question. Using film, art, literature, popular culture and our own personal images of King Arthur, we will reconstruct our own version of the man behind the myth.