Report on the Second ICLS Congress
University of Georgia, Athens, March 30-April 1, 1977

    Following three years after the memorable First Triennial Congress (Philadelphia, 1974), our Second moved south to the University of Georgia. Amid cooperative weather which was the envy of many, the program took place from March 30 to April 1, 1977. A total of 128 papers were presented in 41 sections.

    The largest group of sections (19 in all) were devoted to themes cutting across national and often disciplinary boundaries, notably concerning women and courtly literature (3 sections), courtly love (2), the Tristan stories (2), "Poet, Patron, Audience," "Chivalry and Courts," "Modern Uses of Courtly Literature," "Otherworld Motifs," "Religious Aspects," "Expansion of Provencal Lyric," "Non-Western," and a trio devoted to the mechanics of poetry: "Rhetoric," "Lexicography," and "Poetical Language." Individual courtly subcultures represented in other sections were French (7), English (4), Provençal (3), Italian (2), German, Scottish, and Hispanic (1 each). Finally, the two sections on art and on music helped broaden horizons still further, beyond the literary domain.

    Plenary papers on various themes germane to ICLS's raison d'etre were contributed by Eugène Vinaver (read in his unavoidable absence by Barry Gaines), William Melczer, Paul Remy, and Raymond J. Cormier. Added "extras" included a bus tour of "The Classic City," a cocktail party in an antebellum white-columned mansion, two banquets, campus tours, and a skillful interpretation of Adam de la Halle's play Robin et Marion produced by the UGa departments of Drama and Theater and of Music. Congress coordinators were Nathaniel B. Smith and Joseph T. Snow of UGa, with the help of a local organizing committee.

    The Second Triennial Congress, besides bringing ICLS many new members and friends, has provided impetus toward further collective investigations of courtly literature and raised scholarly debates which, it is to be hoped, will be prolonged and refined by the Third and successive Congresses.

Nathaniel B. Smith
Joseph T. Snow
University of Georgia