Fall 2010

MEDIEVAL STUDIES COURSES

ENGLISH

English 350.001
Medieval Tales of Wonder
Kellie Meyer
MWF 1:00–1:50

The tales of magic and wonder such as those collected by the brothers Grimm in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries are classified as “fairy tales,” although very few of them actually contain a creature called a fairy. Instead, as J.R.R Tolkien has pointed out, these tales are of the land of “Faerie”—“the perilous Realm itself, and the air that blows in that country . . . Faerie cannot be caught in a net of words; for it is one of its qualities to be indescribable, though not imperceptible.” These stories of magic, enchantment, heroic quests and courtly romance form a cultural heritage thousands of years old, dating back to the oldest written epics and further still to tales spoken around the hearth-fire. We will discover that these tales of wonder differ from novels of social realism in their freedom to portray the world in bright primary colors; a dream-world half remembered from childhood when all the world was glistening and strange; a fiction unembarrassed to tackle the truths of Good and Evil, Honor and Betrayal, and Love and Hate. It is these tales and epics that we will be studying; stories about the Celtic “Otherworld,” monsters (both human and other) in Scandinavian poetry, mysterious animals and lovers in Russian folk epics, talking beasts with strange attributes in medieval bestiaries, and encounters with the dead in the Italian version of Hell. Along the way we will also encounter gods and goddesses, knights and wizards, philosophers, heroes, villains, artists and buffoons. We will go beyond a simple reading of the texts to an analytical study of the individual’s reaction to experiences with the “Otherworld,” and progress towards an understanding of why these stories resonate through the ages and maintain an importance even today in our pragmatic world of science and rationalism.  This will be achieved through an immersion in the texts, frequent writing in and out of class, extra-curricular research, and lively and informed class discussions. Texts will include works from the Irish Ulster Cycle, the Welsh Mabinogion, the Scandinavian Poetic Edda, the German Nibelung Cycle, the Finnish Epic Kalevala, Boccaccio’s Decameron and Dante’s Inferno, Russian Byliny, medieval Bestiaries, and the Old English Wonders of the East. 

English 351.001
Chaucer: Canterbury Tales
Kellie Meyer
MWF 11:00–11:50

In this course, we will explore Chaucer’s most famous work, the Canterbury Tales. Chaucer’s collection of pilgrimage tales is one of the greatest, most imaginative, and varied pieces of all English literature. Consider its fascinating historical backdrop in late fourteenth-century England: a generation prior, the plague had swept through Europe, decimating the population; there was political unrest and religious turmoil; a child king had taken the throne; peasants rose up in rebellion; the Bible was translated into English; and heretics were burned at the stake—a world of both decay and renewal, of catastrophic violence and decline for some, but dazzling possibility for others. Through the voices of colorful storytellers, Chaucer’s last great poem tests the boundaries of social possibility in a “disenchanted” age, weighing the competing claims of allegory and realism, chivalry and commerce, men and women, traditional authority and individual experience. And it does so in our ancestor language of Middle English, simultaneously a colorful, earthy, and lofty idiom. We will, in essence, ride along with the pilgrims on our own journey to Canterbury and through the Middle Ages.

English 447.001/Linguistics 447.001
Old English
Helen Damico
MW 5:00–6:15

This course is the first of a two-course sequence that introduces students to the chief features of the language, literature, and civilization of Anglo-Saxon England (700–1l00) and prepares them for more advanced linguistic, literary, and cultural studies in this and later periods. Followed by “Introductory Old English: Poetry,” this sequence of courses is the first in a series of offerings that centers on Old English and Old Icelandic language and literature; it is succeeded by “Beowulf” and/or “Studies in Old English Literature” every fourth semester. In addition to translation and the concurrent study of grammar, phonology, and syntax, the course will offer lectures on the elements of a Germanic language, on developments into modern English, and slide presentations dealing with art, archaeology, and social and political history. Among the prose readings will be selections from romances, travelogues, medicinal tracts, laws, sermons, saints’ lives. Grading will be through quizzes, a midterm, a final, and a lexical project for undergraduates. Texts: Hazenfratz & Jambeck, Reading Old English: A Primer and First Reader; Crossley-Holland, The Anglo-Saxon World: An Anthology; Hall, A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary.

English 450.001
Middle English Heroes, Saints, and Lovers
Anita Obermeier
TR 11:00–12:15

This course is designed for students brave enough to join our adventure-filled quest to explore the mysteries of medieval minds, texts, and art from the Norman Conquest to Malory and to relish that period’s great variety of literary forms. We start this historical, linguistic, and literary enterprise with the Bayeux Tapestry, art with text, fighting alongside Anglo-Saxon warriors. Then we will pray with English saints, sleuth with historians, learn the art of courtly love from medieval knights and ladies, look at the nature of God with mystics, fiddle with medieval minstrels, and watch biblical drama unfold. In-depth knowledge of Middle English is not a must. Translations or facing-page translations will be used for most Middle English texts, which include, but are not limited to, The Owl and the Nightingale, the Lais of Marie de France, a selection of romances, Pearl, the Book of Margery Kempe, excerpts from Piers Plowman, the Showings of Julian of Norwich, Malory’s Le Morte Darthur, Osbern Bokenham’s A Legend of Good Women, the York Mystery Plays, and a smattering of lyrics.

HISTORY

Medieval Studies 201.001/History 201.001
The Medieval World
Timothy Graham
TR 9:30–10:45

The gateway course for the Minor in Medieval Studies, “The Medieval World” offers a broad orientation to Western culture during the Middle Ages by surveying the history, literature, art, and spirituality of the West during the thousand-year period from the fall of the Roman Empire to the eve of the Renaissance. This was an especially fertile epoch during which there evolved ideas, institutions, and forms of cultural expression of enduring importance, many of them still influential today. Far from being a long interlude of darkness and stagnation separating Antiquity from the Renaissance, the Middle Ages was a time of vibrant transformation, of innovative developments in many areas of human endeavor. Yet, while medieval men and women sowed the seeds for changes whose impact can still be detected today, medieval habits of thought and action differed in fundamental ways from those of our contemporary world. This course will highlight, investigate, and seek to explain what is most typical and most significant in the culture of the Middle Ages through a multi-faceted approach focusing on a broad range of texts and artifacts. The course will introduce students to several of the great vernacular works of the Middle Ages, including Beowulf, The Song of Roland, Dante’s Divine Comedy, and Boccaccio’s Decameron; will cover such key topics as the evolution of rulership and the beginnings of parliamentary democracy; and will provide an orientation to major cultural breakthroughs, including the evolution of the manuscript book, the origins of the university system of education, and the development of the architecture of the Gothic cathedrals. The overall aim of the course is thus to provide a well-rounded assessment and evaluation of the most significant developments during this rich historical period.

History 386.001
Islamic Middle East
Patricia Risso
MWF 11:00-11:50

Is there an academic wall between the ancient and Islamic eras? Was the slave-military system peculiar to the Middle East? Can frontier theories be useful for understanding Ottoman-Byzantine interaction? What kinds of sources can be used for the reign of Sulayman the Lawgiver? These types of questions shape this course. A major objective is an appreciation of Arab, Persian, and Turkish cultural elements, including the role of poetry as a method of communication and the patronage of architecture as a measure of wealth and power.

ART AND ART HISTORY

Art History 322
High Medieval Art
Justine Andrews
MW 11:00–12:15

The period of 1000–1400 A.D. in Western Europe has been marked by extraordinary achievements in architecture, metal work, manuscript painting and sculpture. This course will explore this period in the history of art as a time of diversity. The Romanesque and Gothic periods are diverse both in their regional variants of certain styles, as well as influences, which include far more than a simple wholesale adoption of Ancient Roman artistic and architectural techniques. We will examine the architectural innovations of the period as they appear in both religious and secular contexts.

Graduate Courses in Medieval Studies
These courses apply toward the MA and Ph.D. in Medieval Studies

ENGLISH

English 547.001/Linguistics 547.001
Old English
MW 5:00–6:15
Helen Damico

This course is the first of a two-course sequence that introduces students to the chief features of the language, literature, and civilization of Anglo-Saxon England (700–1l00) and prepares them for more advanced linguistic, literary, and cultural studies in this and later periods. Followed by “Introductory Old English: Poetry,” this sequence of courses is the first in a series of offerings that centers on Old English and Old Icelandic language and literature; it is succeeded by “Beowulf” and/or “Studies in Old English Literature” every fourth semester. In addition to translation and the concurrent study of grammar, phonology, and syntax, the course will offer lectures on the elements of a Germanic language, on developments into modern English, and slide presentations dealing with art, archaeology, and social and political history. Among the prose readings will be selections from romances, travelogues, medicinal tracts, laws, sermons, saints’ lives. Grading will be through quizzes, a midterm, a final, and a paper for graduates. Texts: Hazenfratz & Jambeck, Reading Old English: A Primer and First Reader; Crossley-Holland, The Anglo-Saxon World: An Anthology; Hall, A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary.

English 550.001
TR 11:00–12:15
Middle English Heroes, Saints, and Lovers
Anita Obermeier

This course is designed for students brave enough to join our adventure-filled quest to explore the mysteries of medieval minds, texts, and art from the Norman Conquest to Malory and to relish that period’s great variety of literary forms. We start this historical, linguistic, and literary enterprise with the Bayeux Tapestry, art with text, fighting alongside Anglo-Saxon warriors. Then we will pray with English saints, sleuth with historians, learn the art of courtly love from medieval knights and ladies, look at the nature of God with mystics, fiddle with medieval minstrels, and watch biblical drama unfold. In-depth knowledge of Middle English is not a must. Translations or facing-page translations will be used for most Middle English texts, which include, but are not limited to, The Owl and the Nightingale, the Lais of Marie de France, a selection of romances, Pearl, the Book of Margery Kempe, excerpts from Piers Plowman, the Showings of Julian of Norwich, Malory’s Le Morte Darthur, Osbern Bokenham’s A Legend of Good Women, the York Mystery Plays, and a smattering of lyrics.

English 650.001 
Saints and Sinners in Old English Literature and Culture
R 4:00–7:30
Helen Damico

Of the immense hagiographical corpus of Anglo-Saxon England, this course will concentrate only on the vernacular literary expression of the cult of saints, examining the “reality” and the possible political instigation for the codification of their lives. The course will examine the saints’ lives written in prose and poetry between 950 and 1150, concentrating primarily on the lives of saints composed during the late tenth- and early eleventh-century Viking incursions into Anglo-Saxon England. To what extent were these texts politically motivated, if at all? The texts will consist of adaptations from Latin hagiographical writings—Juliana, as one example—and original vernacular compositions—Ælfric’s Æthelthryth, as another. In addition to Julian, class texts will include the other major heroic hagiographical poems, Elene, Judith, Andreas, Ælfric’s homilies on Esther and his lives of the transvestite saints. Excerpts from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the Blickling Homilies, and Guthlac A will be discussed. Class requirements: a major seminar paper; and individual student-led class discussions on critical sources and on particular research questions.

HISTORY

History 668.001/English 551.001
Medieval Research and Bibliography
Timothy Graham
T 4:00–6:30

This course will offer intensive training in the research and bibliographic skills necessary for the study of the Middle Ages while also introducing students to the history of medieval scholarship from the sixteenth century onwards. A key aspect of the course will be a detailed orientation to the major published resources available to medievalists, including the volumes of the Patrologia Latina, the Monumenta Germaniae Historica, and the Early English Text Society, as well as the important series Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile. Participants in the course will learn about the techniques used by scholarly editors when preparing a medieval text for use by modern readers; they will also be introduced to the conventions of the modern apparatus criticus. Students will learn how to read and analyze charters and other types of medieval document and will receive instruction in the basics of such important ancillary disciplines as medieval chronology, sigillography, and prosopography. The section of the course devoted to the history of medieval scholarship will include a special focus on the origins and development of Anglo-Saxon studies from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century.

SPANISH

Spanish 629.002
Medieval Language and Literature
Anthony J. Cárdenas
W 4:00–6:30 PM

The goal of this class is to teach interested students how to read medieval Spanish texts with regard to both content and form. To do this we will examine old forms of words, some of which survive practically unchanged to this day (mastin/mastín) while others have undergone modification (ouo/hubo) and yet others have long since died out and been replaced (maguer/aunque). We will also read facsimiles of manuscripts, incunabula, and early printed books to develop an easy fluency with their scripts and fonts. We will examine different kinds of editions—variorum, facsimile, paleographic, critical, etc.—and the criteria that distinguish them. We will work with facsimile versions of Poema de mio Cid, Celestina, Enrique, fi de Oliva, Libro del caballero Zifar, Castigos y documentos, and several others. Exams will consist of reading old texts on sight, modernizing old texts, and producing different kinds of editions using different criteria for different audiences.