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Institute for Medieval Studies |
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Fall 2009 ENGLISH This course introduces you to some influential literary works from a variety of world traditions--from Mesopotamia, Europe, China, India, Japan, and the Americas. Beginning with The Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the world's oldest epics, we move through the Hebrew Scriptures to the epic and dramatic works of Greece and India. Readings include The Odyssey, Lysistrata, The Ramayana, and Shakuntala, among others. The course then turns to the fiction, drama, and poetry of the Middle Ages and early modern world. Readings include Confucian and Taoist wisdom texts, The Bhagavad Gita, the Christian Scriptures, and the Qur'an, as well as Attar's Conference of the Birds, Murasaki's Tale of Genji, and Shakespeare's The Tempest. In addition to these key works, we will also read a few philosophical, historical, and cultural texts in order to place these works in their unique time place. The aim is not only to gain a greater understanding of the development of literary forms and cultural traditions of the world, but also to put these diverse texts into conversation with each other in order to gain a sense of history and get a feel for the varieties of human experience. As we marvel at powerful stories, poems, and plays about love and war, heroic journeys, spiritual pilgrimages, and courtly intrigue, we will be alert to the richly diverse threads that have been woven into the intricate tapestry of our increasingly global culture. Approaches to Medieval Culture This course will explore the interrelations among medieval Britain (Anglo-Saxon england and Celtic Ireland, Scotland, and Wales), Europe, and the Holy Land, taking as its cut-off date the fall of Byzantium to the Franks in 1204. Multidisciplinary in approach, the course uses both literary and visual "texts" to discover, analyze and learn about the medieval period. We will use archeaology to investigate the material remains of a culture to see what they can tell us about trade routes, pilgrimages, conquest, colonization, and religious practices. We will read several works of literature and investigate the differences between the ideals that are deliberately promoted and the realities that are unintentionally exposed. We will consider assorted historical documents and examine the biases of the writers, as well as the events that are recorded, in order to understand the historiographical truth: that there is no truth, only versions of it. A few of the basic themes are (1) Texts as transmitters of culture (2) The individual in the context of the community (3) Multiculturalism and multilingualism. Reading will include among others selections from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica, Iceland Sagas, Einhard's Life of Charlemagne, historical accounts of the Crusades, philosophical texts, monastic rules, various medieval love letters and troubadour poetry. The Canterbury Tales 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; 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. Old English Poetry: Introductory Old English Old Norse language &Literature Malory’s Morte Darthur:
HISTORY The Medieval World This course 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, insttitutions, 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 were a time of vibrant transformation, of innovative developments in many ares of human endeavor. Yet, while medieval men and woman sowed the seeds of 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 higlight, investigate, and seek to explain what is most typical and most significant in the culture of the Middle Ages through a multi-facted approach focusing on a broad range of texts and artifacts. The course will intorduce students to several of the great vernacular works of the Middle Ages, including Beowulf, The Song of Roland, Dante's Divine Comedy, and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales; it 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 Gothic Ccathedrals. The overall aim of the course is to provide a well-rounded assessment and evaluation of the most significant developments during this rich historical period. "The Medieval World" is the gateway course for the Minor in Medieval Studies. High Middle Ages This course surveys the European Middle Ages from the eve of the twelfth-century Renaissance to the Black Death and its aftermath in the fourteeth century. Among the topics covered are the economic and political transformations of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the flowering of learning and culture during this same period, the highlights of Christian thought from Anselm of Bec to Julian of Norwich, and the problems and achievements of the High Middle Ages. Students will focus on the enduring legacy of later medieval society: the great works of art, architecture, poerty, political theory, theology, and philosophy produced during this formaticve period in the development of Western culture. This course makes extensive use of contemporary sources, and a variety of media, that provide first-hand glimpses into the minds and lives of medieval men and women. ANTHROPOLOGY Later European Prehistory
Fall Courses of Interest to Medieval Studies Students LATN 101.001 LATN 101.002 LATN 101.003 Introduction to the Latin language; grammar, syntax, and readings in Roman authors. LATN 102.002 Continuation of 101. Introduction to the Latin language; grammar, syntax, and readings in Roman authors. LATN 202.001 Systematic review of Latin grammar and syntax; readings in simple prose authors such as Cicero and Caesar; introduction to Latin poetry and scansion. LATN 304.001 Readings in Classical authors such as Plautus, Catullus, Virgil, Horace and Ovid. Occasional composition in Latin.
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| Institute for Medieval Studies University of New Mexico 2045 Mesa Vista Hall | (505) 277-2252 | medinst@unm.edu |
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