| source Georgetown (X) |
level |
department Medieval Studies (X) |
Credits: 3
Score: 10.353109 Details | Listing | Web page
The objective of this course is to explore the medievalism of J.K. Rowlingâs Harry Potter novels. To do this we need to go back to their medieval antecedents in the 12th-15th centuries, which will allow us to contrast and compare the old and the new. We will read masterpieces of imaginative storytelling from French, German, and English medieval literature in addition to selected Harry Potter volumes, but we will also consult Plato and Joseph Campbell. The old and the new are linked thematically in that they are all narratives about growing up and finding oneâs identity: a complex, mysterious, and sometimes arduous process that the hero/heroine experiences as a magical world where the natural laws governing human existence are suspended, the unexpected is bound to occur, and marvels are reserved for the chosen few. The readings and discussion are in English.
Score: 10.353109 Details | Listing | Web page
Theme: "Ghost Literature of the Middle Ages." This course is designed for Medieval Studies majors, who need access to medieval texts but are not majoring in Classics. Other students are welcome.
Score: 10.353109 Details | Listing | Web page
This course, required for the program, is an interdisciplinary introduction to medieval culture. It focuses on a pivotal 50 year period in the high Middle Ages, 1275-1325, roughly the period of Dante's life, but also a period of major developments in the history of the papacy, the Holy Roman Empire, the development of the city, vernacular literature, medieval art and architecture, the universities, optics, astronomy, music, banking and trade, European-Islamic cultural relations, and much more. The central text will be Dante's Divine Comedy, but our approach will be interdisciplinary and we will also read works by Virgil, Italian poets (Guinizelli, Cavalcante) and historians (Dino Compagni) contemporary with Dante. We will study some works of Giotto. We will also read several other works of Dante: the Vita Nuova on love; the De Monarchia for political theory; and the De Vulgari Eloquentia for Dante's theory of language. Offered Fall at the Villa Le Balze and Spring at Georgetown.
Score: 10.353109 Details | Listing | Web page
Credits: 3
Score: 10.353109 Details | Listing | Web page
In this course we will explore the legends of King Arthur, the once and future king who has captured the imagination of authors and visionaries since the early Middle Ages. This course offers an introduction to medieval history, tradition, and literature as well as an analysis of the meanings and uses of Arthurian myths from the sixth through the sixteenth centuries. We will look at the social functions of the various forms in which the Arthurian stories appear--historical chronicle, narrative romance, prose and poetic formats, religious and mythic assimilations, and political allegory--as we search for the reasons behind the appeal of these legends. Analyzing the ambiguous relationship between history and fiction, we will investigate the growth of the legends as they evolved from early historical records and the first written versions of the Arthurian tales. Archaeological evidence and the records of RomanoBritish life will help us reconstruct the context of the earliest references to an Arthur figure. We will then follow the development of the legends as they were adapted to the political, spiritual, and literary perspectives of later centuries. The last few weeks of the course will be devoted to reading Malory's works in the original Early Modern English, with close analysis of Malory's borrowings from previous versions of the tales. Short writing assignments each week; two longer papers; final exam.
Score: 10.353109 Details | Listing | Web page
Credits: 3
Score: 10.353109 Details | Listing | Web page
Credits: 3
Score: 10.353109 Details | Listing | Web page
Credits: 3
Score: 10.353109 Details | Listing | Web page
Was the medieval family the original 'dysfunctional' family? Recent books and movies depicting family life in the Middle Ages like to paint this picture. They show sons fighting with father, brothers clashing with brothers, and young girls forced by their families to marry for political reasons. Loving family relationships appear to have been the exception, not the norm. The goal of this course is to look beyond some of these modern stereotypes and to use medieval sources to recreate family life during the period from ca. 500 to 1300. We will explore our subject from a variety of perspectives, asking questions about how religion, law, politics, social norms, concepts of gender, and trends in literature all helped to shape and transform marriage and the family in the Middle Ages. Students will have the opportunity to analyze and discuss how the family, one of the most basic building blocks of human society, has and has not changed over the centuries. Fall.
Score: 10.353109 Details | Listing | Web page
We look at the writings of medieval women and writings about them, considering the variety of cultures and cultural influences over the range of the European Middle Ages. Literatures from the British Isles, France, Germany, and Scandinavia are contextualized against and within cultural expectations of women under such influences as gender roles, religion, national identities, selfidentity and mythology. Choices vary each time, but characters considered can include women in the Welsh Mabinogion, the works of Chretien de Troyes, Beroul, Heldris of Cornwall, Chaucer and Dante, as well as the Irish Deirdre, the Old Woman of Beare, Brynhild of the Saga of the Volsungs, and Medb of the Tain. Selections from women writers will come from the dramas of Hrotsvit of Gandersheim, the Lais of Marie de France, the letters of Heloise to Abelard, Dhuoda's manual for her son, poems of the trobairitz (female troubadours), samples from visionaries such as Marguerite Porete, Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe, Hildegard von Bingen's accomplishments in word, illustration, and music, and Christine de Pisan's Book of the City of Ladies. Literature will be supplemented by outside material on historical backgrounds and literary criticism, most notably feminist theory and theories of representation. Please note that the reading list is very enjoyable but heavy; if you think the reading is too much, please reconsider taking the course. You write two 7-8 pp. papers, four response papers (2 pp.), and have a creative project due for a class party/medieval feast. No exams, but participation is vital.
Score: 10.353109 Details | Listing | Web page
Concentrating on Irish and Welsh material of the Middle Ages, we will study Celtic mythology and archaeology in brief to inform our reading of varied material. Selections will include both prose and poetry, and there will be lectures on topics such as poets in Ireland and Wales, gender in Celtic literature, and the interrelationship of physical and literary culture. Texts will include The Tain; the Welsh Mabinogion; selections from the Irish mythological cycles and stories in Early Irish Myths and Sagas; poetry selections from Jackson's Celtic Miscellany; Welsh poetry selected from works by Llywarch Hen, Aneirin, Myrrdin and Taliesin; various critical writings. The reading list will be heavy but enjoyable; discussion is required. There will be no exams, and at most two seven or eight page papers. We may also consider a class creative party on a Celtic theme featuring individual and group projects by students.
Score: 10.353109 Details | Listing | Web page
This seminar will deal with the origins of Christian monasticism in the third century and trace its development down to the advent of the friars in the thirteenth. The course will concentrate on the relationship between monasticism and Christian society as a whole. What did the men and women who withdrew into the eastern deserts hope to accomplish by rejecting society? What was their role in the wider church? In other words, what were the implications for ordinary believers of having an alternative form of Christian practice develop alongside the Christian hierarchy? How was the monastic impulse transformed by its encounter with new political and social circumstances in western Europe? To explore these questions, we will read some modern historians, but we will rely heavily on primary sources, especially saints' lives and monastic rules, in an effort to understand how monasticism influenced, and was influenced by, the major historical currents of this crucial millennium in European history. Spring.
Score: 10.353109 Details | Listing | Web page
This research and reading seminar is required for Medieval Studies majors. Fall.
Score: 10.353109 Details | Listing | Web page
The culmination of the major in Medieval Studies is a roughly 50 page thesis on a topic developed in the Fall of the Senior year and completed by May 1 of the following spring. Senior majors and certificates in Medieval Studies will meet as a seminar to develop their thesis projects and to share resources and bibliographies. Seniors are also invited to develop a thesis. Spring.
Score: 10.353109 Details | Listing | Web page