Medieval Studies Program at the University of Virginia

Spring 2010 Undergraduate / Graduate Courses

Further details of these classes can be found online v ia Lou Bloomfield's (unofficial) list of courses:

ARAH 9515-001: Art and Science for the Medieval People of the Book
M 10:00AM - 12:30PM
E. Ramirez-Weaver

During the medieval period, the Christian church exerted a hegemonic influence over all aspects of western medieval and Byzantine life. When Charlemagne was honored in 800 as the Holy Roman Emperor at Saint Peter’s church in Rome, the political implications of a union between church and government were clear. Power and knowledge relied upon the approval and support of churchmen. Rather than demonstrate a division between science and the spiritual culture of the middle ages, this unification in Christendom revealed an interpenetration of science and religion that found expression in exceptional works of art. This intersection of spiritual and intellectual cultural life in the middle ages had never really ceased to exist in the eastern Byzantine empire, since Constantine established his new eastern capital in modern-day Istanbul, Turkey. There in Byzantium the cultural legacy of Greek artistic developments and learning, once celebrated by the Romans, flourished throughout this time period. Similarly, the scientific advancements, especially in medicine and astronomy, advanced by Arabic, Islamic and Jewish scientists during the middle ages fostered points of connection between the secular and spiritual aspects of the lives of those communities, as well.

Recent research has problematized the relationship between the sacred and the secular aspects of life in the middle ages. In this thematic survey of the kinds of artworks, which express a relationship between scientific and spiritual themes in the middle ages, we will examine objects of fine distinction, illuminated manuscripts, and building sites. Each of the participants in the seminar will be expected to contribute a seminar report, developing one or more of the themes covered by our course. Particular attention will be paid to the following questions, which will also help to focus our discussions of class readings weekly: (1) How does an artwork display an intersection of art and science in the middle ages? (2) When does a particular artwork inform us about the ways that standard iconographies can be altered to express nuances of meaning? (3) How does the artwork display aspects of both sacred and secular life? (4) When is a scientific illustration an artwork and when is it merely a conceptual model or diagram? (5) Which spiritual traditions are relevant to the discussion of certain artworks under consideration?

ARH 3205 Rome, Istanbul, Venice
TR 12:30 - 1.45
C. Brothers
This course will consider architecture, urbanism and landscape in three cities with multilayered histories: Rome, Venice, and Istanbul. While conditioned by distinct historical and topographic circumstances, each city negotiated complex and varied local traditions: Roman and Medieval in Rome; Byzantine and Gothic in Venice; and Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman in Istanbul. The chronological focus of the course will be on the period from 1400-1600, when changes were taking place in the cultural and political conditions, radically reshaping the cities? appearance. Attention will be focused both on how architects responded to the complex architectural legacies of their cities, and on how patrons willfully refashioned urban environments to suit their ideological aims. Although the main perspective of the course will be comparative, there will also be a consideration of connections between the cities, and the role of the traveler, merchant, ambassador and artist as agents of cultural transmission.

ARH 4591: Undergraduate Seminar in the History of Architecture: Pilgrimage!
M 1:30 - 3:30
L. Reilly

Pilgrimage is generally described as a journey of religious significance often to a shrine of great importance to the pilgrim’s religion. This seminar will consider the art and architecture associated with such journeys. Many of the readings will concentrate on pilgrimages of the Western European Middle Ages such as Santiago de Compostela and St. Peter’s. We will, however, also consider pilgrimages within the Islamic and Buddhist traditions as well as those to classical sites such as Delphi. Pilgrimages to shrines associated with personality cults such as Lenin, Mao Zedong or Elvis will also be discussed. Students will be encouraged to choose topics from any type of pilgrimage for their research projects. Readings will focus on primary sources such as the The Pilgrims’ Guide to Santiago and the Travel Diary of Ibn Jubayr.The course will also emphasize the development of oral presentation, research and writing skills, as each member of the seminar will work on a major research project throughout the semester.

ARTH 2153-100: Romanesque and Gothic Art
TR 2:00PM - 3:15PM
E. Ramirez-Weaver

The medieval monk, Raoul Glaber, described Europe in the year 1000 as a place of Christian renewal in which the continent “…[was] clothing herself everywhere in a white garment of churches.” From the Romanesque churches along the Pilgrimage Routes to the new Gothic architecture at St. Denis outside Paris and on to late medieval artistic production in Prague, this course examines profound and visually arresting expressions of medieval piety, devotion, and power made by artists from roughly 1000-1500. In this class, both sacred and secular artworks supply important records of the philosophical, theological, political, and scientific beliefs espoused by their different patrons from disparate time periods and the artists they commissioned to translate their visions into churches, castles, liturgical objects, sculptures, stained glass, tapestries, household items, and illuminated manuscripts. Throughout our investigations, particular attention will be paid to the contributions of important medieval women, who rose above social inequalities, and demonstrated their power and prestige through cultivated programs of patronage.

ARTH 2862, Arts of the Buddhist World-India to Japan
Surveys the Buddhist sculptures, architecture, and painting of India, China, and Japan. Considers aspects of history and religious doctrines.

ENLS 3030 History of the English Language
MWF 1100-1150am
P. Baker
This course will cover the history of the English language from several perspectives: we will be concerned with the language’s “internal history” (what actually happened to its sounds, grammar and vocabulary). But we will also study how and why languages change and, more specifically, the “external history” of English (the cultural and historical contexts that have produced change). The course begins with the Indo-European and Germanic background of English, and we will spend some time with the language as it developed in the British Isles. In the second half of the term we will study the development of American English: its divergence from British English, the development of regional, racial and ethnic varieties, and the emergence in the twentieth century of a national “standard.” Work for the course will include regular exercises, mid-term and final exams, and a final project.

ENMD 4500, Advanced Studies in Medieval Literature: Anglo-Saxons and Anglo-Saxonism
MW 0200-0315pm
P. Baker
This course will examine some of the classics of Anglo-Saxon culture, both literary and material, together with modern responses to them. Anglo-Saxon works (to be read in translation) may include poems such as The Dream of the Rood, The Wanderer and The Battle of Maldon, historical works such as Bede’s Ecclesiastical History and The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and religious works such as homilies and saints’ lives. We will also study several monuments of art and material culture such as the Lindisfarne Gospels, The Benedictional of St. Æthelwold, the Sutton Hoo treasure, and the recently discovered Staffordshire Hoard. As important as this early component of the course will be our study of modern treatments of Anglo-Saxon works and themes. These will include Thomas Jefferson’s observations about the Anglo-Saxons, one or more nineteenth-century popularizations, several recent film adaptations of Beowulf, and a number of non-scholarly web sites. Themes to be explored will include the adaptation of medieval narrative practices for modern works, the construction of American racial identities, and the appropriation of Anglo-Saxon themes by white supremacist and other extremist groups. Note: Beowulf will not be on the reading list, but it will be assumed throughout the course that everyone has read it.

ENMD 4500, Advanced Studies in Medieval Literature: Lyric Poetry, Medieval to Renaissance
TR 0930-104
E. Fowler

So much of the most brilliant poetry in English is brief, intricate, emotional, musical, and written between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries. We’ll study lyric in English from Geoffrey Chaucer to George Herbert (devotional, amorous, elegaic, etc.), refining our sense of what language can do in its most intense, witty, ornate, gorgeous, and sweet moments. There will be quizzes, two written exams, a presentation, and a research paper that evolves in four stages.

ESNMD 8500, Medieval/Renaissance Drama
J. Parker
TR 3:30PM - 4:45PM

ENMD 9500, Advanced Studies in Medieval Literature: Romance of Consent
E. Fowler
TR 2:30PM - 1:45PM

ENMD 9995, Research in Medieval Studies

FREN 3041: Medieval and Sixteenth Centuries – Of Monsters and (Wo)Men
MW 2 – 3:15
D. McGrady

The premodern period pushed the limits of human experience. In the process, it introduced many of the laws, beliefs, and practices we hold as truths today. This class will study some of the most daring Francophone texts from the first six centuries of French culture. To understand the limits of love, friendship, family, community, and spirituality, these works recount the adventures of alienated and excluded identities– from bestial men, monstrous women, and Satan’s spawn to sexual predators and incestuous couples.

FREN 4510 Medieval Saints Lives
A. Ogden
MW 1400-1515
Wilson 140

In the Middle Ages, stories about saints were one of the most popular forms of entertainment. Transvestism, marvelous journeys to heaven and hell, spectacular sins and helpful animals were just a few of the exciting elements the authors used to draw their audiences in. For more sophisticated readers and listeners, they offered edgy commentaries on contemporary hot topics (e.g., virginity vs. marriage) and eternal issues (e.g., the conflicting goals of parents and children). Saints' Lives can thus tell us much not only about medieval theological concerns, but also about secular interests, literary trends, and the quest of both ecclesiastical and lay people to fulfill their spiritual and their terrestrial responsibilities. In this course, we will focus on French Lives written in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries (including those of the wise Catherine of Alexandria, Marie l'Égyptienne the harlot, and Louis IX, king of France), but we will conclude with one or more recent works, such as Flaubert's "Légende de saint Julien l'Hospitalier" or Anouilh's Becket, to see what has become of medieval saints in the modern literary world.

FREN 5150 – 8510: Medieval Identities: Gender, Class, Culture, and the Self
MW 3:30 – 6:00
D. McGrady

What are the limits and boundaries of the human? What categories do we call on to shape human experience? How is belongingness and exclusion determined? How do modern concerns of “race,” “ethnicity,” “gender,” “sexuality,” and “individuality” figure into the construction of medieval identities? These questions will guide our study of Francophone literature of the 13th – 15th centuries, a period marked by innovative inquiries into the shaping of self in fiction, philosophy, law, and medicine. The literature to be explored will include tales of monstrous men and women; gender-benders; saints and sinners; failed heroes, excluded lovers, and ostracized writers. Drawing on theoretical writings from medieval and postmodern perspectives (especially gender, disability, and cultural studies), we will investigate both the distinctiveness of medieval identity formation and the ties binding the premodern and the posthuman.

GERM 5140: The Stories of King Arthur in Medieval Germany (1180-1220)
TR 2:00PM -3;15
W. McDonald

Students read the German Arthurian romances /Erec, Iwein, Parzival /and /Tristan/, comparing each with French versions of the stories. The language of instruction is English, and all texts will be in English. (Those desiring modern German versions of the stories will be accommodated.) Employing the technique of "close reading," we rely on student discussion, not lectures. During each class period students lead the discussion on the basis of short papers they compose. A term paper replaces a final examination. This course is open to graduates and advanced undergraduates from all disciplines.
Pre-requisite: Permission of Instructor.

HIEA 3112, The Traditional Chinese Order Seventh to Seventeenth Century
B. Reed

HIEA 3112 covers the late imperial period of Chinese history, from the founding of the Song dynasty in the tenth century to the final decades of the imperial system in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Although the course covers the basic elements of social, political, and cultural history, emphasis is placed on analyzing events and trends in an attempt to come to grips with two rather thorny questions: 1) How can we account for the remarkable stability and longevity of the late imperial system of government as well as its basic patterns of social‑economic relationships? 2) Given the durability of the late imperial system, how can we account for its fragmentation and ultimate demise when it faced fundamentally new challenges, from both within and without, in the nineteenth century? These and other questions will be considered through an investigation of several inter‑related issues: The ideological and philosophical foundations of the authoritarian state; the linkage and tension between elite and popular culture and life‑styles; the cultural assimilation of non‑Chinese peoples; the formation of popular traditions of religious faith, protest and rebellion; and problems of systemic decline.

HIEU 3111, Medieval Civilization: The Hero in History.
E. Crosby

Rather than structured as a general survey, this course is designed first, to illustrate various aspects of the social history of the period by a study of the meaning and importance of the hero and the heroic in the Middle Ages, and second, to consider in this regard the significance of the medieval legacy to the modern world.
Topics for discussion will include the "great-man theory," the making (and unmaking) of the hero in fact and fiction, heroic myth and inspiration, the function of the hero in the building of the institutional church and the nation-state, and the survival of the medieval ideal.
Examples will be drawn from the historical texts which form the basis for the lives of such persons, real or imaginary, as King Arthur, Robin Hood, William Tell, Thomas Becket, Saint Francis, Henry V, and Jeanne d'Arc.
There will be required occasional oral reports, a term paper on an approved topic related to the work of the course, and a final examination.

HIEU 3141, Anglo Saxon England
MW 12:00-12:50 + section
P.J.E. Kershaw

This course traces the social, political and cultural history of early England and its Celtic neighbors across a seven-hundred year period, from the departure of the Roman legions in the late fourth century through to England's eventual conquest by William the Conqueror in 1066. Subjects we will look at include: the gradual emergence of the early Anglo-Saxon kingdoms from the post-Roman 'Dark Ages' of 400-600 AD; the emergence of several dominant kingdoms in the course of the seventh and eighth centuries; Anglo-Saxon hagiography; the historical writings of Bede; the reign of Alfred 'the Great'; the gradual emergence of a unified English state over the course of the later ninth and tenth centuries and its eventual conquest; varieties of Anglo-Saxon culture; manuscript production; social organization; law and dispute settlement; issues of trade and England's contacts with the wider world. Students will be expected to engage with archaeological and literary sources, and to undertake 150-190 pages of reading per week, a mix of primary texts (in English translation) and secondary studies. This course fulfills the second writing requirement, demanding that students write two medium-length papers (2000 words), a mid-term and a final exam.

HIEU 5121, Medieval England
E. Crosby

A documentary history of the English people and their place in medieval Europe from the Conquest to the fifteenth century. The course is based on a reading and discussion of key texts from the period, in English translation, which serve to illustrate important developments in the structure and power of kingship and the ruling class, the organization of production in town and countryside, armies, castles, and warfare, law and legal procedure, the politics of the institutional church, and the emerging sense of national identity.
There will be required a term essay on an approved topic related to the work of the course.

PERS 3230: Introduction to Classical Persian Literature
TR 2:00PM - 3:15PM
A. Korangy Isfahani

A comprehensive, historical introduction to Persian poetry and prose from the 10th to the 18th centuries. Emphasizing the history and development of Persian poetry and prose, this advanced-level language course introduces various formal elements of Persian literary tradition. It analyzes literary texts and explores the linguistic structure, fine grammatical points, and syntactic intricacies of classical Persian. Prerequisite: PERS 202 or equivalent, or instructor permission.

RELB 5559 Medieval Daoism
R 3:30PM - 6:00PM
William Hudson
History, scriptures, thought, and practice of religious Daoism, with an emphasis on the Celestial Master, Shangqing, and Lingbao traditions of the formative period (2nd-10th c.). Another focus will be relations between Buddhists and Daoists. Undergraduates, please contact the instructor before registering.

RELI 5559 Classical Islamic Sources
M 3:30PM - 6:00PM
A. Al-Rahim

Comprehensive survey of subjects treated in Arabic and Islamic studies, with representative readings from each, including Qur'anic and hadith studies, biographies (tabaqat), the traditional and intellectual sciences (al-'ulum al-naqliyya wa-l-'aqliyya), etc. Methods and techniques of scholarship in the field (including the question of Orientalism), with emphasis on acquiring familiarity with bibliographical, historical, exegetical, and other research tools.

RELC 5559 New Course in Christianity: The Idea of Jerusalem From Pilgrimage to Crusade
R. Young
This seminar explores the history of Jerusalem as holy city, idea, and object of desire, and the subject of both possessive narrative and religious warfare in three periods: second century BCE – first century CE; fourth – seventh century; and twelfth through thirteenth century. Emphasis on contextualizing and analyzing primary sources in translation. Separate reading section offered to consider sources in primary language(s).

SPAN 3400, Survey of Spanish Literature I (Middle Ages to 1700)
TR12:30-1:45
M. Gerli
The course consists of an introductory panorama to the Spanish literature of the Middle Ages, the renaissance, and the baroque one, until 1681 (the date of the death of Cauldron). The works will be studied in their historical-cultural context. Besides trying to stimulate an appreciation by some masterpieces of these periods, will try to bring to light the framework historic-intellectual of various aspects of the so much, peninsular culture as to teach some strategies for the attentive reading of the old texts.

SPAN 8505: Middle Ages and Early Renaissance Graduate Seminar
T3:30-6:00
M. Gerli

Fall 2009 Undergraduate / Graduate Courses

UNDERGRADUATE

ARTH 4591: GENDER AND MEDIEVAL ART
E. Ramirez-Weaver
M 1:00-3:30
Fayerweather 208

Medieval sexuality and identity were linked to ideological and theological distinctions, which do not always reflect contemporary categories of biological and sexual difference. Through critical examinations of artworks from the fifth to the fifteenth centuries, medieval texts, and modern theoretical treatises, this course reexamines medieval costume, education, reproductive medicine, patterns of collecting, social codes like feudalism or chivalry, and mystic spirituality. In this course, we will interrogate the use and meaning of the term gender in various contexts with great rigor. Rather than merely distinguishing between the biological sexes, the term gender provides a critical apparatus which will enable us to understand better the cultural identity of early to late medieval men and women. In particular, we will use gender as a way to nuance hegemonic, medieval Christian interpretations of conceptual binaries such as masculinity/feminity, heterosexuality/ homosexuality, celibacy/marriage, and humanity/divinity. Topics discussed in this course include: the early medieval belief in the need to share seminal scripture, gendered examinations of the roles of women at medieval courts, the writings of intellectual giants such as Hildegard of Bingen or Christine de Pizan, legal texts describing sexuality and punishment, gendered accounts of the medieval collecting practices of Duke Jean of Berry, and the maternal traits of God in medieval texts and images.

ENMD 3250: Chaucer I
E. Fowler
TR 9:30-10:45
Minor 130

Geoffrey Chaucer wrote one of the most influential collections of fiction ever published. This course introduces you to a selection of vivid Canterbury narratives, to Middle English, and to the literary practice we call “close reading.” You will learn to “explicate” short passages of text -- to describe rather technically how words, images, genre, tropes, figures of speech and so forth work to produce the effects we call meaning. At the same time, we will investigate the work as a series of puzzles and thought experiments, with attention to the themes of sexual difference, political society, mastery, love, violence, and consent. No previous experience with Middle English or Chaucer is required. Quizzes, two exams and two short papers.

ENMD 3559: Old Icelandic Literature in Translation
P. Baker
MW 2:00-3:15
New Cabell 118

No description available.

ENMD 4500-1: Visual Experience in Chaucer
E. Fowler
TR 2:00-3:15
TBA

Projected readings (in Middle English): Chaucer's Knight’s Tale, Parliament of Fowls, House of Fame, Book of the Duchess, Legend of Good Women, three or four of the Canterbury Tales, and some of the shorter lyrics. (In Modern English): theoretical essays by scholars such as W. J. T. Mitchell, Sarah Stanbury, A. C. Spearing, Elaine Scarry, Barbara Nolan, Jessica Brantley, and V. A. Kolve.

Assignments: probable language quizzes, two exams, one short presentation, a research bibliography, and a seminar paper.

Learning goals: to introduce students to topical literary research, deepen their sense of how fiction engages the visual sense, give them a slate of technical tools with which to describe literary form, and help them to deepen their knowledge and appreciation of Chaucer's work, medieval iconography, and poetics.

ENMD 4500-2: Medieval Religious, Heretical and Mystical Writing
A.C. Spearing
MW 2:00-3:15
New Cabell 216

Much of the most imaginative, challenging and exciting medieval writing, including the earliest writing in English by women, deals with religious issues; and medieval religious literature, to the surprise of many modern readers, contains much that is comic and much that is blasphemous. In this seminar we shall read some of the finest medieval religious writing in poetry, prose, and drama. Works to be studied will include (in poetry) some of Chaucer’s tales and extracts from Piers Plowman; (in prose) devotional and mystical writings, including Dame Julian of Norwich’s Revelations of Divine Love, The Book of Margery Kempe, selections from The Mirror of Simple Souls, for which Marguerite Porete was burned at the stake, and writings associated with the Lollard heresy; (in drama) selections from the York and Towneley cycles of mystery plays. Most texts will be read in modern translation, but Chaucer will be read in the original and Piers Plowman in an edition where the original runs parallel with a modern version. Requirements: an oral presentation, two papers, occasional critical exercises, a final exam.

ENRN 3110: Literature of the Renaissance
G. Braden
MW 2:00-3:15
New Cabell 215

An introduction to English literature of the 16th century—lyric poery, narrative poetry, and drama—with particular attention to the emotions and consequences of love and revenge. We will read individual works for their own interest but also in relation to an understanding of the Renaissance as a distinctive period in European political and social history. Authors read will include Thomas Wyatt, George Gascoigne, Philip Sidney, Edmund Spenser, Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare, and John Donne; works read will include many short poems (quite a few of them sonnets), some longer narratives (we will read a complete book of Spenser’s immense epic, The Faerie Queene), and three tragedies for the Elizabethan stage. One of the plays will be Hamlet, a familiar work for some students, but one that should look different when read in the context of its place in literary and cultural history. There will be medium-length writing assignments on a choice of topics over the course of the semester, and a final exam at the end.

ENRN 4500: Renaissance and Epic
D. Kinney
TR 12:30-1:45
Bryan 330

No description available.

FREN 3580 - Heroes and Villains in the Middle Ages
D. McGrady
MW: 2-3:15
Location: TBA

From King Arthur and Joan of Arc to giants, monstrous women and devils masquerading as men, the medieval period gave birth to some of the best known and most (in)famous heroes and villains of world culture. We will study romances of “knights in shining armor” and their daring damsels, contradictory accounts of the medieval crusades in French and Arabic texts, and the exploits of fairies, martyrs and wily part beast/part human creatures. What ideals and fears do these characters embody? What do they say about society and the individual, community and the outsider? What can they teach us about modern definitions of good and bad, constructions of the “Other,” and our own societal fears? Course conducted in French.

HIEU 1501: Saints and Society in Pre-Modern Europe
E. Rowe
M 1:00-3:30
New Cabell 242

Have you ever stepped inside a European cathedral? If you have, perhaps the tour guide pointed out an embalmed hand or arm encased in glass, belonging to some saint. In this course, we will explore who these people were and why their body parts are on display in churches throughout Catholic Europe. Saints were the celebrities of their day, figures endowed with enormous cultural, symbolic, and political power. They reflected society’s ideals and provided guides for how to live a perfect life. Saints acted as bridges between Heaven and earth; they helped, rewarded, and sometimes punished. In this course we will explore changing ideas about saints and sanctity in Europe from the inception of the cult of the saints in late antiquity to the first serious attacks on saints in the sixteenth century. We will focus on close readings and discussions of primary sources, along with a few supplementary secondary articles, an average of 100 pages per week.

HIEU 2061: The Birth of Europe
P. J. E. Kershaw
MW 1:00-1:50
Ruffner G004A

This class examines the social, political and cultural history of Western Europe from the collapse of Roman authority in the fifth century to the early Renaissance and the emergence of Humanism. Political and institutional developments, social organization and political ideas, art, architecture, literature, philosophy and religion will all receive attention.

Over the course of the semester we will study the emergence of the earliest post-Roman kingdoms (Visigothic Spain, Lombard Italy, Anglo-Saxon England, the rise and fall of the Carolingian empire, and the transformation of Europe in the years across AD 1000. The Crusades, the twelfth-century renaissance, the growth of western Europe kingdoms, papal authority, and the survival of the Byzantine Empire, as well as the cultural and religious developments of the high Middle Ages will also all be explored. How did life, thought and belief change in these centuries? How did Europe’s relations with a wider world itself shift across time?

Students will read some of the most important and interesting sources for the Middle Ages, including the writings of Gregory of Tours, Einhard, first-hand accounts of the Crusades(written by both Muslim and Christian participants), the Song of Roland, Peter Abelard, and others. Students will also read legal texts, letters, and explore the contributions of art history, archaeology and architecture to our understanding of the medieval centuries.

This course assumes no prior knowledge of medieval history. Reading will average about 125 pages per week. There will be a mid-term, a final, and four three to four page papers.

HIEU 2111: History of England to 1688
P. Halliday
MW 10:00-10:50 + discussions
Minor 125

This course surveys England’s history from the end of the Roman occupation of Britain—one period of invasion—to 1688—another invasion. We shall look at politics and society before the Norman Conquest, the impact of that Conquest, and the nature of social life in the later Middle Ages. From there we will examine the Reformation and the civil wars of the mid-seventeenth century and the transformations they wrought in English politics and society. We shall also consider the extension of England as it became Great Britain and began to extend an empire across the seas. We will thus be concerned throughout the course not with England alone, but with its place in Europe and the world. Each student will write three short essays (1200-1500 words) and a final exam.

HIEU 3111: Later Medieval Civilization
E. Crosby
TR 2:00-3:15
New Cabell 340

This course is built on a reading, analysis, and discussion in a historical context of selected key texts which illustrate important aspects of medieval life and thought. Topics to be considered will include the ideas and the practice of knighthood and chivalry, the problem of kinship and vendetta, law and sex in Christian society, the definition of the just war, the nature and meaning of love and friendship, the justification for the persecution of minority groups, and the reasons for the rise and decline of papal power. The readings will be drawn from literary, as well as from documentary, sources, and an effort will be made to emphasize the fundamental links between the culture of the Middle Ages and the present day.

HIEU 3211: Medieval and Renaissance Italy
Instructor TBA
MWF 1:00-1:50
New Cabell 118

No description available.

ITAL 3110: Renaissance Literature
E. Cesaretti
TR 9:30-10:45
new Cabell 247

No description available.

LATI 3090: Medieval Latin
G. Hays
MWF 10:00-10:50
Cocke 101

This course has two main components. Part of our time will be spent in reading one or more short medieval Latin prose texts. (Readings in past semesters have included the romance of Apollonius of Tyre and the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus). We will also be transcribing and editing part of an unpublished Latin text from manuscript.

MSP 3801: Colloquium in Medieval Studies: 'Images, Objects and Texts: Making Sense of the Middle Ages'
P. J. E. Kershaw
M 6:00-8:30 PM
Wilson 141A

This course is designed to be an introduction to the field of Medieval Studies and more specifically to Medieval Studies at the University of Virginia. Each week we will be introduced to a different aspects of the study of the medieval past by a different member of the University’s community of medievalists. The course consists of a weekly seminar with assigned readings and occasional web resources. Students will write four ‘response’ papers of 1200 to 1500 words in length, be responsible on several occasions for setting questions for discussion to the class, and are expected to participate actively and make in-class presentations.

The unifying focus of all this semester’s classes is an attempt to understand how contemporary scholars have attempted to make sense of the Middle Ages, which is to say how they have gone about understanding the surviving evidence of the medieval past. How, we will ask, do different disciplines go about interpreting and understanding medieval materials, whether that be material, visual, textual or archaeological? How do we make sense of a saint’s life, interpret an altar piece, a building, or a manuscript? What does each tell us, both about themselves and the wide culture that produced them? And what do we need to know in order to make sense of them? Above all this course is intended to provide answers to one central question: how do we make sense of the Middle Ages in twenty-first century Virginia?

Grades will be based on class participation, short papers on assigned readings and final paper. There will be no final exam.

RELC 2050: History of Christianity I
A. Thompson
TR 12:00-12:50 + discussions
Mcleod 1003

This course will trace the development of Christianity from the Apostolic Period until 1000, focusing, in particular, on its transformation from a small Jewish sect into the official religion of the Roman Empire. Attention will be paid to the development of doctrine, forms of prayer, ecclesiastical organization, and the Ancient Church's relationship to the world and secular government. The assigned readings will all be from the writings of early Christian authors.

RELC 3240: Medieval Mysticism
A. Thompson
T 3:30-6:00
New Cabell 241

The students of this seminar will read and discuss representative Christian mystics from the period 1000–1600. Each meeting will focus on a particular group of mystics. Students will prepare individual oral reports on their particular readings and give them during each session. After the reports the rest of the time will be devoted to general discussion and comparison of the texts.

RELI 2070: Classical Islam
A. Sachedina
TR 9:30-10:45 + discussions
Claude Moore Nursing Edu G010

Fall 2009 Graduate Courses

ARH 9510: The Invention of Norman Visual Culture
L. Reilly
T 10:00-12:30
Fayerweather 215

Prerequisites
Open to graduate students in Graduate Arts & Sciences and the School of Architecture. Previous course work in art or architectural history is recommended.
Course Description and Method
The Norman world encompassed northwestern France, England, southern Italy, and Sicily in the 11th and 12th centuries. In each area of their occupation, these former Vikings created a unique visual culture through their manipulation of artistic, literary and political traditions. This seminar will investigate the emergence of Norman identity following the settlement of the Scandinavian Northmen in northwestern France in the early 10th century and its continuing development in England and Italy. The art and architecture of all these regions will be considered with regard to how Normans responded to local building styles and traditions as well analyzing what aspects, if any, were common to all three regions of their conquest. The seminar will consider monuments such as Monreale, Cefalu, Palazzo dei Normanni, St. Etienne, Caen, Jumieges, the Tower of London, Durham, and Ely together with their related decorative programs as well as related manuscripts and textiles such as the Bayeux Tapestry and the Coronation Cloak of Roger II.
Requirements: Class attendance is required as well as completion of weekly reading assignments. Each student will work on a research project culminating in a 30-minute class presentation and 15-20 page paper. Occasional short (1-2 page) papers) may be assigned.
Readings: These will include both primary and secondary sources. Secondary sources will include readings by Fernie, Tronzo, Carlsen, Hoey, Jamison, Loud and Bates among others. Readings will be available on course reserve at FAL and through the course collab site.
Number of Students Authorized to Enroll: 12

ENMD 5010: Introduction to Old English
P. Baker
MWF 12:00-12:50
Bryan 328

In this course, the primary task will be to learn the language written in England before the year 1100 and to read a number of texts in Old English, starting with simple prose and ending with such poems as The Battle of Maldon, The Wanderer, and The Dream of the Rood. Students with some experience in foreign language study will find the course easier than those without. In addition, the course is an introduction to the literature of the Old English period: we will supplement language study and reading Old English with discussion and reading in secondary sources. Written work will include bi-weekly quizzes on the language, one paper, an oral report, and a brief final exam. (Note that this course is a prerequisite for ENMD 5200, Beowulf.)

ENMD 8850-1: Mapping the Middle Ages
A.C. Spearing
MW 5:00-6:15
Bryan 330

Using as its focus a selection of major literary texts and some important scholarly and theoretical works, this course will explore the spiritual, intellectual and cultural climates of “the Middle Ages”, and will aim to develop a conceptual framework for study of this seminal period in Western civilization. The approach will be both cross-disciplinary and transnational. The topics to be explored, through the lens of artistic masterpieces produced in England and continental Europe, will include: the Middle Ages as a theoretical and critical construct; varieties of love; epic and romance; other worlds; allegory; and regional culture (late-medieval East Anglia). Medieval English verse texts will be read in the original, most others in translation. Requirements: an oral presentation, two papers, a final exam.

ENMD 9500: Chaucer and Religious Poetry
B. Holsinger
TR 12:30-1:45
Bryan 310

Through the lens of Chaucer's religious writings, this seminar will examine the role of devotion, theology, and faith in shaping the literary culture of late medieval England.

HIEU 5171: Medieval Society: Ways of Life and Thought in Medieval Europe
E. Crosby
W 1:00-3:30
New Cabell B026

A study of selected texts, including the life of St. Guthlac, the Bayeux Tapestry, the Luttrell Psalter, the Becket leaves, the Apocalypse, Books of Hours, the French coronation ordo, the Morgan picture bible, and the life of King Edmund the Martyr, to illustrate the use of words and images in the composition of medieval manuscripts.
There will be one term essay required on an approved topic related to the work in the course. This course is open to all undergraduates with an interest in the period, as well as to graduate students.

RELC 5006 Augustine's City of God
C.T. Mathewes
W 10:00-10:50 New Cabell B 029
F 2:00-4:00 Halsey 123

A graduate class that will read, slowly, the entire City of God, using that work and several other of Augustine's texts (particularly letters and sermons) to attempt to understand that work's argument, paying attention to the various audiences to which it was addressed, and (so far as we can tell) Augustine's larger vision. Graded work for the class will consist in a take-home midterm and final, or (in rare situations) a substantial paper. This is an advanced class, for students who wish to understand Augustine's views, as expressed in City of God, in a serious historical, philosophical, and theological manner.

Fall 2008 Undergraduate

ARH 101: History Of Architecture Ancient-Medieval
Lisa Reilly
MWF 11:00-11:50
CAM 153

This course will introduce students to the tools of visual analysis, reading architectural drawings and the study of architecture as a part of the larger cultural, social and political context of its society. While the course will focus on western Europe, it will also include topics from the eastern Mediterranean and Asia. This course will consist of lectures with weekly discussion groups.

ARH 335: Rome, Istanbul, Venice
C. Brothers
TR 12:30-1:45
CAM 158

No description available.

ARTH 222: Early Medieval Art
Eric Ramirez-Weaver
MW 12:30-1:45
CAM 160

This course examines art created in the era from 300 to 1100, when the Christian church expanded and consolidated its authority to become the single most powerful political and cultural force of Europe. Media examined include: architecture, sculpture, illuminated manuscripts and the luxury arts. Too often the "middle ages" remain stuck in the middle. According to a traditional view in art history, medieval artworks were only considered to be of value because they supplied a bridge between antiquity and the Renaissance. In this course, we will interrogate the complex cultural values that gave rise to grand churches and small liturgical vessels alike. Throughout this exploration, we will identify the reasons that medieval artists, motivated by devotion to the three Abrahamic faiths and their scientific beliefs, crafted beautiful and refined visual expressions of their values. These crafted confessions in stone, paint, parchment, and metal provide the living historical records of a vibrant period, during which medieval artists asserted their various cultural identities.

ARTH 270: Buddhist Art, India to Japan
D. Ehnbom
TR 2-3:15
CAM 160

The class traces Buddhism through its art from its origins in India to its spread to Central Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia. There will be a midterm and a final exam.

ARTH 491: Undergraduate Seminar: Art and Science for the Medieval People of the Book
Eric Ramirez-Weaver
T 3:30-6:00
FHL 208

During the middle ages, power relations and scientific knowledge relied upon the approval and support of churchmen. Rather than demonstrate a division between science and the spiritual culture of the middle ages, this unification in Christendom revealed an interpenetration of science and religion that found expression in exceptional works of art. This intersection of spiritual and intellectual cultural life in the middle ages flourished in Constantinople, the capital of the eastern medieval Byzantine Empire, where the cultural legacy of Greek artistic developments and learning, also celebrated by the Romans, were cultivated. Charlemagne launched astronomical reforms that were marshaled in support of the efforts at reforming the western medieval Christian liturgy, since reckoning the date for the feast of Easter required astronomical and computistical expertise. Similarly, the scientific advancements, especially in medicine and astronomy, advanced by Arabic, Islamic, and Jewish scientists during the middle ages fostered additional points of connection between the secular and spiritual aspects of the lives of those communities, as well. For each of the medieval peoples of the book – that is those practicing the Christian, Islamic, and Jewish religions –objects of fine distinction, illuminated manuscripts, and building sites attest to a long-standing effort at expressing the sacred and secular uses for science through art from the early to the late middle ages.

ENMD 381: Illicit Love
A.C. Spearing
MW 2-3:15
CAB 118

In this course we shall read a variety of medieval stories of adulterous and otherwise forbidden love, translated from medieval English, French, and German, including tales of famous pairs of lovers such as Tristan and Iseult, Lancelot and Guinevere, and Troilus and Criseyde. Requirements: a group presentation, two papers, a mid-term, and a final exam.

ENMD 382: Violence in Medieval Literature
P. Baker
MWF 1-1:50
AST 265

No description available.

ENMD 483 = ENRN 483: Medieval and Renaissance Love Lyric
G. Braden
TR 3:30-4:45
MRY 110

A study of the main traditions of love poetry in European literature and of some of the best poems in those traditions up to the mid-17th century. We will start with some of the most important classical precedents (Sappho, Catullus, Ovid), familiarize ourselves with both the Latin and the vernacular poetry of the Middle Ages (especially the troubadours of southern France), read extensively in Petrarch and Renaissance Petrarchism, and end up with the strong reactions to Petrarchism by John Donne and the English Cavalier poets. Much of this poetry is written in languages other than English; we will be reading it in translation, but the original text will always be in front of us. Course requirements will be vigorous class participation, a few short papers, a longer final paper, and a final exam.

ENRN 311: Literature of the Renaissance
G. Braden
TR 12:30-1:45
CAB 215

We will read works by most of the major and some of the minor writers of the English Renaissance, up to the first years of the 17th century. We will also look at some of the continental literature that helped set the tone for the age as a whole, and explore what is meant (and not meant) by “Renaissance” as a period concept. Most of what we will be reading will be poetry, and most of that will be love poetry, from Petrarch to John Donne. There will be several short papers and a final exam.

ENRN 481 Renaissance and the Epic
D. Kinney
TR 2-3:15
BRN 330

What becomes of the epic, especially (but not only) in Renaissance England? Where has it been, and where does it still have to go? Why does the most elevated of literary modes in traditional reckonings end up seeming passe or impossible to so many moderns? Works to be read include Homer's epics, The Aeneid, The Inferno, Paradise Lost, Robinson Crusoe, The Dunciad, and The Waste Land. Class requirements: regular participation including brief email responses, a term paper, and a final exam.

FREN 341: Literature of the Middle Ages and 16th Century
M. McKinley
TR 11-12:15
CAB 235

The French Middle Ages and Renaissance, a period covering over 500 years, may seem like a faraway world of knights and crusaders, castles and intrigues. Yet, books from those centuries between 1050 and 1600 shaped ideals, tastes and cultural icons that still prevail today. From video games to science fiction, Nostradamus to “Shakespeare in Love,” modern culture betrays its fascination with that distant past. In this course you will go beyond anachronism and get to know the real thing. We will read in modern French La Chanson de Roland, the founding epic of la douce France ; Yvain ou le chevalier au lion, an Arthurian romance; some lais of Marie de France, the first woman storyteller in France; excerpts from Christine de Pizan’s utopian vision, La Cite des Dames and from Rabelais’s Gargantua, a fantastic tale of giants in Utopia. We will close with selections from Montaigne’s Essais, where the author reflects on the New World of America and the equally novel territory of the self. Three short papers totaling 10-12 pages, a mid-term and a final.

Prerequisite: French 332. Restricted to French majors.

HIEU 306: From Empire to Kingdom: Europe, 400-1000
P. Kershaw
MW 12-12:50 + section
WIL 301

This class examines the social, political and cultural history of Western Europe from the collapse of Roman authority to the turn of the first millennium. Over the course of the semester we will look at the emergence of the earliest post-Roman kingdoms, some successful (Francia, Anglo-Saxon England) others failures, destined to fail (Vandal Africa, Burgundy, and Ostrogothic Italy). How did new kingdoms and new kings actually emerge from the rubble of the late Roman West? What survived from the late Roman world? What was new? Why did some polities and peoples survive whilst others fell by the wayside? How and why did the world change in Western Europe across these six centuries? Subjects to be addressed in this class will also include: religious life: piety and the cult of the saints; historical writing; ethnic self-perception; intellectual culture; the character of everyday life; manuscript production; social organization; feud, violence and warfare: law and dispute settlement; travel and the changing nature of the post-Roman economy.

Students will be expected to engage with archaeological and literary sources, and to undertake 150-190 pages of reading per week, a mix of primary texts (in English translation) and secondary studies. This course fulfills the second writing requirement, demanding that students write two medium-length papers (2000 words), and take both a mid-term and a final exam.

HIEU 321: Medieval and Renaissance Italy
D. Osheim
MW 1-1:50 + section
MRY 115

The object of this course is to investigate the political, social and cultural history of Italy during the age of the Renaissance. The survey will begin with a consideration of unique Italian political institutions and urban culture in northern and central Italy; it will finish with a reconsideration of the end of Italian cultural dominance and of the legacy of Renaissance culture. the emphasis throughout will be on the relationship of the artistic and literary culture to the social and political in which they are found. We will discuss the writings of Machiavelli, Leon Battista Alberti and the Civic Humanists. We will also discuss the great innovations in Italian art and the role of the great Renaissance patrons in the production of art and culture and the impact of both on public life. There will be a short written assignments on course readings, two hour exams and a final.

HIME 201: The Middle East to 1800
F. Zarinebaf
TR 11-12:15 + section
CAB 311

This class will offer an overview of the history of the Middle East from the rise of Islam to 1800. The first part will focus on the classical age of Islam, the articulation of the religion, its expansion, and the formation of the first Muslim dynasties (Umayyads, Abbasids). We will pay a particular attention to cultural interactions between the indigenous (Christian, Zoroastrian, Jewish) and the Arab/Islamic cultures in the formation of an Islamicate civilization.

The second part will of this class will discuss the fragmentation of the Ababsid empire, the rise of local dynasties, and the impact of Turkic military and political rule over the societies and polities in the Middle East. The Mongol invasions of the thirteenth century was a turning point that paved the way for the rise of the Ottomans.

The final part of this class will examine the rise and axpansion of the Ottoamn empire in the Middle East, N. Africa, and the Balkans. We will also compare the Ottoman empire with another gun powder empire, the Safavids of Iran.

Throughout this class, we will consider not only political history, but the impact of economic, social and cultural changes on the societies and polities of the Midlde East. We will include primary sources in English translation as well as audio- visual material.

Requirements: Midterm, Final, Paper

ITTR 226: Dante in Translation
D. Parker
MWF 1-1:50
CAB 430

Close reading of Dante’s masterpiece, the Inferno. Lectures focus on Dante’s social, political, and cultural world. Incorporates The World of Dante: A Hypermedia Archive for the Study of the Inferno, and a pedagogical and research website (www.iath.virginia/dante), that offers a wide range of visual material related to the Inferno.

JPTR 335: Introduction to Classical Japanese Literature
G. Heldt
TR 2-3:15
CAB 216

Introduction to the literary arts of Japan from 700-1800. The course considers Japan's earliest myths, the precursors of haiku, the "world's first novel" The Tale of Genji, women's memoirs, war tales, folk tales, and other genres.

MSP 3081: Colloquium in Medieval Studies
P. Kershaw
M 3:30-6
CAB 423

No description available.

MUSI 301: Renaissance Music
P. Walker MWF 1-1:50 OCH 107

No description available.

MUSI 409: Topics in Renaissance Music
B. Gordon
TR 2-4:30
WIL 216

No description available.

RELC 205: History of Christianity I
R. Wilken
TR 2-3:15 + section
MCL 1004

How did Christianity evolve from a small Jewish sect in Palestine into a church that embraced the Mediterranean world, Europe, the middle East, Byzantium and the Slavic peoples? How did the teachings of Jesus and the events of his life become the foundation for a complex system of belief (e.g. Trinity), ethics (e.g. marriage), worship? What was the origin and development of Christian institutions and practices, e.g. bishops and clergy, the papacy, monasticism, Baptism, Communion, et al. How did the Bible take its present form? How was this faith understood and explained in rational terms? These are the broader questions addressed in a survey of the first thousand years of Christian history.

RELC 304: Paul: Letters and Theology
H. Gamble
TR 2-3:15
CAB 431

This course examines the activity and thought of Paul of Tarsus, the best known and most influential thinker of the Christian tradition. We will treat the basic problems of Pauline biography and chronology, the nature of Paul's authentic letters, and the leading element of Paul's interpretation of Christianity. Each meeting will consist of both lecture and discussion.

RELC 370: Revelation to John
J. Kovacs
TR 11-12:15
CAB 341

This course will consider the last book of the New Testament from two different points of view. First we will study the book in its original first-century context, comparing it with other works in the same genre, the Jewish apocalypses Daniel, 1 Enoch, and 4 Ezra, and asking questions about the historical setting in which the book was written and its message in and for that context. Questions to be considered include: How do ancient Jewish apocalypses help us make sense of the rich array of symbols and images in Revelation? What is the book’s primary message — does it advocate vengeance, desire for social justice, or a worldwide mission to bring all people to salvation? Then we will consider the book’s “reception”, that is how it has been used and interpreted through the centuries, not only in theological works but also in music, art, poetry, novels, political and prophetic writings. Through the ages John’s Apocalypse has been a remarkably popular book, and the history of its reception offers an embarrassment of riches — in media as diverse as ancient sermons, medieval manuscript illustrations, political propaganda, poetry, song, and film. Among other interpretations, we will consider the book’s reception in hymns, African-American spirituals, reggae music, church architecture, Dürer’s woodcuts, the poetry of William Blake, and the popular /Left Behind series of novels.

Prerequisite: one course in Biblical studies, a course in art history, or permission of the instructor. Requirements: an 8-page paper, midterm examination, final quiz, and a group presentation on some aspect of the reception of Revelation. NOTE: This course is not open to students who have received credit for RELC 369 (The Gospel of John and the Revelation to John) because of significant overlap of material covered.

RELC 393: End of the World in Christian Thought
A. Thompson
MWF 10-10:50
CAB 118

This course will examine Christian speculation on the End of the World from the first century to the Year 2000 and beyond. Special emphasis will be paid to Biblical and apocryphal sources for such speculation, ancient Christian millenarianism, medieval and Reformation apocalypticism, nineteenth- and twentieth-century dispensationalism, and contemporary images of the End in literature and film. Required readings will be taken from original sources.

RELI 207: Classical Islam
T. Gianotti
TR 11-12:15 + section
PHS 204

This is a historical and topical survey of the origins and development of Islam. The course is primarily concerned with the life and career of Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, the teachings of the Qur'an, the development of the Muslim community and its principal institutions, schools of thought, law, theology, cultural life and mystical tradition, to about 1300 A.D. The objectives of the course are: (a) To acquaint the student with significant aspects of Islam as a religion in the classical period; and, (b) To help the student think through some of the basic questions of human religious experience in the light of the responses given to these questions by the great sages and saints of the Islamic tradition.

RELI 311: Muhammad and the Qur'an
A. Sachedina
TR 9:30-10:45
CAB 332

A detailed study of Muhammad's biography in the light of the Qur'anic revelation. Students will study the life of the founder of Islamic faith and relate it to his spiritual as well as temporal experience. The study of biography will aim at a fuller understanding of the meanings of the apostle of God (rasul Allah) and the Seal of the Prophets (khatim al-anbiya') in the context of the methods used in the History of Religions in studying the ideas about "holy man" in the community of believers. The study of the Qur'an will be concerned with providing the contextual and intertextual appreciation of the event of revelation in Islam, both as a source of Muslim piety and Muslim experience of divine-human interaction.

SPAN 423: Islamic Iberia
M. Gerli
MWF 2-2:50
CAB 430

No description available.

Fall 2008 Graduate

ARH 701: History Of Architecture Ancient-Medieval
L. Reilly
MWF 11:00-11:50
CAM 153

ARAH/ARH 921: From Roman to Romanesque: The Classical Past in Medieval Visual Culture
Lisa Reilly
R 10:00-12:30
FHL 215

This course will explore a range of connections between the classical past and the middle ages. Weekly readings as well as student research projects will analyze such topics as the use of ancient sites, spolia, texts, iconography, and artistic forms in medieval visual culture. Well-known examples of this phenomenon include Charlemagne’s invocation of the Lateran in his palace complex at Aachen, connections between Trajan’s column and the Bayeux Tapestry, as well as antique sculptural vocabulary at Reims Cathedral. Further examples can be found in medieval Islamic culture such as the Great Mosque at Damascus and in the Byzantine Empire. The course will endeavor to explore this issue in examples from medieval Islamic and Byzantine culture as well as that of the Latin West.

ENMD 528 = ENRN 528: Dante and Spenser
J. Nohrnberg
TR 11-12:15
BRN 328

This course intends to read both Dante’s Inferno and Purgatorio, and the first three books of Spenser’s Faerie Queene. Our object is to explore a common high-water uniqueness in the figurative and allegorical modes of two of the traditional authors likeliest to be invoked as writers of learned, extended, and potentially encyclopedic allegorical fictions. We shall hope to use each author both to introduce the other, and to un-write him, or as a window for opening beyond the confinement of each text. For the social critique, poetics, psychology, and epistemology appertaining to these two literary works are obviously very different?the first author writes a testamentary confession or conversion-narrative in the guise of a Christian’s otherworldly, sprial-shaped Passiontide pilgrimage, the second author propounds the elements a gentleman’s education or disciplining in the guise of an extended, serial and proto-colonial quest-romance. Thus the two authors have at least in common their having chosen to present their "argument" within the dissimulative veil of allegory, but also behind the apparent otherness of their chosen casts: either the shades of the dead in the Comedy, or the denizens of "faerie" in The Faerie Queene. Dante’s "hosts" are mainly historical personages and Spenser’s leading fays are subjects who serve his own courtier-glorified sovereign, and yet the narratives situate both poets’ personnel in an alternative or virtual reality where any given character’s meaning haunts his or her existence - or his or her agency or personhood - to the point of over-riding and/or arresting it in the form of his or her moral silhouette. We will be considering, in these two different cases - high medieval and high Renaissance - what it means to lead a life of allegory as a protagonist, and to be lead through an allegorical narrative as a reader. In beginning this journey by entering the dark wood of obscured yet palpable significances, you will have to consider what it means to have lost your shadow among the whispering trees - or to have merely indulged your curious natal genius for inquiry - and even if you only did this for the sake of a not altogether whimsical notion that you were acting as a free agent even when you chose to sell your soul to a text. Undergraduates and graduate students are equally welcome on the expedition to enlightenment through perplexity. Two middle-length papers, and a final exam (where the student is asked to write two essayettes, i.e., brief commentaries, on two quotes you select from a wide choice thereof).

ENMD 801: Old English
P. Baker
MWF 11-11:50
BRN 312

ENMD 885: Mapping the Middle Ages
A.C. Spearing
MW 5-6:15
BRN 332

Using as its focus a selection of major literary texts and some important scholarly and theoretical works, this course will explore the spiritual, intellectual and cultural climates of “the Middle Ages”, and will aim to develop a conceptual framework for study of this seminal period in Western civilization. The approach will be both cross-disciplinary and transnational. The topics to be explored, through the lens of artistic masterpieces produced in England and continental Europe, will include: the Middle Ages as a theoretical and critical construct; varieties of love; epic and romance; other worlds; allegory; and regional culture (East Anglia). Medieval English verse texts will be read in the original, most others in translation. Requirements: an oral presentation, two papers, a final exam.

ENRN 881: Masks of Desire: Gender, Genre and Performance in Elizabethan England
C. Kinney
TR 2-3:15
CAB 130

This course will focus upon the sexual politics (the representation of gender and the gendering of representation) and the experimental poetics of early modern lyric, narrative and drama. We'll discuss and historicize our authors’ complicated negotiations with the period’s culturally privileged discourses; we will also explore the staging of their variously didactic and transgressive agendas as they reshape Petrarchan lyric, chivalric and pastoral romance, and the Ovidian master-narratives of transforming desire.  Readings will probably include Edmund Spenser's Amoretti and Book III of The Faerie Queene; Philip Sidney's Astrophil and Stella and New Arcadia; Mary Wroth’s Pamphilia to Amphilanthus, George Gascoigne’s Adventures of Master F.J. and Shakespeare’s As You Like It; we will also dip into Ovid and Petrarch (in translation) and certainly consider a variety of critical and theoretical approaches to our primary texts.  

Course requirements: participation in discussion; a series of short e-mail responses to our primary and secondary readings, an oral report; a 12-14 page paper; a final examination.

ENRN 981: Renaissance: Word and Image
D. Kinney
TR 11-12:15
CLK G054

Taking Renaissance comparisons of arts as a principal point of departure, we will survey the verbal and visual preoccupations of Early Modern Europe and the often tense dialogues between them in the realms of instruction, invention, demonstration, and credal debate. We will study a range of text-image encounters from Petrarch to Spenser to Shakespeare to Herbert and Milton, reckoning with emblematics and other symbolic conventions as they inform reckonings with texts. Course requirements: lively participation including weekly email responses, a class presentation, and a final exam.

FREN 510 = 810: Medieval Literature in Modern French
A. Ogden
MW 12:30-1:45
CAB 123

In the middle of the twelfth century, the precursor of modern French (romans) quite suddenly took precedence over Latin as the written language of courtly culture, and thus French literature was born. Why did this shift occur then? What topics did authors consider appropriate for expression in the vernacular? How did they justify their endeavors? What patterns did they set for the French literary tradition? This course will investigate issues of authority, truth, genre and language in representative literary works (hagiography, chanson de geste, romance, drama and lyric) composed before the mid-thirteenth century. In the course of discussing secondary readings and of preparing the assignments (an oral presentation and a seminar paper), we will consider matters of professional development.

FREN 510L: Old French
A. Ogden
W 2-2:50
FRN 002

Introduction to reading Old French, with consideration of its main dialects (Ile-de-France, Picard, Anglo-Norman) and paleographical issues. May be taken in conjunction with FREN 510/810 or independently. Weekly reading exercises, a transcription and translation exercise, and a final open-book exam. Prerequisite: good reading knowledge of modern French, Latin or another romance language. Taught in English.

FREN 520 = 820: Literature of the 16th Century: The Heptameron and the European Novella
M. McKinley
TR 2-3:15
CAB 241

Marguerite de Navarre’s Heptaméron explicitly showcases its relation to Boccaccio’s Decameron, but it grows just as clearly from a variety of other works and literary genres. We will explore the Heptaméron in conjunction with brief selections from those earlier works, including in addition to the Decameron: Apuleius’s Metamorphoses (more commonly known as The Golden Ass); late-medieval French nouvelles; histoires tragiques ; and Rabelais’s tales of Pantagruel and Gargantua. This focus will allow us to consider literature of the court and of the people and to appreciate the evolution of narrative structures, techniques and conventions in the early modern period. Requirements include frequent response writing, a mid-term writing assignment and a final paper.

FREN 810: see FREN 510

FREN 820: see FREN 520

ITAL 756: Three Crowns of Florence
D. Parker
M 3-5:30
WIL 141B

Close examination of Dante's Commedia, Boccaccio's Decameron, and Petrarch's Canzoniere along with secondary readings.

JPTR 535: Introduction to Classical Japanese Literature
G. Heldt
TR 2-3:15
CAB 216

LATI 505: Latin Paleography
G. Hays
TR 3:30-4:45
COC 101

An introduction to Latin paleography and related topics, including the theory and practice of Latin textual criticism and the transmission of Latin texts from late antiquity through the Renaissance. We will survey the development of the various scripts and practice reading them. We will also read and discuss major contributions to the history and theory of paleography, textual criticism and editing.

Requirements will include one or more substantial reports, regular exercises in transcription and collation, and a substantial research paper or project. Graduate students from other departments are very welcome. The course will not involve translation of Latin on a large scale, but students should have a basic mastery of the language (at least three years at the college level). Reading knowledge of German and/or Italian would be helpful but is not required. This course is intended primarily for graduate students; advanced undergraduates should contact the instructor before the first class meeting.

RELC 741: Revelation to John
J. Kovacs
TR 11-12:15
CAB 341

RELC 892: Cyril of Alexandria
R. Wilken
T 3:30-6
WIL 140

No description available.

RELC 574: The Icon as Art and Theology
V. Guroian
T 3:30-6
PHS 218

This is a course on the icon in Orthodox Christianity. We will read theological works on the meaning of icons, but also on the value of art and its relationship to culture and the sacred. We will consider the icon as a way of doing theology and as a medium of worship and prayer. Readings range from John of Damascus’s 8th century apologetic in defense of the holy icons to modern Orthodox theological aesthetics and theologies of the icon, Included are the writings of Leonid Ouspensky, Vladimir Lossky, Paul Evdokimov. Andrew Louth, Michael Quenot, and Philip Sherrard. We will study at close hand Byzantine, Armenian, Syrian, and Coptic iconography and gospel illumination.

RELI 576: Islamic Mystical Texts
T. Gianotti
W 3:30-6
CAB 430

This primary text-based seminar will examine the more experiential, noetic dimensions of Islamic piety and righteousness (al-ihsān ), from the Qur’ānic and Prophetic foundations to the principal thinkers of the medieval Arabic and Persian “Sufi” traditions. By “seminar” is meant a disciplined, studious discussion of the texts-at-hand. Students should thus be prepared to shoulder a heavy reading load (approx. 100 -150 pages per week) and should come to the class prepared to discuss the assigned text(s) with their colleagues and professor, who will serve the seminar as a guiding participant rather than as a regular lecturer. Students will routinely be asked to initiate the discussion by introducing the text and offering their observations and questions.

SPAN 550: Medieval and Renaissance Literature
M. Gerli
M 3:30-6
CAB 139

No description available.