Undergraduate Courses: Spring 2005
The following
courses may be of interest to those in Medieval and Renaissance
Studies. Listings on this page are in no way guaranteed
to give credit towards the major. Please consult the undergraduate
studies page for further information about required courses
and direct questions to the Director of Medieval Studies.
Please direct questions about the specific courses to either
the instructor or their home department.
These listings
are also not necessarily a complete listing of relevant
classes. If you know of a class that should be listed here,
please email the webmaster.
ARTHIST
231: Early Medieval Art, 200-900: Cult, Icon, Relic & Word
Pastan,
MWF 11:45 AM - 12:35 PM
MAX
20
Content:
The period that witnessed the fall of the Roman Empire
was also a time of tremendous development.
During this time the arts underwent a
major shift as the book as we know it became a major form
of artistic expression,
and debates about the power of imagery resulted in major upheavals in the choice of media and visual language. We will
begin with an
investigation of the world of late antiquity including
the arts of pagans, Jews, the so-called mystery cults and the early Christians.
From these
diverse beginnings, we will explore the rise of major Christian cultural centers in Ravenna, Byzantium,
the British Isles, and the court of
Charlemagne, as well as the great vitality of Muslim expression
in Damascus,
Baghdad and Nishapur.
Text:
TBA, and e-reserves.
Particulars:
Weekly reading questions, in-class discussions and three tests.
ARTHIST
252: European Painting 1600-1800
Melion,
MWF 9:35 - 10:25 AM
Max:
22
Content: Introduction to the study of
European painting, focusing on masters
such as Caravaggio, Rubens, Rembrandt, Poussin, Watteau,
Fragonard, Greuze,
and David.
Texts: Texts TBA
Readings on reserve and e-reserve.
Particulars: Three lectures each week. Grading
based on midterm exam,
final exam, and two papers on assigned topics. Course
is introductory, but Art History 101 or
102 recommended as prerequisites.
ARTHIST
259: Historical Perspectives on European Art
Campbell,
MWF 12:50 -1:40 PM
MAX:35
Content:
This course will examine the art and architecture of Italy and northern Europe in the period between approximately
1270 and 1470
primarily in Italy. We will examine the historiographic
traditions of the nineteenth and twentieth century that have shaped the
field of study, as well as contemporary approaches to the
understanding of relationships between
art and society in the context of institutions, from the
microcosm of the family to the macrocosm of the
state. The course will feature such
well-known artists and architects as Giotto, Brunelleschi,
Jan Van Eyck,
Piero della Francesco, Donatello and Mantegna, and such
great stages of art production as the City Hall in Siena, the square of
the Duomo in
Florence, and the Ducal Palace in Urbino.
Texts:
€ Paoletti and Radke, Art in Renaissance Italy
€ Readings on reserve.
Particulars:
In addition to attending lectures and participating in weekly discussion sessions, students
will be expected to write two analytical papers,
a midterm, and a final examination.
NOTE: This
course satisfies area V.B of the GER.
ARTHIST
475: History of Early Modern Printmaking
Melion, M 2:00 - 5:00 PM
Max: 8
Content: Seminar on the three modes of
mechanical reproduction--oodcut, engraving,
and etching--that fundamentally changed the theory and
practice of
pictorial imitation between 1400 and 1700. Among
the topics to be considered are the relation between traditional media
and the new print
technologies; the propagation of new kinds of pictorial
image--emblematic, meditative, demonstrative; the rise
of print publishing houses and, allied with this, of new methods of making and
marketing pictures; and the character of
the printed image--portable, multiple, affordable--as this
impinges on
established notion of invention, manner, and authority. Printmaker to be examined closely include Martin Schongauer, Albrect
Du"rer, Marcantonio Raimondi, Giogio Ghisi, Hendrick
Goltzius, and Rembrandt.
Texts:
€ Landau and Parshall, The Renaissance Print
€ Ivins, Prints and Visual Communication
€ Readings on reserve and e-reserve
Particulars: Seminar meets once a week. Grading based on class participation, presentations
on assigned topics, and research paper.
ARTHIST
470WR: Making Art: Materials, Technologies, and Workshops
Campbell
and Robins, M 9:00 AM - noon
MAX:
7
Content:
This course will explore the materials and technologies
of art making in the two cultures of ancient
Egypt and Renaissance Italy. We
will examine the workshop as a place where artists were
trained, practiced their
craft, and responded to the commissions of their patrons.
We will also consider the social needs that shaped
the making of art.
Texts:
Selected readings on reserve.
Particulars:
Participation in class discussion; short assignments; informal presentations; research paper; visits to the Carlos Museum.
The course fulfils
area 1 in the art history major. It is the same as ARTHIST
475, which fulfils area 2 in the major.
CL
190: POETICS OF EROS: THE POETRY OF DESIRE FROM SAPPHO
THROUGH SHAKESPEARE
Bing,
MWF 12:50PM-1:40PM, MAX: 15
Content:
This course will introduce students to the texts and social
context of Eros in Ancient Greece and Rome, to ancient
discussions of the nature of desire, and to how these traditions
were received in Renaissance poetry and thought.
Texts: Bing & Cohen, Games of Venus:
An Anthology of Greek and Roman Exotic Verse from Sappho
to Ovid
Plato,
Symposium and Phaedrus
Petrarch,
Lyric Poems
Shakespeare,
Sonnets
Particulars: Midterm, Final, Two 5-7pp Papers, Weekly Reading
Responses
Eng
190:01P: Shakespeare's Dramatic Language
Cahill,
TT 10:00-11:15, Max: 15
Content:
This seminar offers first-year students the opportunity to engage in intensive interdisciplinary
study of a half dozen dramas spanning the course of Shakespeare¹s
career-- probably, A Midsummer Night¹s Dream, Titus Andronicus, Richard III, Twelfth
Night, King Lear, and The Tempest. Exploring
the genres of history, tragedy, comedy and romance, we¹ll
read these intricate narratives of
desire and revenge in the context of both recent criticism
(feminist, new historicist, postcolonial and psychoanalytic)
as well as historical documents such as Elizabethan guidebooks
to poetry. Our primary aim will be to enhance our close
reading skills. To that end, we will consider both the
sound and shape of Shakespearean lines as well as the relationship
between such wordplay and the social world of early modern
England. Accordingly, while we will attend to questions of theatrical performance—and
will surely view modern adaptations of these texts--much
of our class work will involve careful scrutiny of Shakespeare¹s
dazzling poetry and prose, including his use of
metaphors, puns and rhetorical figures.
(Freshman
Only) (Permission of Dean Robert Brown required prior to
enrollment)
Eng
213: Fictions of Human Desire: Iceland
Morey, MWF 10:40-11:30, Max: 25
Permission only. See Instructor.
Content: Iceland is a somewhat obscure but stunningly beautiful north
Atlantic outpost that boasts a 100 percent literacy rate,
an obsession with books and literature, and a language
virtually unchanged since the settlement of the island
around 1000CE. A nation of only 280,000 claims a Nobel
prize winner in literature (Halldór Laxness) and is one
of the best-educated, well-travelled and cosmopolitan populations
in the world. The class will explore the theme of desire
in several of the classic Icelandic sagas plus Laxness¹s
Iceland¹s Bell: desire for love, country, personal gratification,
and revenge. Students with all kinds of interests—literary,
political, historical, social, artistic—will find
subjects worthy of study in the microcosm of human achievement
that Iceland represents. The class will travel to Iceland over spring break, from March 10
through March 17. The trip is a requirement of the course
and there is an additional charge of approximately $1500-$2000 arranged
through CIPA. We
shall visit the museums and libraries of Reykjavík, the
capital city, Þingvellir, the site of the world¹s oldest parliament,
Reykholt, the homestead of Snorri Sturluson (the most learned
man in medieval Iceland), as well as several of Iceland¹s
natural wonders: geysers, glaciers, and stupendous waterfalls.
Texts:
Halldór Laxness, Iceland's Bell (Vintage); Njal's Saga, Hrafnkel's Saga; Egil's Saga; Laxdaela Saga; Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda (Everyman).
Particulars: four papers, travel journal
or photo essay, final examination.
The course fulfills sections IV. A of
the General Education Requirements (textual analysis).
ng
301:
Beowulf
Morey, MWF 2:00-2:50, Max: 25
Content:
The poem known
as Beowulf constitutes approximately one-tenth of
the extant corpus of Old English poetry and it survives
in only one manuscript. This fraction and number
disguise the importance of
the poem to scholars from Elizabethan to modern times,
from its emergence as an antiquarian curiosity
to the ongoing investigations of
its historic, mythic, and literary dimensions. Classes
will consist of prepared translation, short
lectures, and spontaneous discussion.
Reading in relevant scholarship will provide a basis for discussion and for term papers.
Texts: Beowulf: An Edition, ed. Bruce Mitchell and Fred C. Robinson.
Blackwell, 1998. Beowulf: A
New Verse Translation, Roy Liuzza. Broadview, 2000. Old English Literature: A Short Introduction, Daniel Donoghue.
Blackwell, 2004.
Particulars: midterm (translation), term paper (approximately 15 pages), and final examination
(translation). Introductory Old
English (English 300) or equivalent preparation in reading
Old English (please see the instructor) is
required. While proficiency in
class translation is not graded per se, regular attendance and preparation of the material are crucial
to success in the course.
Eng
304WR: Chaucer
Bugge, TT 8:30-9:45, Max: 25
Content:
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, with attention to the historical and cultural context of the late fourteenth
century. No previous acquaintance with Chaucer's work will be assumed, though all works will
be read in the original
Middle English. Participation in class discussion is encouraged and expected. In addition to the texts
themselves, students will be held responsible
for assigned background reading on important aspects of
medieval English
society and culture. These selections will be found on
reserve.
Texts: The Riverside Chaucer, ed. Larry D. Benson, 3rd ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987.
Requirements: 1) EIGHT SHORT READING REPORTS
(no more than
two pages in length) on each of eight works chosen from
books and essays placed on reserve, exploring a topic raised there in
relation to Chaucer's
work (32%) -- these to be posted electronically. 2)
A final, TAKE-HOME EXAMINATION consisting of three 1500-word
essays in response to set questions (36%) . . . OR a TERM
PAPER (10-15 pages) on a topic chosen by the student (36%). 3)
PARTICIPATION in class discussion (20%). 4) Regular ATTENDANCE (12%).
Particulars: Students may satisfy the college writing
requirement in this course. The
course satisfies the English-major requirement for courses
in British literature prior to 1660.
Eng
310WR: Medieval and Renaissance Drama: Sex and the City in Early Modern Drama
Shahani, TT 11:30-12:45, Max: 25
Content: This class is designed to introduce students
to a range of plays performed on the early modern English
stage. Over the course of the semester, we will study major playwrights
from the sixteenth
and seventeenth century, including Marlowe, Shakespeare,
Middleton, and Jonson. We will especially focus
on the dramatists¹ representations of
male and female erotic desire as played out against the
backdrop of the city. Set in distinctly urban and
mercantile spaces, the texts we will
approach are preoccupied with controlling and commodifying
unruly bodies.
We will examine the manner in which they invoke the staples
of contemporary city life such as diseased prostitutes, scheming
bawds, cross
dressed citizens, lusty merchants, and incontinent women.
In discussing these plays, we will closely consider
the following questions: What forms of
desire are manifest in this drama? How is sexual desire
linked with social
stratification? How is the body subject to discipline and
punishment? How relevant are modern classifications in
describing the nuances of erotic desire during this period?
Texts: Christopher Marlowe¹s The Jew of Malta, William Shakespeare¹s
Measure for
Measure, John Marston¹s The Dutch Courtesan, Middleton & Dekker¹s The Roaring Girl, Ben Jonson¹s Bartholomew Fair.
Particulars: Attendance and class participation; four short papers;
one research paper; a group presentation; a
final exam.
Eng 311: Shakespeare: Page and Screen
Rambuss, MWF 11:45-12:35, Max: 25 (20)
Eng 311/(5) CPLT 389
Content:
Shakespeare¹s plays can be experienced as
live theatrical performances on the stage, read as texts
on the page, and viewed
as movies on the small or big screen. This course treats
the second and the third of these modes of Shakespeare consumption. The
trajectory of our
discussions will take us from relatively straightforward
cinematic adaptations of the plays to more revisionary uses
of them. That is, this course will ultimately be less concerned with ³the Shakespeare film² and more with
the ways in
which Shakespeare—his plots, his characters, his
generic tropes, his name and its cultural authority—circulates
through other popular film genres.
Possible pairings of plays and films may
be: Titus Andronicus and Julie
Taymor¹s film version of the same; The Taming of the Shrew
and Ten Things I Hate About You; Othello and
O; Romeo and Juliet
and Shakespeare in Love; Henry IV and My Own Private Idaho;
Hamlet and The Last Action Hero (starring Arnold Schwarzenegger);
A Midsummer Night¹s Dream and Porky¹s 2; and The Tempest
and the low budget horror flick Basket Case.
Texts:
Copies of the Shakespeare plays we study; a couple of anthologies of Shakespeare film criticism.
Particulars:
Several short essays; a final exam; a group presentation; attendance at all classes.
Eng 315WR: Renaissance Literature: 1603-1660:
Seventeenth-Century Lyric
Poetry
Rambuss, MWF 2:00-2:50, Max: 25 (20) Eng
315WR/(5) CPLT 389WR
Content: This course treats in depth four major writers--John
Donne, Ben Jonson,
George Herbert, and Richard Crashaw--from one of the richest and most daringly experimental periods of English
poetry. We will
also consider works by other significant seventeenth-century authors, including the Cavalier poets
(Robert Herrick, John Suckling, Thomas Carew), the Earl
of Rochester, and Aphra Behn.
Our
discussions will
place these poets in a range of pertinent early modern literary
and cultural contexts. Since much of the period's lyric poetry is love poetry, the course will be particularly concerned with expressions
of erotic desire, as
well as with literary figurations of the self, the body,
and the passions. Among other topics that we will address are:
Renaissance notions of
authorship, cultural production, and the shaping of literary careers; the staging of literary authority in relation to
other kinds
of authority; the affective cross-affiliations between amorous
and religious devotion in the period; and the working of the metaphysical conceit, both in
the age of Donne and perhaps still
in our own.
Texts:
John Donne: Complete
English Poems (Penguin); Ben Jonson: The Complete
Poems (Penguin); George Herbert: The Complete English Poems (Penguin).
Particulars: A number of short papers totaling about
twenty pages; a final exam;
attendance at all classes.
Eng
412RSWR: Studies in Shakespeare: Shakespeare and Performance
Cavanagh/Rusche, TT 1:00-2:15, Max: 20
Content: Content: We are interested in
the history of
performance and how productions of Shakespeare are shaped
by popular culture; we will also examine what we think are useful—even
excellent—appropriations and adaptations of the plays. We will read Hamlet, Romeo and
Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew, The Tempest, Macbeth,
and A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Texts:
You may use any editions of the various plays you wish,
but we shall order Dover editions (usually
$1 or $2) of each play. We will also
read Douglas Lanier's Shakespeare and Modern Popular Culture
(O.U.P., 2002)
and Joe Calarco's Shakespeare's R & J. (We also have a
number of essays and reviews on e-reserve and mounted on
Blackboard.)
Particulars:
First of all, we anticipate informed and
active classroom participation by all our students. We
will have regular written assignments and reports.
There will be no final examination, but students will be required to submit a ten-page final paper
on some topic
of interest.
GER
461SWR 000 The Late Middle Ages to Early Modernity
Butler:
MWF 2:00 p.m. - 2:50 p.m.
Max.: 20
Prerequisite: Two years of college-level
German.
Content: Employing representative
texts in the original, this course examines the evolution
of German as a literary language from the twelfth century
until the early 1700s. Works include examples of medieval
Heldendichtung and Minnesang; sixteenth-century humanist
writings, chapbooks and Fastnachtspiele; and Baroque poetry
and picaresque prose. Topics for discussion will be, inter
alia, patronage and the arts, satire and cultural transformation,
the "Latin Middle Ages" (Curtius) and the rise
of vernacular literatures, governance of language and political
power, and the influence of works on later authors. Course
conducted in German.
Texts: M. O'C Walshe, A Middle High German
Reader (Oxford)
W.A. Coupe, A Sixteenth-Century German
Reader (Oxford)
U. Mache and V. Meid, Gedichte des Barock
(Reclam)
Anan.,
Historia von D. Johann Fausten (Reclam)
Grimmelshausen,
Courasche (Reclam)
Particulars: Works will be read in excerpts for the
most part. An in-class presentation, a final paper based
on the presentation, and two exams are required of all
course participants. (Exams may be written in English.)
History
201: The Formation of European Society: From Late Antiquity
through the Early Modern Era
000; Rickman; MAX:40
001; Rosenberg; MAX:40
002; Rickman; MAX:40
003; McGrath; MAX:40
Content: This course examines the early
forms of those societies that came to dominate the European
continent and explores their expansion and influence. The
emergence of Europe as a geo-political entity with distinctive
customs, culture, legal structures, and social arrangements
is analyzed. Basic themes and goals of the course: to provide
a framework for understanding European society, politics
and culture in a chronological perspective; to introduce
students to values and analytical tools of the era and
to reveal the uses and abuses of the past within it; to
see pre-modern European societies as complex human systems
with negative as well as positive effects upon themselves
as well as others; to better understand the interrelated
histories of local communities, regional communities, kingdoms,
and principalities, and within them changes in methods
of personal and group classification on the basis of legal
status, social class, gender, religious identity and ethnicity;
to explore the Christianization of Europe both institutionally
and culturally and its implications for Jews, Muslims and
heretics.
Texts: To be announced.
Particulars: Generally there will be two one-hour examinations
and a final examination. Discussion will be an integral
part of the course.
History
305: The High Middle Ages, 1000-1350
Billado;
MAX:40
Content: This course will analyze medieval
social, cultural and political history from circa 1000
to circa 1350, mainly through the discussion of primary
sources, including epic poetry, sagas, Arthurian romances,
biography, saints' lives, histories, letters and legal
documents.
Particulars:
Class participation and presentations; weekly writing assignments,
including a film review; a research paper (10-12 pages).
History
314: Celtic Fringes: Ireland, Scotland, Wales
Rosenberg;
MAX:40
Content:
The 'Celtic fringe' is a controversial term. It describes
a set of societies lying at the edges of Western Europe
that were settled by Celtic peoples and have, to a varying
degree, held on to Celtic languages and cultural inheritances.
These societies fostered independent identities for themselves
in the face of strong pressures for assimilation. The course
examines the fate of this so-called 'fringe' at a time
of expanding English influence -- a period that stretches
from the late Middle Ages to the beginning of the 19th
century. We will weigh the effects of political resistance,
religious conflict, economic specialization, emigration,
and regionalism on these various societies. We will be
focusing most closely on the experiences of Gaelic Ireland
and the Highlands and Isles of Scotland, but we will also
give some attention to the contrasting (and less familiar)
case of Wales.
Texts:
This course makes extensive use of articles and chapters
on online reserve.
Particulars:
No permission is required, but familiarity with European
or British history before 1800 is strongly recommended.
Written assignments include two exams, three short tests
covering the readings, and a reflection paper (8-10 pages).
History
487SWR: JR/SR Colloquium: Insurrection in Early Modern
Europe, 1300-1850
Beik; MAX:12
Content:
In the Europe ruled by kings and nobles (from 1300 to 1850)
there were few legal channels for political protest. But
there were many subversive movements, ranging from desperate
resistance by rural villagers or angry townspeople to military
revolts by noble conspirators. Some of these episodes concerned
particular grievances, while others were tied to broader
movements like the Protestant Reformation, the Revolt of
the Netherlands against Spain, or the English Civil War,
or the various French Revolutions. This class will explore
the possibilities and limits of protest and insurrection
and the ways historians interpret them. Focus will be on
violent and non-violent protest movements, not on the broader
events of which they were part (e.g., the French Revolution).
Each student will research and write a case study of one
or more episodes.
Texts:
Wayne Te Brake, Shaping History: Ordinary People in European
Politics 1500-1700; William Beik, Urban Protest in Seventeenth-Century
France: the Culture of Retribution; David Andress, The
People and the French Revolution; Arlette Farge and Jacques
Revel, The Vanishing Children of Paris. A number of relevant
articles.
Particulars:
The goal of the course will be to write a research paper
on a particular uprising or series of uprisings. We will
read and discuss books that suggest a variety of approaches.
Along the way there will be discussion and several smaller
papers. Grade based 50% on final paper, 25% on participation,
25% on other papers. This course fulfills General Education
Requirement IC (Post-Freshman Seminar).
History
487SWR: JR/SR Colloquium: Topics in Medieval History:
Medieval Violence
Billado;
MAX:12
Content:
This course will examine violence in Europe during the
Middle Ages, a time period often represented both in popular
and scholarly discourse as a particularly violent one.
Through the examination of primary documents, alongside
scholarly works by both medieval historians and modern
theorists of violence, this course will address various
topics related to violence during the Middle Ages, including:
war; rape; bloodfeuds; raiding; cursing and threats of
supernatural vengeance; persecution of Jews, heretics,
and other groups; the ordeal; torture and punishment.
Texts:
Texts may include: Najal's Saga; Egil's Saga; Raoul de
Cambrai; Béroul, The Romance of Tristan; Chrétien de Troyes;
Arthurian Romances; Judith Butler, Excitable Speech; Kathryn
Gravdal, Ravishing Maidens; Lester Little, Benedictine
Maledictions; William Miller, Humiliation; William Miller,
Bloodtaking and Peacemaking; R. I. Moore, The Formation
of a Persecuting Society; Edward Peters, Torture; Michel
Foucault, Discipline and Punish; Barbara Rosenwein, ed.,
Anger's Past; Daniel Baraz, Medieval Cruelty.
Particulars:
Class participation, including presentations and discussion
leading; weekly writing assignments; a final research paper
(15-20 pages). This course fulfills General Education Requirement
IC (Post-Freshman Seminar).
Phil
250: History of Western Philosophy I
Strange,
TT 10:00-11:15, Max: 65
Content:
We will study important works of some of the major philosophers
of classical and medieval Western philosophy, including
Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, Augustine, Boethius, Anselm,
and Aquinas. We will consider what they have to say about
the questions of the ultimate nature of reality and of
the best way to live, and how these questions may be connected
with one another.
Texts:
Cohen, Curd, & Reeve, eds., Readings
in Ancient Greek Philosophy, 2ND EDITION
Epictetus, Discourses, Handbook, Fragments,
ed. Gill/Hard
Musonius Rufus, selected fragments, ed.
Lutz (online)
Augustine, On Free Choice of the Will,
ed. Williams
Selections from Anselm, Maimonides and
Aquinas (online)
Particulars: Two essays, an in-class quiz, a mid-term examination,
and a final examination
SPANISH 301WR: Early Hispanic Literature
and Culture (top)
Faculty MWF
(multiple sections) Max: 15 Wrt: Yes
CONTENT: This course
engages in an in-depth study of Spanish and Colonial Spanish
American culture(s) from the Pre Roman Period through the seventeenth century. Among the topics included
are: Islamic Spain, the Spanish Reconquest, the Inquisition,
the Origins of the Spanish Language, Sephardic Culture in Spain, the Pilgrimage Route to St. James, Picaresque
Literature, Golden
Age Spanish Drama, pre-Columbian civilizations, the Conquest of the New World, and the establishment
of colonial rule in Spanish America.
TEXTS: Primary and
secondary readings accompany each topic.
PARTICULARS: Required
for the Major. The final grade is based on three
papers (4-5 pp.), oral presentations and a
final exam.
CPLT
389RWR 001 Love, Woman, Poetry: Dante to Shakespeare
Giuliana
Carugati
