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Academic Year 2000/2001

Visionary Creatures: An Introduction to Medieval Culture
COL 217 FA
Crosslistings:
HUM 105
MDST 214
Clusters:
Christian Studies

"To the world when it was half a thousand years younger," wrote Johan Huizinga, "the outlines of things seemed more clearly marked than to us." That world, which we now call the Middle Ages, actually spanned a 1,000-year period and comprised a variety of national and local cultures--a diversity of languages and literatures, social and political institutions and (contrary to rumor) religious beliefs. What held them together was the capacity for vision--seeing in other ways than so-called commonsense an d modern science instruct us--but what did it then mean to see? How did the world appear to itself before the age of the camera? Before industrialization polluted the landscape, when the spring really did come up "puddle wonderful"? Before philosophica l rationalism split the mind's eye from its body, when monsters haunted hallfires and angels dazzled mortals with their light? We pursue these questions across the medieval centuries, discerning continuities and changes in vision, as we move from Anglo-Saxon England to High Gothic France and Germany, to Italy of the pre-Renaissance.

MAJOR READINGS

BEOWULF THE LIFE OF THE SAINT GUTHLAC THE DREAM OF THE ROOD THE WANDERER Georges Duby, THE EARLY GROWTH OF THE EUROPEAN ECONOMY St. Hildegard of Bingen, SCIVIAS (visions) Chretien de Troyes, YVAIN: THE KNIGHT OF THE LION Marie de France, THE LAIS OF MARIE DE FRANCE Wolfram von Eschenbach, PARZIVAL R.W.Southern, THE MAKING OF THE MIDDLE AGES Dante, THE DIVINE COMEDY Robert S. Lopez, THE COMMERCIAL REVOLUTION OF THE MIDDLE AGES

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Thoughtful preparation, dedicated participation in class discussion, two interpretive essays and one creative project.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS

Unless preregistered students attend the first class meeting or communicate directly with the instructor prior to the first class, they will be dropped from the class list. NOTE: Students must still submit a completed Drop/Add form to the Registrar's office.

COURSE FORMAT: Lecture

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UGRD    Credit: 1    Gen Ed Area Dept: HA COL    Grading Mode: Student Option   

Prerequisites: NONE Links to Web Resources For This Course.

Last Updated on MAR-26-2001

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