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Academic Year 2003/2004

Sophomore Seminar: The Customs of Europe
HIST 162 FA
Crosslistings:
MDST 265

This sophomore seminar aims to introduce students to the basics of reading and writing history through the examination of a large and controversial historical subject. We shall examine the structures of belief and practice through which Europeans from 500 till 1700 imagined their relationship to natural and supernatural forces. We shall focus on the ways in which magic, religion, and rationality were intertwined with and transformed each other. Within this framework, we shall examine the powers of non-Christian magic and witchcraft, the role of saints in life and death, the miraculous and bureaucratic magic of medieval Catholicism, the divine mystique of political and judicial institutions, and the significance of rationality, literacy, and the Reformation in transforming these issues. The thematic approach of the course is intended to raise large-scale issues of cultural continuities, the meaning of historical innovation and conceptual revolutions, and the ways that historians invoke concepts such as magic, the supernatural, and religion to shape their arguments.

MAJOR READINGS

R. Kieckhefer, MAGIC IN THE MIDDLE AGES
E. Duffy, THE STRIPPING OF THE ALTARS
V. Flint, THE RISE OF MAGIC IN THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES
S. Tambiah, MAGIC, SCIENCE, RELIGION AND THE SCOPE OF RATIONALITY
P. Brown, THE CULT OF THE SAINTS
C. Ginzburg, ECSTASIES
K. Thomas, RELIGION AND THE DECLINE OF MAGIC
M. Bloch, THE ROYAL TOUCH
P. Geary, LIVING WITH THE DEAD IN THE MIDDLE AGES

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Class participation in discussions; three essays

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS

As a sophomore seminar the course will teach students to evaluate the relation of historical documents and evidence to historical arguments, partly by regularly reading documents used by the authors to make their points. In addition, the writing of three papers will have as its major aim the teaching of the technical requirements of good historical research, argument, and writing. This will be an intense course, which provides sophomores with the tools and opportunity for thinking about how history is made, and will particularly prepare students who are considering taking further history courses.

COURSE FORMAT: Discussion

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UGRD    Credit: 1    Gen Ed Area Dept: SBS HIST    Grading Mode: Graded   

Prerequisites: NONE Links to Web Resources For This Course.

Last Updated on MAR-19-2004

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