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Academic Year 2005/2006

Mystic Voices: Visionary Experience in the Middle Ages
ENGL 334 SP
Crosslistings:
MDST 206
RELI 260
WMST 334

The divine "vision" was a special form of religious experience in medieval Europe, one that could involve not simply sight, but hearing, and other senses as well. This class will consider texts reporting visionary experience as problems of representation. What kind of experience was a "vision"? Why were they so much more common to women than men? How were they to be interpreted? How could one know a truly divine vision from a false, or worse, satanic vision? How could experiences of such intensity be represented in writing? How does the authority of personal experience, especially that of women, come to be rejected or legitimized by dominant patriarchal institutions?

MAJOR READINGS

Writings by or about Hildegard of Bingen, Richard Rolle, Bridget of Sweden, Margery Kempe, Pierre Bourdieu, and Paul Ricoeur.
Theoretical readings by Julia Kristeva, Helene Cixous, Michel de Certeau, Pierre Bourdieu, Michel Foucault, Walter Ong.

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Several short (5 pp.) papers.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS

This course satisfies the English Dept.'s pre-1800 and Theory Requirements and has a Research option.

COURSE FORMAT: Lecture/Discussion

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UGRD    Credit: 1    Gen Ed Area Dept: HA ENGL    Grading Mode: Graded   

Prerequisites: NONE Links to Web Resources For This Course.

Last Updated on MAR-30-2006

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