Courses of Study
Sections
An interdepartmental program in Medieval and Renaissance Studies
Last updated: August 23, 2011 at 4:57 p.m.
The Medieval and Renaissance Studies minor provides students with a broad introduction to the emergence and formation of Western civilization, including development from and engagement with Islamic civilization in the Mediterranean, from the end of antiquity to the 17th century. The program is founded on the principle that an interdisciplinary perspective is the most profitable way to gain an understanding of the formation of Europe.
Knowledge
1. Students will gain broad knowledge of the history of Western civilization in the Medieval and/or Renaissance periods.
2. Students will develop a multifaceted picture of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance by exploring a variety of disciplinary perspectives including national and transnational literatures, fine arts, philosophy, religious studies, and specialized history courses.
3. Students will gain proficiency in at least one of the languages of the Medieval and Renaissance periods (including French, Italian, Spanish, German, Latin, Greek, Russian, Arabic or Hebrew).
4. Student training may include the interaction between the Christian and Islamic worlds as well as the significance of religious minorities in the Medieval and Renaissance periods.
Core Skills:
Students in Medieval and Renaissance Studies acquire core skills that can be used in graduate study in a number of disciplines or in a variety of professions. Critical thinking, writing, using library resources, and research methods are emphasized in almost every class. Students will be able to frame questions, investigate problems, and evaluate conclusions using one or more academic disciplines or approaches (e.g., literary and artistic criticism, historical analysis, philology, and religious studies). Students will implement interdisciplinary methods by completing one of several capstone courses or an independent research project such as a senior thesis.
After Graduation:
The program maintains that knowledge of the past as well as shifting representations of the past in the present are key components of a liberal arts education that allow one to reflect upon the contemporary world in a sophisticated manner. The knowledge and skills the minor provides will lay the foundation for a fuller, more productive, and engaged life after college. Exposure to the diversity of religious, ethnic and cultural aspects of the Medieval and Renaissance periods will contribute to greater understanding in the service of a more peaceful and just society.
Jonathan Decter, Chair
(Near Eastern and Judaic Studies)
Bernadette Brooten
(Near Eastern and Judaic Studies)
Mary Campbell
(English and American Literature)
William Flesch
(English and American Literature)
Dian Fox
(Romance Studies)
William Kapelle
(History)
Richard Lansing
(Romance Studies)
Avigdor Levy
(Near Eastern and Judaic Studies)
Charles McClendon
(Fine Arts)
Sarah Mead-Ramsey
(Music)
Michael Randall
(Romance Studies)
Benjamin Ravid
(Near Eastern and Judaic Studies)
Govind Sreenivasan
(History)
Jonathan Unglaub
(Fine Arts)
Cheryl Walker
(Classical Studies)
Affiliated Faculty (contributing to the curriculum, advising and administration of the department or program)
Jonathan Decter (Near Eastern and Judaic Studies)
B. Students in the program must complete the university language requirement in one of the following: French, Italian, Spanish, German, Latin, Greek, Russian, Arabic, or Hebrew.
C. Three other courses from the program listing. In order to promote an interdisciplinary approach to the study of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, two of these courses should be in two different fields other than history.
D. Capstone: In addition to the core history course and electives, students choose one of the three options for fulfilling the capstone of the minor:
1. The completion of an independent study on a medieval or Renaissance topic (MEVL 98a or b) with one or more members of the program faculty:
2. A senior thesis in the student’s major, with an emphasis on some aspect of medieval or Renaissance studies, read by at least two faculty members in the program.
3. MEVL colloquium. These are medieval and Renaissance program electives that are either (a) seminar classes with a research paper, or (b) taught in a foreign language and/or use predominantly original foreign language texts.Courses of Instruction
(1-99) Primarily for Undergraduate Students
MEVL
98a
Independent Study
Usually offered every year.
Staff
MEVL
98b
Independent Study
Usually offered every year.
Staff
Core Courses
HIST
110b
The Civilization of the High and Late Middle Ages
[
ss
]
Survey of European history from 1000 to 1450. Topics include the Crusades, the birth of towns, the creation of kingdoms, the papacy, the peasantry, the universities, the Black Death, and the Hundred Years' War. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Kapelle
HIST
123a
The Renaissance
[
ss
]
Culture, society, and economy in the Italian city-state (with particular attention to Florence) from feudalism to the rise of the modern state. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Kapelle
Elective Courses
The following courses are approved for the minor. Not all are given in any one year. Please refer to the Schedule of Classes each semester.
CLAS
115b
Topics in Greek and Roman History
[
hum
wi
]
Topics vary from year to year and the course may be repeated for credit with permission of the instructor. Topics include the Age of Alexander the Great, the Age of Pericles, the Greekness of Alexander, and Imperialism in Antiquity. See the Schedule of Classes for the current topic. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Walker
CLAS
166a
Medieval Literature: A Millennium of God, Sex, and Death
[
hum
wi
]
A survey of medieval Latin literature in translation, beginning with the fourth-century church fathers and ending with the early Renaissance. Includes Augustine, Ambrose, Jerome, Egeria, Jordanes, Gregory of Tours, Isidore of Seville, Bede, Alcuin, Einhard, Hroswitha, Geoffrey of Monmouth, Hildegard, Anselm, and others. Usually offered every fourth year.
Ms. Walker
ENG
33a
Shakespeare
[
hum
]
A survey of Shakespeare as a dramatist. From nine to twelve plays will be read, representing all periods of Shakespeare's dramatic career. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Flesch or Ms. Targoff
ENG
43a
Major English Authors, Chaucer to Milton
[
hum
]
A survey of major English authors from the Middle Ages through the Renaissance, including Chaucer, Wyatt, Spencer, Marlowe, Shakespeare, Sidney, Donne, Herbert, Marvell, Milton. No prior experience in medieval or Renaissance literature is required. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Targoff
ENG
63a
Renaissance Poetry
[
hum
]
Examines lyric and narrative poetry by Wyatt, Surrey, Marlowe, Sidney, Spenser, Shakespeare, Jonson, Donne, and Herbert. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Flesch or Ms. Targoff
ENG
73a
Witchcraft and Magic in the Renaissance
[
hum
]
Focuses on the representation of witches, wizards, devils, and magicians in texts by Shakespeare, Marlow, and others. Historical accounts of witchcraft trials in England and Scotland are read and several films dramatizing these trials are viewed. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Targoff
ENG
103a
Exploring the Self in Seventeenth-Century Poetry
[
hum
]
Examines the poetry of Donne and his contemporaries, including George Herbert, Richard Crashaw, and Andrew Marvell. These "metaphysical poets" will be read alongside critical accounts by Samuel Johnson, T. S. Eliot, and others. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Targoff
ENG
123a
Dream Visions: Genre, History, and the Mysterious
[
hum
]
A study of the mysterious function of imaginary dreams in medieval and Renaissance writing, along with actual dream dictionaries and dream transcriptions of the period. Visions of Hell, prophetic dreams, apocalypse, Chaucer, Dante, Shakespeare, Nashe, and others. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Campbell
ENG
133a
Advanced Shakespeare
[
hum
]
Prerequisite: ENG 33a or equivalent.
An intensive analysis of a single play or a small number of Shakespeare's plays. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Flesch
ENG
143a
Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama
[
hum
]
A study of the revenge tradition in the work of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. The problem of blood revenge will be looked at as a historical phenomenon in Renaissance society and as a social threat transformed into art in such dramatists as Shakespeare, Marlowe, Kyd, Marston, Tourneur, Chapman, and Webster. Usually offered every fourth year.
Staff
ENG
152b
Arthurian Literature
[
hum
]
Prerequisite: ENG 1a, ENG 10a, HUM 10a or ENG 11a.
A survey of (mostly) medieval treatments of the legendary material associated with King Arthur and his court, in several genres: bardic poetry, history, romance, prose narrative. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Campbell
ENG
173a
Spenser and Milton
[
hum
]
Prerequisite: ENG 10a, 11a, or HUM 10a (may be taken concurrently) or by permission of the instructor.
A course on poetic authority: the poetry of authority and the authority of poetry. Spenser and Milton will be treated individually, but the era they bound will be examined in terms of the tensions within and between their works. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Flesch
ENG
183b
Gods and Humans in the Renaissance
[
ca
hum
]
Examines the relationship between gods and humans in literature and art from the Renaissance, exploring how classical gods and goddesses, as well as biblical figures of the divine, are represented by major European artists and authors. Special one-time offering, fall 2011.
Ms. Targoff and Mr. Unglaub
FA
33b
Islamic Art and Architecture
[
ca
nw
]
May not be taken for credit by students who took FA 39b in prior years.
Introduces architecture and arts of the Islamic lands from seventh-century Levant to post-modernism in Iran, India, and the Gulf states. Provides an overview of major themes and regional variations, and their socio-political and historical context. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Grigor
FA
41a
Art and the Origins of Europe
[
ca
]
Architecture, sculpture, and painting in eastern and western Europe from the decline of the Roman Empire to the Crusades. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. McClendon
FA
42b
The Age of Cathedrals
[
ca
]
Architecture, sculpture, and painting (including stained glass) in Western Europe from the twelfth to the fifteenth century, with particular attention to the great churches of medieval France. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. McClendon
FA
45b
Art of the Early Renaissance in Italy
[
ca
]
May not be taken for credit by students who took FA 51a in prior years.
Examines major painters, sculptors, and architects in Florence, Rome, and Venice from Giotto to Bellini (1290-1500). Important themes include the revival of Antiquity, the visual arts and the culture of Humanism, the Rise of the Medici, art and the ideal of the Republic, the development of art theory and criticism, Naturalism and the Sacred image, and the relation of artists and patrons during times of crisis (black death, Pazzi Conspiracy, and Savonarola). Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Unglaub
FA
46b
High and Late Renaissance in Italy
[
ca
]
May not be taken for credit by students who took FA 58b in prior years.
Examines the major works of art produced in Italy in the sixteenth century. It focuses on the principal centers of Florence, Rome, and Venice. The foremost artists of the age, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Titian, receive in-depth coverage. The course also considers the social institutions, ecclesiastical, courtly and civic, that furnished the patronage opportunities and promoted the ideas that occasioned, even demanded, new artistic forms of grace and harmony, energy and torsion. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Unglaub
FA
47b
Renaissance Art in Northern Europe
[
ca
]
May not be taken for credit by students who took FA 54b in prior years.
A survey of the art of the Netherlands, Germany, and France in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Cultural developments such as the invention of printing, the Protestant Reformation, and the practices of alchemy and witchcraft will be considered through the work of major artists. Usually offered every fourth year.
Mr. Unglaub
FA
48a
Baroque in Italy and Spain
[
ca
]
May not be taken for credit by students who took FA 60a in prior years.
The artistic spectacle of papal Rome and Hapsburg Spain is explored. The works of Caravaggio, Bernini, and Velazquez capture the contradictions of the age: sensuality/spirituality, ecstasy/piety, degradation/deliverance, realism/idealism, exuberance/restraint, and statecraft/propaganda. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Unglaub
FA
141b
The Formation of Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Art
[
ca
]
May not be taken for credit by students who took FA 40b in prior years.
The origins and development of the synagogue, church, mosque, and related arts in the first millennium CE. Emphasis on the debate among these three great religions about the proper form and function of art and architecture. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. McClendon
FA
143a
The Art of Medieval England
[
ca
]
May not be taken for credit by students who took FA 43a in prior years.
A survey of art and architecture from the end of the Roman Empire to the Renaissance. Particular concern for the synthesis of native and foreign cultures and their artistic styles, resulting from the barbarian invasions, the Norman conquest, and political rivalry with France. Usually offered every fourth year.
Mr. McClendon
FA
145a
St. Peter's and the Vatican
[
ca
]
May not be taken for credit by students who took FA 45a in prior years.
The history, growth, and development of Christendom's most famous shrine, with particular concern for the relationship between the design and decoration of the Renaissance/baroque church and palace complex and their early Christian and medieval predecessors. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. McClendon
FA
149a
The Age of Rubens and Rembrandt
[
ca
wi
]
May not be taken for credit by students who took FA 63a in prior years.
Explores the major figures of seventeenth-century painting in the Netherlands and Flanders: Rubens, Van Dyck, Rembrandt, and Vermeer. During this time, the ideal of Renaissance painter/courtier gives way to the birth of the modern artist in an open market, revolutionizing the subjects, themes, and styles of painting. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Unglaub
HISP
110a
Medieval and Early Modern Spanish Literature: Gender, Class, Religion, Power
[
fl
hum
]
Prerequisite: HISP 106b, or HISP 108a, or permission of the instructor.
Was el Cid a political animal? How do women, Jews, and Muslims fare in classical Spanish literature? Study of major works, authors, and social issues from the Middle Ages to the end of the seventeenth century. Texts covered range from from lyric love poetry and the epic Cantar del Cid to Cervantes and masterpieces of Spanish Golden Age theater. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Fox
HIST
110a
The Civilization of the Early Middle Ages
[
ss
]
Survey of medieval history from the fall of Rome to the year 1000. Topics include the barbarian invasions, the Byzantine Empire, the Dark Ages, the Carolingian Empire, feudalism, manorialism, and the Vikings. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Kapelle
HIST
110b
The Civilization of the High and Late Middle Ages
[
ss
]
Survey of European history from 1000 to 1450. Topics include the Crusades, the birth of towns, the creation of kingdoms, the papacy, the peasantry, the universities, the Black Death, and the Hundred Years' War. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Kapelle
HIST
112b
The Crusades and the Expansion of Medieval Europe
[
ss
]
Survey of the relationships between medieval Europe and neighboring cultures, beginning with the decline of Byzantium. Topics include a detailed look at the Crusades, the Spanish reconquista, the Crusader kingdoms, economic growth, and the foundations of imperialism. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Kapelle
HIST
113a
English Medieval History
[
ss
]
Survey of English history from the Anglo-Saxon invasions to the fifteenth century. Topics include the heroic age, the Viking invasions, and development of the English kingdom from the Norman conquest through the Hundred Years' War. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Kapelle
HIST
120a
Britain in the Later Middle Ages
[
ss
]
Exploration of the critical changes in government and society in the British Isles from the late fourteenth to the sixteenth century. Topics include the Black Death, the lordship of Ireland, the Hundred Years' War, the Scottish War of Independence, economic change, the Tudors, and the Reformation. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Kapelle
HIST
121a
Breaking the Rules: Deviance and Nonconformity in Premodern Europe
[
ss
wi
]
Explores the ways in which "deviant" behavior was defined and punished by some, but also justified and even celebrated by others in premodern Europe. Topics include vagrancy, popular uprisings, witchcraft, religious heresy, and the status of women. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Sreenivasan
HIST
123a
The Renaissance
[
ss
]
Culture, society, and economy in the Italian city-state (with particular attention to Florence) from feudalism to the rise of the modern state. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Kapelle
HIST
123b
Reformation Europe (1400-1600)
[
ss
wi
]
Survey of Protestant and Catholic efforts to reform religion in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Topics include scholastic theology, popular piety and anticlericalism, Luther's break with Rome, the rise of Calvinism, Henry VIII and the English Reformation, the Catholic resurgence, and the impact of reform efforts on the lives of common people. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Sreenivasan
HIST
126a
Early Modern Europe (1500-1700)
[
qr
ss
]
Survey of politics, ideas, and society in Western Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Focuses on the changing relationship between the emerging modern state and its subjects. Topics include the development of ideologies of resistance and conformity, regional loyalties and the problems of empire, changing technologies of war and repression, and the social foundations of order and disorder. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Sreenivasan
HIST
127b
Household and Family in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe (1300-1800)
[
qr
ss
]
An examination of the fundamental building block of premodern European society. Topics include the demographic structures, economic foundations, and governing ideologies that sustained the household, as well as the repercussions of failure or refusal to live according to "normal" forms. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Sreenivasan
HIST
135a
Monarchies and Republics: Early Modern Political Thought
[
ss
]
An examination of early modern European political thought. Texts include plays, pamphlets, and political treatises. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Hulliung
IECS
140a
Dante's Divine Comedy
[
hum
]
Open to all students. Conducted in English with readings in English
translation.
A close study of Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso as a symbolic vision of reality reflecting the culture and the political, philosophical, and theological thought of the Middle Ages. Readings to include the Vita Nuova, the Aeneid (Bk. 6), and selections from the Bible, Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, and St. Thomas' Summa Theologicae. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Lansing
IMES
104a
Islam: Civilization and Institutions
[
hum
nw
]
Provides a disciplined study of Islamic civilization from its origins to the current state of affairs. Approaches the study from a humanities perspective. Topics covered will include the Qur'an, tradition, law, theology, politics, Islam and other religions, modern developments, women in Islam, and Islam and Middle Eastern politics. Usually offered every second year.
Staff
LAT
125a
Medieval Latin
[
fl
hum
]
Surveys medieval Latin prose and poetry from the fourth to the fourteenth centuries and their influence on subsequent English, French, and Italian literature. Materials will be studied in the original Latin and English. Offered on request.
Ms. Johnston or Ms. Walker
MUS
80a
Early Music Ensemble
This is an experiential learning course. Offered exclusively on a credit/no credit basis. Yields half-course credit. Open to singers and instrumentalists interested in learning about the historical ancestors of their modern instruments. Instrumental and/or vocal experience and competency in sight-reading required. A maximum of four course credits will be allowed for all enrollments in Ensemble (80a,b – 87a,b) alone or Private Instruction and Ensemble together. May be undertaken as an extracurricular, noncredit activity by registering in the XC section.
Examines the performance of music written before 1700. A large number of historical instruments are available for student use and instruction. Solo, ensemble, and one-on-a-part opportunities. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Mead
MUS
80b
Early Music Ensemble
This is an experiential learning course. Continuation of MUS 80a. See MUS 80a for special notes and course description.
Usually offered every year.
Ms. Mead
MUS
178b
The Authenticity Question: Applying Historical Performance Practices
[
ca
]
Prerequisite: MUS 5a or 101a. May not be taken for credit by students who have taken MUS 110b in prior years.
Explores the implications of historically informed performance in Western music of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Through study of early instrumental and vocal pedagogy, period instruments, ensembles and editions, students will discover how historical context influences our perception of music. Course will include field trips to historical instrument workshops. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Mead
NEJS
124a
Arabic Literature, Hebrew Literature (500-1500)
[
hum
]
A comparative study of Arabic and Hebrew literature from before the rise of Islam through the fifteenth century. Studies major trends in Arabic poetry and fiction and how Jewish authors utilized Arabic motifs in their Hebrew writings, both secular and sacred, and sometimes wrote in Arabic themselves. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Decter
NEJS
140a
Under Crescent and Cross: The Jews in the Middle Ages
[
hum
ss
wi
]
Surveys Jewish political, social and intellectual history in the domains of Islam and Christianity from the rise of Islam (622) to the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain (1492) and Portugal (1497). Topics include the legal status of Jews, Jewish communal organization, persecution and response, inter-religious polemics, conversion, the origins of anti-Judaism, and trends in Jewish law, philosophy, literature, and mysticism. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Decter
NEJS
140b
Early Modern Jewish History
[
hum
]
Examines Jewish history and culture in early modern Europe: mass conversions on the Iberian peninsula, migrations, reconversions back to Judaism, the printing revolution, the Reformation and Counter Reformation, ghettos, gender, family, everyday life, material culture, communal structure, rabbinical culture, mysticism, magic, science, messianic movements, Hasidism, mercantilism, and early modern challenges to Judaism.
Ms. Freeze
NEJS
149a
The Jews of Muslim and Christian Spain
[
hum
]
A survey of Jewish political, intellectual, and social history in the Islamic and Christian spheres from the beginnings of Jewish life in Spain until the expulsion in 1492. Students develop skills in reading historical, literary, and philosophical texts. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Decter
NEJS
151b
Ghettos, Gondolas, and Gelato: The Italian Jewish Experience
[
hum
ss
]
Topics include the Jews of classical antiquity, attitude of church and state toward Jews, ghetto, Jewish merchants and moneylenders, Renaissance and the Jews, Marranos and the Inquisition, raison d'état, emancipation, Holocaust, and communities today. Usually offered every second year.
Staff
NEJS
152a
From Inquisition to Holocaust
[
hum
]
Examines the Iberian Inquisition in its religious, social, and economic context as a manifestation of religious anti-Judaism that culminated in the concept of purity of blood. Traces the emergence of modern racial anti-Semitism which culminated in the Holocaust, and contemplates the similarities and differences between it and medieval anti-Judaism. Usually offered every second year.
Staff
NEJS
152b
Anti-Judaism, Anti-Semitism, and Anti-Zionism
[
hum
ss
]
A historical survey of the three major forms of hostility toward the Jews from classical antiquity to the present. Usually offered every second year.
Staff
NEJS
157b
Jewish Thought in the Islamic World
[
hum
]
A survey of Jewish thought produced in the Islamic world and its influence on later Jewish philosophers. Thinkers include Saadiah Gaon, Judah Halevi, Moses Maimonides, Gersonides, and Spinoza. Topics include reason and revelation, divine attribute theory, providence, ultimate human felicity, and the role of philosophy in biblical exegesis, Halakhah, and poetry. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Decter
NEJS
188a
The Rise and Decline of the Ottoman Empire, 1300-1800
[
hum
nw
ss
]
A historical survey of the Middle East from the establishment of the Ottoman Empire as the area's predominant power to 1800. Topics include Ottoman institutions and their transformation, and the Ottoman Empire as a world power. Usually offered every second year.
Staff
NEJS
194b
Sufi Teachings
[
hum
nw
]
An examination of the teaching and practices of the Sufi tradition. Explores the foundations of Sufism, its relation to other aspects of Islam and the development of Sufi teachings in both poetry and prose. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Lumbard
Elective Courses Counting as Colloquium Course
The following courses may count as medieval and renaissance studies colloquia for the capstone option as outlined in the requirement section; otherwise, they count as an elective.
ECS
100b
European Cultural Studies Proseminar: Making of European Modernity
[
hum
wi
]
Investigates how the paradigm of what we know as modernity came into being. We will look at the works of writers and philosophers such as Descartes, Aquinas, Dante, Ockham, Petrarch, Ficino, Rabelais, and Montaigne. Artwork from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance will be used to understand better what "the modern" means. Usually offered every spring semester.
Mr. Randall
ENG
132b
Chaucer I
[
hum
]
Prerequisite: ENG 1a or ENG 10a or ENG 11a.
In addition to reading Chaucer's major work The Canterbury Tales in Middle English, pays special attention to situating the Tales in relation to linguistic, literary, and social developments of the later Middle Ages. No previous knowledge of Middle English required. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Campbell
FA
191b
Studies in Renaissance and Baroque Art
[
ca
wi
]
Open to Fine Arts majors and minors, Italian Studies minors, and Medieval and Renaissance minors only. Topics may vary from year to year; the course may be repeated for credit as topics change.
Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Unglaub
FREN
120a
The Middle Ages: Before France Was France
[
fl
hum
]
Prerequisite: FREN 106b or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.
Before the creation of the French nation-state in the sixteenth century, what we know as France today was a tapestry of feudal and postfeudal states. Modern students often find medieval culture much more exotic than many modern foreign cultures. We will try to understand and appreciate the alterity of the Middle Ages in works such as eleventh-century hagiographies, the Romance of the Rose, the knightly romances of Chrétien de Troyes, the poetry of the troubadours, Christine de Pizan, and François Villon. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Randall
FREN
122b
The Renaissance: When France Became France
[
fl
hum
wi
]
Prerequisite: FREN 106b or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.
The creation of the modern nation-state in the sixteenth century was inextricably linked to the literature and art of the period. The defense of French language and culture was the battle cry of the cultural vanguard of the Renaissance. The political and religious turmoil of the period is matched only by the intensity and beauty of its artistic creations. Works studied include Rabelais' Gargantua, Montaigne's Essays, Marguerite de Navarre's Heptameron, as well as the poetry of Ronsard, du Bellay, and Louise Labé. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Randall
HECS
150a
Staging Early Modern Spain: Drama and Society
[
hum
]
Open to all students. Conducted in English with readings in English translation.
Explores readings and representations of seventeenth-century Spanish drama in social and political contexts. Special attention to gender and violence in texts dealing with seduction, cross-dressing, revolution, and wife-murder, by writers such as Cervantes, Lope, Caro, and Calderón. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Fox
HISP
120b
Don Quijote
[
fl
hum
]
Prerequisite: HISP 109b, or HISP 110a, or HISP 111b, or permission of the instructor.
A reading for fun and critical insight into what is often called "the first modern novel." Discusses some reasons for its reputation as a major influence on fiction and films throughout the Western world. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Fox
HISP
125b
Literary Women in Early Modern Spain
[
fl
hum
]
Prerequisite: HISP 109b, or HISP 110a, or HISP 111b, or permission of the instructor.
Examines works by and about women in early modern Spain, with particular attention to engagements with and subversions of patriarchal culture in theater, prose, and poetry. Writers include Caro, Zayas, Cervantes, and Calderón. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Fox
HIST
221b
Thematic Seminar in Premodern Legal History
A seminar in the comparative legal history of the pre-modern world. Explores a series of overlapping subthemes–courts, lawyers, crime, property, sexuality and colonialism–in Europe, the Americas, China, and the Indo-Islamic world, largely before the 19th century. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Sreenivasan
LAT
125a
Medieval Latin
[
fl
hum
]
Surveys medieval Latin prose and poetry from the fourth to the fourteenth centuries and their influence on subsequent English, French, and Italian literature. Materials will be studied in the original Latin and English. Offered on request.
Ms. Johnston or Ms. Walker
MUS
184b
Proseminar in Medieval Music
[
ca
]
Broad coverage of the principal topics and research techniques of medieval music; structure of the liturgy, chant notation, oral transmission theory, tropes and sequences, polyphonic notation, and rhythmic modes. Introduction to standard bibliographic tools including editions, facsimiles, microfilms, liturgical books, and reference books. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Coluzzi
NEJS
179a
Jewish Literature of the Middle Ages and Renaissance
[
hum
]
Prerequisite: HBRW 40a, NEJS 10a, or equivalent.
An introduction to the Hebrew literature of Spain, Germany, and Italy during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Focus on Sephardic literature and on the continuities and discontinuities of Hebrew belles-lettres, giving attention to the impact of Arabic and European literature on Jewish authors. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Decter
NEJS
180a
Love and Passion in Medieval Jewish Literature and Thought
[
hum
]
An exploration of the love theme in Jewish poetry, fiction, exegesis, and philosophical literature, from the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Jewish texts from Palestine, Spain (Sefarad), France, and Italy are compared with texts in Arabic, Spanish, French, and Italian. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Decter