COURSE\syl978

The Middle Ages:
The Making of Europe
History 274--Block 3, 2006-2007
Carol Neel

But move backwards into the Middle Ages and you are in a world almost equally foreign. A windowless hut, a wood fire which smokes in your face because there is no chimney, mouldy bread, "Poor John," lice, scurvy, a yearly child-birth and a yearly child-death, and the priest terrifying you with tales of hell.

"The Middle Ages: The Making of Europe" will consider European society, politics, and religion from their foundations in late antiquity to their reshaping in the fifteenth century. It will depend heavily upon contemporary literary and historical documents as source materials, supporting these primary texts with a few works of recent historical criticism. Discussion sessions will assume some rudimentary understanding of the shape of the western past and of Christian thought. Photocopied course readings will include a brief introduction to medieval civilization, but students unfamiliar with the Christian tradition are advised to find copies of the New Testament and to read at least the gospel of Matthew before they undertake the assignments described below.

This year’s version of HY 274 will center on the medieval origins of the idea of Europe. Common readings and discussions will emphasize the ways in which the Carolingian and later medieval experience defined themselves as a civilization--and the extent to which they revealed Latin Christendom's internal alterities and sense of a surrounding "other." Most of the medieval people whose lives we will consider together were, however, for all their difference from ourselves and contemporaries, part of the mainstream of medieval culture. In order to explore the Middle Ages' fuller range of identities, students will therefore be encouraged to encounter it on Europe's internal and external margins--among people such as Vikings, Saracens, Jews, heretics, and critics of the established order.

READINGS

The following works or collections, required for the entire class, are available in the College Bookstore. Several of these texts are in print in variety of translations. Students are nonetheless urged to use those selected for class, so that discussion may easily refer to selected passages.

Patrick J. Geary, The Myth of Nations: The Medieval Origins of Europe

Carolingian Civilization: A Reader, ed. Paul Edward Dutton

Maureen C. Miller, Power and the Holy in the Age of the Investiture Conflict

Heloise and Abelard, Letters of Heloise and Abelard, trans. Betty Radice

Chrétien de Troyes, Yvain, trans. Ruth Cline

Robert of Clari, Conquest of Constantinople, trans. Edgar Holmes McNeal

David Herlihy, The Black Death and the Transformation of the West

Colin McEvedy, New Penguin Atlas of Medieval History

The following further reading will be distributed in class in photocopied form:

Passion of Sts. Perpetua and Felicity, trans. H. R. Musurillo

Rule of St. Benedict, trans. Timothy Fry

Life of Norbert of Xanten, trans. Theodore Antry

The following films will be subjects of critical discussion:

Clive Donner, Stealing Heaven

Ingmar Bergman, Seventh Seal

REQUIREMENTS

Students will be responsible for careful reading thoughtful consideration, demonstrated in classroom discussion, of all assigned texts. Each will be required to submit

one two-page response paper commenting on an aspect of any primary text considered in the first two weeks
one twelve-page essay based on library research (topic to be decided in consultation with the instructor)
one one-hour identification quiz
one two-hour essay exam

One third of the final grade will depend on class participation, one third on the research essay, and a final third on quiz and exam considered together. All students will be expected to finish assigned readings before class meetings on the day for which they are listed. Readings for which no page numbers are listed are to be read in their entirety. No written assignments will be accepted late without prior excuse. Papers will observe Modern Language Association reference form, as set forth in The MLA Handbook.

SCHEDULE OF CLASS MEETINGS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Discussion titles are indicated below in bold face, written assignments and special scheduling or locations in upper case. The class will meet in Palmer 233 at 1pm, unless otherwise noted, except for the first day of the block, when class will be at 9am for an introduction to the material and discussion of the syllabus.

Week 1 (10/30)

Mon. "Middle" Ages, Middle "Ages"?

INTRODUCTION 9am, NO PM MEETING

Tues. Christian Vision and Classical Past

Passion of Sts. Felicity and Perpetua, atlas 22-27

Weds. Latin Christendom

Geary, atlas 28-35, 44-45

Thurs. INDIVIDUAL PAPER CONFERENCES (to be scheduled Wednesday)

Fri. The Monastic Ideal

Rule of St. Benedict; Dutton 3-11, atlas 46-47

Week 2 (11/6)

Mon. The Carolingian Ideal

Dutton 26-49 (Einhard), 120-151 (Alcuin and the Diet of Aachen), 199-219 (on Louis the Pious and his world)

Tues. After Charlemagne

Dutton 295-344 (Nithard, Verdun, Dhuoda), atlas 50-51

Weds. Church and Kingdoms

Miller 1-27, docs. 3, 10, 15, 19, 20, 21, 39, 11

Thurs. LIBRARY SESSION (Tutt Library TLC) with Krystyna Mrozek

Atlas 54-69

Fri. ID QUIZ 9am

10am FILM: Stealing Heaven

Week 3 (11/13)

Mon. The New Learning

Heloise and Abelard 3-89, 211-223

Tues. Inventing Love

Chrétien

Weds. The Pursuit of Sanctity 1:30 PM

Miller docs. 31, 32, 135; Life of Norbert

RESEARCH PROSPECTUS DUE IN CLASS FOR EXCHANGE

Thurs. PAPER WORKSHOP, SMALL GROUPS AT 9, 10, 11 AM

1pm FILM: Seventh Seal

Fri. Crusade

Robert of Clari, atlas 70-77

Week 4 (11/20)

Mon. The Passing of the Middle Ages

Herlihy, atlas 84-91

Tues. REVIEW BREAKFAST 9 AM (2404 Constellation Drive)

12-PAGE PAPERS DUE IN CLASS

Weds. EXAM DUE NOON (History Office)