Global Medieval Studies (GMST)

Satire and Social Criticism One of the best ways to get a sense of a culture's most cherished values (and its most hotly contested issues) is to consider what its writers choose to criticize and how they attempt to do so. With a goal of making us better interpreters of medieval culture as well as more clever readers, this seminar will examine some of the subtlest, funniest, most scandalous, and most critical literature—prose and verse, fiction and history—from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries. Our purview will include elaborate philosophical allegory, biting parody, and tales of talking animals. While focusing attention throughout on the complexity and elegance of medieval writers, the course will also encourage perspective on contemporary questions.

This course explores the medievalism of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels. To do this we go back to medieval antecedents from the 12th-15th centuries, which allow us to contrast and compare the old and the new. You will read masterpieces of imaginative storytelling from French, English, and Latin medieval literature as well as selected volumes of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels and her associated smaller works. The old and the new are linked thematically in that they are all narratives about growing up and finding one’s identity: a complex, mysterious, and sometimes arduous process that the hero experiences as a magical world where the natural laws governing human existence are suspended, the unexpected is bound to occur, and marvels are reserved for the chosen few. The choices to be made, dangers to be faced, and discoveries to be made, all help the hero to relate to his own world and the public world outside. Friendship, love, good and evil, authority and power, success and failure, responsibility, belief and knowledge, self-knowledge and inexplicable mystery—these are essential experiences that structure and develop identity, in real life and in literature, today as well as yesteryear. All readings and discussion are in English. The course fulfills the Humanities & Writing II requirement. It also counts toward the Medieval Studies Major and Minor, and the SFS Certificate in Medieval Studies. The course is also offered as FREN-040-01.

Using as a guide Durer’s engraving Knight, Death, and the Devil, often interpreted to represent moral virtue in medieval Scholasticism, this course will investigate the interconnectedness of desire, the devil, and death in the medieval world. Weaving illustrations in codexes, psalters, and books of hours with morality plays, legends, Arthurian romance, the Breton lai and the fabliau, we will examine ways in which written texts are both altered and enhanced by visual representations. Some of the authors we will read are Hrotswitha and Hildegarde, Chaucer, Marie de France, and the ubiquitous medieval author Anonymous. (Counts as HUMW II course)

This course is designed for Medieval Studies majors, who need access to medieval texts but are not majoring in Classics. Other students are welcome.

The "Age of Dante" is primarily a readings and discussion course, with some lectures. The central text for the course is Dante's encyclopedic Divine Comedy, which anchors discussions of Dante's other works and his literary, political, ecclesiastical, and philosophical context. At thematically appropriate moments the course discusses Dante’s earlier works, his use of scripture and of classical texts, the writings of his poetic forebears and contemporaries, and contemporary chroniclers who describe the turbulence of late thirteenth- century Florence. Some of the central themes in the course will be Dante's love of Beatrice, his love/hate relationship with the city of Florence, the impact of his exile, his views on the papacy and the empire, his radical re-envisioning of the Christian afterlife, and the choice of personages he encounters on his journey through hell, purgatory and paradise, particularly his strange choice of a pagan guide (Virgil) through hell and purgatory. The course will also discuss the impact of Dante's work, as well as scholarly responses to it. Credits: 3 Prerequisites: None

The fourteenth-century Spanish "Book of Good Love" ("Libro de buen amor") is a most perplexing book. Its author, Juan Ruiz, Archpriest of Hita, promises readers that his book will be 1) a manual for salvation; 2) a manual for sexual seduction; and 3) a manual for the composition of poetry. This class will take Juan Ruiz's philosophical, comic, and literary tour de force as a central text for an introduction to medieval studies. To understand the "Book of Good Love" we will delve into the medieval history, theology, philosophy, and arts of rhetoric that produced it. We will pay special attention to the cultural crossroads of Al-Andalus, where the traditions and languages of Christianity, Judaism and and Islam coexisted. In addition to key works of the Middle Ages by St. Augustine, Boethius, Maimonides, and Ibn Hazm of Cordoba, we will read selections from Ruiz's near contemporaries Boccaccio and Chaucer. In order to better understand medieval texts and to hone their own writing skills, students will do in-class writing exercises that introduce some of the same techniques learned by medieval authors and readers. Readings and discussion are in English. Required for the Medieval Studies major, minor, and SFS Certificate, but open to other freshmen, sophomores and juniors; seniors by permission only. Can also count toward the English major and fulfills the Humanities & Writing II requirement.

What are the practices, norms, and instruments of modern foreign service, and what traditions are they built upon? This class examines the medieval precedents for modern diplomatic and foreign service practices, and the tools --ideological, textual, material, or otherwise --used to facilitate them. The course meets twice a week, with one lecture- and one discussion-based class. A web-site will accompany the course, to collect maps, object images, texts, and other helpful online resources on the topic. Students will contribute to the class website by examining one instrument used in medieval foreign service and inserting into the online "Medieval Foreign Service" object gallery.

Order, Ornament: Med Art & Lit M. Leigh Harrison MW 6:30-7:45 Medieval artisans and poets made their works shine with bold color, elaborate organization, and rich detail--despite the apparent chaos of their age. To explore this paradox, students will examine a range of creations taken from ruined cities and secluded monasteries, bustling universities and stately halls; and throughout, we will consider the persistent connections between visual art and poetry. As we examine some of the Middle Ages' most striking works of literature (sometimes preserved in beautiful manuscripts), questions will center on the role of order and ornament in expressing medieval worldviews. How are narratives like knots, and how are behaviors branches? What is the relationship between symmetry and goodness? What were the hidden meanings of gemstones, animals, and plants in the natural world?

This course investigates the concept of the New Jerusalem, the City of God, as it is represented in medieval architecture, art, and literature of western Europe. We begin by examining the biblical, philosophical, and theological foundations of this concept, with selections from the Books of Exodus and Kings, St. Paul’s teachings on allegory, the Book of Revelation, Plotinus, and St. Augustine. We supplement these sources with images, especially manuscript illumination and panel painting, that draw upon architectural motifs. We then turn to examples of great church architecture in France and England to explore how Gothic buildings, through their symbolic programs, serve as apocalyptic landscapes. A variety of medieval literary works are read together with selections from the visual arts to demonstrate how architecture and allegory worked together in the medieval effort to represent heaven on earth. • All texts will be read in modern English translations. • No previous knowledge of Biblical, ancient, or medieval materials is required for students. • Examples from the visual arts will be drawn primarily from French and English sources. Students will have the opportunity, however, to pursue independent work on other, related European traditions.

This seminar will explore the evolution and impact of the most famous document in all medieval history: the Magna Carta of 1215. A critical analysis of its Prologue and 63 chapters will answer some of the following questions: What political thesis does the Magna Carta represent? What socio-economic changes does the Magna Carta imply? What picture comes out of this document of the church, the merchant classes, women, the nobility, the peasants, free and serf? What is the role of the royal forest? What were the contemporary political and financial concerns and grievances that led to its issue? What liberties does it establish? Why was the Magna Carta repealed and reissued? The seminar will conclude by showing the influence of the Magna Carta on English and American law in the evolution toward constitutional government and the rule of law.

Focuses on contrasting modern views of British medieval history with medieval perceptions. The historical evidence and the legends for figures such as Arthur, King Alfred, Thomas Becket, Robin Hood, and Richard II are compared. Prerequisites: None

The ravages of the Northmen throughout Europe and beyond have been an area of fascination and of historical interest for centuries. Yet few students understand or are aware of the actual history of the people that had such a tremendous influence. This course will attempt to remedy that gap while at the same time offer a deeper understanding of the Vikings themselves. Throughout the semester we will follow a multi-disciplinary approach to the history of the Vikings in the “Heroic Age.” We will survey the history of Scandinavia and examine the history of the Northmen within both the European and world context. As such we will look at Norse activity in continental Scandinavia, in Western and Eastern Europe, the North Atlantic and beyond examining the many ways in which the Vikings interacted with foreign peoples - as merchants, conquerors, pilgrims, colonists, mercenaries, and as pirates. The course will move thematically and chronologically from c. 600 CE to c. 1200 CE examining a range of topics. We will discuss the legendary history of early Scandinavia and the consolidation of the Scandinavian kingdoms. We will attempt to recreate the early Norse world view including the creation of the world and other aspects of the Viking religious experience. Students will be introduced to a wide variety of Norse Gods and heroes and understand how the mythological and cosmological lore of the region helped shape an ethos of the North. The course will also examine the great period of the Viking expansion which in many ways shaped the history of Europe. We will look at, among other things, the Danish invasion of England, the settlement of the Normans in Northern France, the Rus and the origins of Russia as well as the discovery of America around the year 1000. While the course does move chronologically during this period, we will also look at a wide variety of historical themes including the development of Europe’s first parliamentary government (the Thing); the arrival of Christianity in the North; the legal status of feuding; and the role of women in Viking society. Within this historical framework, a good deal of attention is devoted to Viking art and archaeology, to the pagan religion of early medieval Scandinavia, and to its system of writing (the celebrated runes) and its literature (including the mythological and heroic poetry of the Edda, the court poems of the skalds, and the Icelandic sagas). Finally, the course will address the modern ramifications of the Viking Age as well as the depiction of the Vikings in modern art, music and film. Credits: 3 Prerequisites: None

This course serves as an introduction to the discipline of Global Medieval Studies and its research methods, while seeking to address important questions in the field: What does it mean to be “global” in the Middle Ages? How do we view the Middle Ages today, and why do we do so? In addition to general research skills in Medieval Studies, the course theme, “Explorers and Travelers,” will guide students through a selection of primary texts that will serve as case-studies for different research approaches. These materials include literary texts, artifacts, maps, and documents that deal with oceanic and land travel, discoveries in the New World, navigation in the Indian Ocean, shipwrecks, and more. Class sessions will also cover research topics including manuscript culture, book history, medieval genre, (post)colonial theory, and gender studies. This course will also include “explorations” to some of DC’s museum collections at the National Gallery of Art and the Dumbarton Oaks museum. This course is cross-listed with the Department of Spanish and Portuguese as many texts and objects come from Iberian and Latin American traditions. Students will read, for example, Luis de Camões’ The Lusiads, the travels of Vasco da Gama, the First New Chronicle of Guaman Poma, and work with Pre-Columbian artifacts. While working knowledge of Spanish or Portuguese is useful, it is not a prerequisite for this course. The course is taught in English and materials are available in English. For students looking to receive credit for the SPAN major or minor, written assignments must be submitted in Spanish or Portuguese.

This seminar is designed for Global Medieval Studies minors in the College, SFS, or MSB and for students who are considering the Global Medieval Studies major or minor. We will investigate key issues and approaches to research in Global Medieval Studies. Our scope will include Africa and the Americas as well as Eurasia, ca. 500-1500 C.E. Topics will include matters related to periodization, historiography, and terminology; the circulation of material and written evidence; tensions between the global and the local; language, communication, contact and exchange between cultures; and literary and artistic expression and adaptation. There will be ample opportunity for students to follow their individual interests; short research assignments will culminate in a substantial research paper or project. We will also get out into the city to explore relevant collections at DC museums.

This seminar will deal with the origins of Christian monasticism in the third century and trace its development down to the advent of the friars in the thirteenth. The course will concentrate on the relationship between monasticism and Christian society as a whole. What did the men and women who withdrew into the eastern deserts hope to accomplish by rejecting society? What was their role in the wider church? In other words, what were the implications for ordinary believers of having an alternative form of Christian practice develop alongside the Christian hierarchy? How was the monastic impulse transformed by its encounter with new political and social circumstances in western Europe? To explore these questions, we will read some modern historians, but we will rely heavily on primary sources, especially saints' lives and monastic rules, in an effort to understand how monasticism influenced, and was influenced by, the major historical currents of this crucial millennium in European history. Spring.

The concept of pilgrimage both preceded and succeeded the medieval period and incorporates a range of religious beliefs, but the efflorescence of Christian pilgrimage occurred in the Middle Ages. These pilgrimages testify to the human need to be in physical contact with various kinds of objects and places considered sacred, to the belief that these spaces/places/objects afford unmediated contact with the sacred, which contact in turn imbues the pilgrims with their own sacredness. These objects and places offered and continue to offer thaumaturgical or miraculous healing powers as well. We will explore some of the most important medieval pilgrimage locations—Rome, Jerusalem, Santiago de Compostela, and Canterbury, but we will also accompany medieval Buddhist, Islamic, and Jewish pilgrims to India, Mecca, and the Holy Land, traveling finally with those who are arguably post-Enlightenment pilgrims to such sites as Star Trek and Anime conventions, Graceland, and the Viet-Nam and 9/11 Memorials.

This course will explore the diverse paths taken by medieval women within families, religious communities, and court life. For many, but not all, religious life offered both protection and opportunities for creative writing and composition, for scholarship and reflection, for meaningful work, for mysticism and prophecy, for companionship and solitude. They include the Roman martyr Perpetua (d. 203), the Saxon canoness and playwright Hrotsvit of Gandersheim (ca. 935-1000), the brilliant Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179), the passionate and gifted Heloise of the Paraclete (1101?-1164), the court writers Marie de France (ca. 1160-1215) and Christine de Pizan (1363-1430), the warrior and martyr Joan of Arc (1412-1431), the mystics Catherine of Siena (1347-1380) and Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), and other noted abbesses and recluses. Some were canonized as saints, some were convicted and slain as heretics, but they all left remarkable records during centuries where most women lived short repressed lives and died in obscurity. These women were a product of their times, a crucial millennium in European history from the disintegration of the Roman Empire to the emergence of European nation states in the 12th and 13th centuries and the eve of the Renaissance, but they transcended their times and resonate with us today.

The crowning achievement of the western medieval literary tradition, Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, begins and ends with images of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Dante pilgrim sets off on his journey through Inferno by her intercession; he climbs the mountain of Purgatory by responding to her roles as Christian exemplar; and he articulates a beatific vision in Paradise by singing her praises as mystical rose and Queen of Heaven. Dante’s attention to Mary is a poetic summation of medieval teachings, devotion, and artistic representations of Christ’s mother. This course traces the development of these Marian cultural expressions in religion, art, and literature, from their biblical foundations through the late Middle Ages in Western Europe. Scriptural writings prepare us for how medieval thinkers and artists interpreted Mary in relation to Eve and a fulfillment of Hebrew prophecy. Medieval interpretations of her role in Christian salvation history explore paradoxes she embodies: virgin mother, daughter of her Son, humble maid and Queen of Heaven. Theological writings on major Marian themes help us appreciate intense spiritual and emotional expressions in art, architecture and literature. Readings will be supplemented with appropriate images from the visual arts in an effort to understand the full medieval ramifications of Dante’s culminating description of Mary as “the face that most resembles Christ.” Mary and Mariology: Themes for the course: Immaculate Conception, Incarnation, Virginity, New Eve, Theotokos, Assumption/Dormition, Mater misericordiae, Mater dolorosa, Mater sponsi, Sedes sapientiae, Magistra scholastica

TBA

This research and reading seminar is required for senior Medieval Studies majors. Minors and SFS certificate students wishing to enroll and write a thesis are welcome to contact the Program Director, Prof. David Goldfrank at goldfrad@georgetown.edu.

This course constitutes the second half of the year-long thesis process for seniors in the Medieval Studies Program. After taking MVST 348 in the fall, the students taking MVST 349 write their theses, c. 50 pages, in the spring term, to be completed by early April in consultation with their thesis advisors and the Director of the Medieval Studies Program. Spring.