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Fall 2008 Course Listing

MED 227/HUM 227   The World of the Middle Ages
D.V. Smith
TTh 1:30 – 2:50  
An introduction to medieval culture in Western Europe from the end of the classical world to 1400.  The course focuses on themes such as theories of writing and reading; subjectivity, autobiography, cartography, cosmology; relations between and among Christianity, Judaism, and Islam; hagiography, romance, encyclopedia; university, monastery, heresy; arts of building, arts or rule, arts of dying; religious and secular orders; political and natural catastrophe; crusade, chivalry, piety; classicism, humanism, renaissance; the modern institutions of the Middle ages.

Undergraduate Courses

ART 100 Introduction to the History of Art: Ancient to Medieval
Staff
MW 10 – 10:50 am
P01  10 – 10:50 T
P02  11 --11:50   T
P03  1:30 – 2:20 T
P04  TBA
A survey of Western art from ancient civilizations through medieval with an emphasis on the major artists and works of art.  Includes some side glances at non-Western traditions.

ART 204/HLS 204  Pagans and Christians: Urbanisms, Architecture, and Art of Late Antiquity
Slobodan Curcic
MW  9 – 9:50 MW
P01  11 – 11:50 T
P02  TBA 
Urbanism, Architecture and Art of the Mediterranean world, ca. 200-600 A.D.  This course will focus on the urban forms, architecture and art in the Late Roman  Empire.  It will explore the transformations brought about by the spread and triumph of Christianity, pagan resistance, ‘barbarian’ incursions and other forces.  The course will culminate with the analysis of the formation of a new, Byzantine architectural and artistic tradition, associated with the fully Christianized Eastern Roman Empire.

ART 430/HLS 430   Medieval Art
Slobodan Curcic
TH 7:30 – 10:20 pm
Belfry and minaret are ubiquitous features of religious architecture of Eastern Christianity and Islam, Respectively.  Their origins, functional and symbolic roles will be the subject of our investigation within a time frame extending from late antiquity to the late Middle Ages (ca. 400 – ca. 1500).  We will explore their competing roles in various multi-cultural settings and the phenomenon of their deliberate destruction under certain circumstances.  A critical consideration of the role of modern historiography and the extent to which it has contributed to the understanding of the issues involved will be an integral part of the course.

ENG 301    The Old English Period
Sarah Anderson
TTH  9:00 – 10:20
This course introduces the chief features of Old English, the language of the Anglo-Saxons in the British Isles from about 450-1100 CE.  We will focus on the linguistic skills needed to read, with the aid of a dictionary, memorable poetry like Beowulf and OE lyrics, Alfredian prose, and historical texts.  By the end of the first week, we’ll be back in time a millennium or more, studying the charms and riddles of OE.  Time permitting, we will engage with the historical contexts of OE literature.

GER 326/SPA 328/WOM 327   No Pain, No Gain: Passion and Oppression in the Middle Ages and Beyond
Sara Poor/Ronald Surtz
W 1:30 – 4:20
This seminar explores narratives of love, both divine and profane, and its rewards and punishments.  Texts range from early medieval to the Baroque, and include such genres as romance, hagiography, travel narrative, divine revelations, and legal documents.  The readings focus on male oppression of women, mortification of the self, and the persecution and eventual validation of visionaries.  Students will consider such questions as:  What is the role of gender in these narratives?  What, if any, is their legacy for us today?  Readings and discussion in English.

LAT 232   Introduction to Medieval Latin
Janet M. Martin
MW 1:30 – 2:50
Selections from outstanding works of Latin prose and poetry from Late Antiquity to the Twelfth-Century Renaissance, particularly in the genres of history, epic, romance, and lyric.  Our emphasis will be on the relations between medieval authorship and the education of mean and women, with special attention to the transmission and reception of the literature and values of classical Antiquity.

NES 220/HIS 220/JDS 220   Jews, Muslims, and Christians in the Middle Ages
Mark Cohen
MW 1:30 - 2:50 p.m.
An introduction to the history and culture of the Jews in the Middle Ages (under Islam and Christendom) covering, comparatively, such topics as the inter-relationship between Judaism and the other two religions, interreligioius polemics, political (legal) status, economic role, communal self-government, family life, and cultural development.

Graduate Courses

ENG 514   Middle English Religious Literature: Devotion and Negation
D. Vance Smith
F  1:30 – 4:20
How do religious texts express what cannot fully be names? We will answer this question by examining medieval and contemporary forms of negation:  apophatic expression in pseudo-Dionysius, and Denis Hid Divinity; forgetting the Cloud of Unknowing, Heidegger, and Adorno’s Negative Dialectics; logical negation in medieval dialectics and Hegel; the aporia in Plato, Derrida, Marguerite Porete and William of Heytesbury’s Insolubilia; renunciation and disavowal in Julian of Norwich, the Ancrene Wisse, and Freud; loss in the Harley Lyrics and Pearl; iconoclasm in Lollardy; devotion in the vernacular.

HIS 544  Seminar in Medieval History
William C. Jordan
T 1:30 – 4:20
Reading and research seminar on France in the thirteenth century.

SPA 534 Seminar in Medieval Spanish Literature: Women in Early Spanish Literature
Ronald E. Surtz
T 1:30 – 4:20
An exploration of the literary treatment of women in medieval and Golden Age Spain. We will consider works written by both male and female authors, thus enabling us to compare the ways in which women saw themselves with the ways in which they were seen by men.  A series of oral reports will focus on the position of women in society, thus allowing a comparison between literary images and actual social roles.

See Princeton University course pages for full course details.