Louise Bishop's teaching pages

Paper format instructions | What is an A paper?
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HC 421-- Getting Medieval, Fall '16

Course description

What is “medieval”? The word anglicizes Latin medium aevum and comes into common usage in the nineteenth century, replacing the previously-used term “Gothic.” Why the change? Through primary texts like The Song of Roland and the works of Geoffrey Chaucer, we explore the “creation” of the Middle Ages and ponder the odd admixture of scorn and delight that the term "medieval" conjures for modern audiences. “Medieval,” as well as “Gothic,” have been interpreted, re-interpreted, and even recreated from the “Renaissance” – an era now called “Early Modern” -- to today. We will grapple with the creation of historical “eras” and pay some special attention to "medieval"’s use in contemporary analyses of war and torture. How can the word “medieval” contain its paradoxical resonances of torturous violence – getting medieval on your @#$% (Pulp Fiction) -- and chivalric romance? Course requirements include primary and secondary readings with accompanying writing, class presentations, and a term paper. One film showing outside of class time in Week Three is required. Schedules permitting, we will visit the Benedictine monastery in Mount Angel, Oregon.

Please be advised of two resources to improve writing: the University Composition Program's resources, and the Teaching and Learning Center, in both PLC and the Knight Library.

Goal: to read "texts" (including images and buildings) related to medievalism, with sensitivity to historical context and relevant conceptual tools.

Challenge: to understand cultural attitudes and social practices associated with notions of "medieval" from the early modern era to contemporary society.

Outcomes:
Improved reading skills of primary texts: having read and understood primary texts through close reading, discussion, and challenge
Improved reading skills of secondary texts: understanding of, sensitivity to, modern scholarship on medievalism
Improved writing skills via the production of independent written work
Improved presentation skills via the colloquium presentation

Texts:
Hackett edition of The Song of Roland
Michael Murphy's "reader-friendly" version of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales

Broadview edition of Horace Walpole's Castle of Otranto
ECCO
edition of "Letters on Chivalry and romance by Mr. Hurd" (print book available at the Duck Store)

Many readings provided on Canvas ***marked with an asterisk*** 

 

Note also the Key Critical Terms readings highlighted in green on the Canvas syllabus: read the entry prior to its scheduled class meeting; remember these terms for class discussions and for your written work.

 

Special opportunity: FREE event in Eugene on the reinvention of modern Sephardic music as medieval! Possible research paper topic!
Myths, Lies & Truths: the Re-Invention of Ladino Song As Ancient Monday, October 10 at 6 PM 145 Straub Hall, 1451 Onyx Street, University of Oregon Campus

Requirements

Word paper, due Monday, October 3. You'll choose one word from the list below to familiarize yourself with the concepts the class will deal with. Check out the definition in the Oxford English Dictionary (available online via the UO Libraries).  Note the first instance of the word's use. Note its etymology. Be especially alert to nuances as well as changes in meaning. Write a 1000-word (or so) essay on the word.  How did the word originally appear to you, and how has your investigation changed its meaning for you?  Anticipate in your paper the way the word may show up during classwork. We'll often spend the beginning of classes sharing our continuing discoveries about these words.

15% of your final grade.

anachronism inquisition real
architecture literature reformation
essentialism manuscript revolution
fantasy Nature Romance
feudal neomedievalism science
folklore periodization secular
history positivism chivalry

Article summaries on "pinned discussions" on Canvas. The Middle Ages has provided a screen onto which scholars and others have projected their desires for an authentic Middle Ages, or a Middle Ages that leads to the modern age, or a Middle Ages that critiques the modern age. Critical readings are meant to inform and challenge you and inform your reading of the class's primary texts as well as class discussion.  We will continually grapple with the contradictions inherent in uses of "medieval." You'll choose three of our critical essays on Canvas (highlighted in yellow) and write 150- to 300-word summaries of each for your classmates to read on Canvas.  Choose your essays from three different class meetings. These summaries will not be graded but will ideally inspire both class discussion and, perhaps, Canvas conversation. Summaries due at that class meeting. Show your expertise on the article for that day's class meeting.

15% of your final grade.

Midterm paper. 1000-word paper discussing the text/film/concept you've chosen for your term paper, due Wednesday, November 2 (the end of Week Six). The goal is to get feedback on your topic and elicit further bibilography.  You might use the word you analyzed in your "word paper" to organize your response.  Do indicate which class reading(s) affect(s) your thesis. Our critical readings provide potential topics for term papers. Simmons, for instance, names other writings by John Ruskin as well as the 16th-century English protestant apologist John Foxe (p.2); she mentions Ivanhoe on page 5; medieval-themed novels like William Morris's A Dream of John Ball (p. 9); medieval-themed architecture like Britain's houses of parliament; the Camden Society or the Roxburghe Club (p. 7); the art criticism of Michael Camille (p. 18). Any of these would provide good beginnings from which to identify a thesis question. Be advised that the Clark Honors College has a library specialist at the Knight Library to help you with your research.Your papers, informed by study questions, will reflect on intersections between primary and secondary readings.
15% of your final grade.

Annotated bibliography due Monday, November 14. See this page for a guide for writing an annotated bibliography.  Share resources, talk with others; at the same time, each student will write an individual term paper.
10% of your final grade.

Class presentation. The last week of class will be devoted to 7-minute class presentations on individual research topics/papers. These presentations can be organized individually or in a group, but time constraints remain vital. The presentations' main purposes are (1) to help you articulate your research thesis for interested parties and (2) to provide others in the class with more information about medievalism and its invention/history/uses. You'll each fill out a presentation evaluation form for your classmates' presentations: you can find the form in Canvas.
15% of your final grade.

 

Grading

The word paper constitutes 15% of your grade; the article summaries collectively, 15%; the midterm paper, 15%; the thesis question and bibliography, 10%; participation/contribution, 5%; the class presentation, 15%; and the term project will constitute 25% of your grade. Please note the University's "grade point value" system effective 9/90, as I will be using this system (unless otherwise noted):

A+ = 4.3

B+ = 3.3

C+ = 2.3

D+ = 1.3

A = 4.0

B = 3.0

C = 2.0

D = 1.0

A- = 3.7

B- = 2.7

C- = 1.7

D- = 0.7

Note that a grade of "C" is, according to academic regulations, "satisfactory," while a "B" is "good." That means that a "B" is better than average, better than satisfactory, better than adequate. The average grade, then, is a "C"; a grade of "B" requires effort and accomplishment.

Sept. 26
Topic: The meanings of "medieval" and "medievalism": origins as well as recent history and changes
Readings: *Key Critical Terms, "Middle"
*Fred Robinson, "Medieval, the Middle Ages" (1984)
*Clare Simmons, Introduction to Medievalism and the Quest for the Real Middle Ages (2001), part I, pp. 1-12
*Louise D/Arcens, Introduction to the Cambridge Companion to Medievalism (2016) (PDF pages 1 through 9)
*Matthews, Medievalism: A Critical History (2015), intro and Chapter 1


Sept. 28 Topic: The Renaissance invents the Middle Ages
Readings: *Key Critical Terms, "Modernity"
Introduction to John Leland's Itinerary
*Jennifer Summit and *James Simpson on Leland

Visit to Special Collections to see Leland and Chaucer editions from the Renaissance
Word paper, due Monday, October 3
Oct. 3
 
Topic: Introduction to Chaucer, "The Father of English Poetry"
Readings: *Key Critical Terms, "Authority"
General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales in the Michael Murphy online edition
*Bishop essay on "Father Chaucer"


Oct. 5 Topic: The General Prologue in later centuries
Readings: First 23 pages of Godwin's Life of Chaucer and Sir Walter Scott's review
*Morse on 19th-century Chaucer
*Bishop Icons essay
Gabe Gardner visits first five minutes of class

Oct. 10 Topic: Contemporary Chaucer

Readings: *Key Critical Terms, "Love"

Chaucer's Miller's Tale 

Listen to Baba Brinkman's version of the Merchant's Tale (on Canvas)

*Reading from Geoffrey Chaucer Hath a Blog,  pp. 1-42

 

Oct. 12 Topic: Global Chaucer

Readings: *Key Critical Terms, "Primitive"
Patience Agbabi, Telling Tales
*
Barrington essay on global medievalism

MOVIE NIGHT: A Knight's Tale (2001) in GSH 132

 

Oct. 17 Topic: Medievalism and War
Readings: Song of Roland
*Andrew Taylor's essay on the "invention" of The Song of Roland
*
Lynch essay on medievalism and the ideology of war in Cambridge Companion  

Oct. 19 Topic: Violence and the Middle Ages

Readings: *Key Critical Terms, "Presentism"
*Dinshaw essay on Pulp Fiction, sodomy, the Middle Ages
*Holsinger essay on the 9-11 pre-modern

 
Oct. 24 Topic: the "Gothic" novel
Readings: *Key Critical Terms, "Gothic"
Castle of Otranto, to page 71 (end of ch 3)
*Hogle on Gothic "Romance"
Oct. 26
Topic: continuing the novel
Readings: Castle of Otranto
, conclusion and extra's
Oct. 31 Topic: Chivalry
Readings: Hurd on chivalry (primary text available for purchase at DuckStore)
*Hardt on constant war, taking account of *Holsinger's 9-11 essay
 

Midterm paper, due Wednesday, Nov. 2
Nov. 2
Topic: Nationalism, orientalism, and the medieval

Readings: *Ganim, Medievalism and orientalism, Chapter one
Nationalisms and medievalism essays by *Holsinger and *Utz in 2016 Companion

 

 

Nov. 7 Topic: American medievalism
Readings: *Key Critical Terms, "Purity"
*Saxon mythmaking and the founding fathers
*Elizabeth Elstob and the first printed Anglo-Saxon



Nov. 9 Topic: Local medievalism
Reading: *Rasmussen essay on contemporary monasteries in the US

Annotated bibliography due Monday, November 14
Nov. 14
Topic: 19th century "medieval" poetry: the Romantics
Readings: *Key Critical Terms, "Troubadour"
Keats, "Eve of St Agnes"
Byron, "Childe Roland"

Nov. 16 Topic: 19th century "medieval" poetry: the Pre-Raphaelites
Readings:  Tennyson, The Lady of Shallott


Nov. 21 Topic: Loving the Middle Ages

Readings: Bishop essay from 1991
*Dinshaw intro to How Soon Is Now? 

 

Nov. 23 NO CLASS
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Nov. 28 Class presentations

Nov. 30 Class presentations 

These venerable antient Song-enditers
Soar'd many a pitch above our modern writers:
With rough majestic force they mov'd the heart,
And strength and nature made amends for Art.

From the frontispiece to Percy's "Reliques" (1735)