Course Syllabus

Office hours:  Tuesday and Wednesday, 1 to 3 pm, Chapman 322, and by appointment 
Class hours:  Monday and Wednesday, 4 to 5:20 pm in 103 GSH 
Class cancellation: In the event of inclement weather and class cancellation (unlikely; I live within walking distance of the university), please call message phone number 541.346.0733. If class is cancelled the greeting message will so state. Office phone is message phone only

Course description

What is “medieval”? The word anglicizes Latin medium aevum and comes into common usage in the "special" nineteenth century (more on that in class), 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 Five is required. Schedules permitting, we will visit the Benedictine monastery in Mount Angel, Oregon.

Please be advised of campus's wonderful Teaching and Learning Center, in both PLC and the Knight Library.

Goal:  to define “medieval”; to read "texts" (including images and buildings) related to medievalism, with sensitive attention to historical context and relevant conceptual tools; to identify and analyze the cultural and literary work "medieval" and its attendant concepts have performed -- and currently perform -- for British-American culture in the past and today.
Challenge:  to understand cultural attitudes and social practices associated with notions of "medieval" from the early modern era to contemporary society.  What has "medieval" to do with "whiteness"? Can attention to the word "medieval" help us understand today?

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, and 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 (print book available at Duck Store)
• Michael Murphy's "reader-friendly" version of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
• Norton edition of Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey (print book available at Duck Store)
• ECCOedition of "Letters on Chivalry and romance by Mr. Hurd" -- you'll be using one of the UO Libraries' databases, "Eighteenth-Century Collections Online," in order to access and read this 64-page eighteenth-century pamphlet
  
  

Word paper, due Wednesday, January 17. You'll choose one word from the list below to familiarize yourself with concepts the class will deal with. Note that two words below are CAPITALIZED: these concepts have a particular, "professional" meaning. For your chosen word, read and understand the definition in the Oxford English Dictionary (available online via UO Libraries).  Note the first instance the OED editors cite of your word's use. Note your word's etymology. Be especially alert to nuances and changes in meaning through time. 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  ERIN inquisition  EVAN real  KATE architecture  ------- literature  CONNOR reformation  BRYCE essentialism  TRENT manuscript  -------- revolution  SAM A fantasy  ALLY Nature  JOHNNY Romance  CHEYENNE feudal  EMMET neomedievalism  SYDNEY science  SHAYAN folklore  MAIA periodization  ------- secular  HANNAH history   SAM P positivism  MORGAN chivalry  JUPITER

In addition, please compose a 100-word synopsis of your word and place it, electronically, on the course "Discussion" site (see navigation pane). Deadline midnight Wednesday, January 24.

Article summaries on "pinned discussions" and your "medievalism", before and after.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 essays inform and challenge your reading and discussion of the class's primary texts.  We will continually grapple with the contradictions inherent in uses of "medieval." You'll choose three (or two: see below*) of our critical essays on Canvas "pinned discussions" and write 150- to 300-word summaries of the article, for your classmates to read on Canvas.  Choose your essays from 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. *NEW AS OF FEBRUARY 27:  you can complete TWO article summaries and CONTRIBUTE "your medievalism" to the "your medievalisms" Discussion site. Provide the website/image so that we can see it, and then, in 150 to 300 words, write about how (if at all) your work in "Getting Medieval" has shifted your opinion about "your medievalism." 
10% of your final grade.

Midterm paper. 1000-word paper discussing the text/film/concept you've chosen for your term paper, due Wednesday, February 7 (the end of Week Five). The goal is to get feedback on your topic and elicit further bibliography.  You might use the word your "word paper" analyzed to organize your response.  Do indicate in a bibilography which class reading(s) affect(s) your thesis.
Note that our critical readings provide potential topics for term papers. Check out Medievalists.net (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. to get your topic juices flowing. Below, a short beginning list on which I have bibliography already:

More on Leland: original text and its history
16th-century English protestant apologist John Foxe
John Ball and Rebellion:  William Morris (19th century)
Medieval Islamic violence: start with Amy Kaufman website
Sexuality in the Middle Ages: Dinshaw the expert on queer sexualities
Race and the Middle Ages: gigantic new bibliography
The concept of Romance: lots on 19th century poetry
Medieval-themed architecture like Britain's houses of parliament
Edward Said's Orientalism and its current assessment (Wael B Hallaq) in relation to medievalism

Papers that consider aspects of American white-supremacists' use of "medieval" are welcome, not as invective but as researched arguments. See this bibliography of race and medieval studies. Be advised that the Clark Honors College has a library specialist at the Knight Library to help you with your research.
15% of your final grade.

Film paper, due Wednesday, February 14. A five-hundred word essay on what's medieval, and what's contemporary, about A Knight's Tale; what you used to distinguish between the medieval and modern elements; and whether it matters.
10% of your final grade.

Annotated bibliography due Wednesday, February 21. See this page for a guide to writing an annotated bibliography. Share resources, talk with others. All the same, 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.
10% of your final grade.

Term project due Tuesday, March 20, by 4:45 pm. While I'm quite happy for you to write a standard term paper (approximately 4000 words), and a good portion of any term must be original writing, you may add other types of research, such as images or music, to your "text" to make your points. I'm open to podcasts, video, and other uses of the internet as a platform. As mentioned above, you can certainly collaborate, but each class member is required to write an individual term paper.
25% of your final grade.

Grading

The word paper constitutes 15% of your grade; the article summaries collectively, 10%; the midterm paper, 15%; the film paper, 10%; the thesis question and bibliography, 10%; participation/contribution, 5%; the class presentation, 10%; 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.