Medieval Renaissance Courses: Medieval Renaissance/Early Modern Studies - Fall 2021

Linked course titles have extended descriptions. Syllabi provided where available.

Course	Title	Day	Time	Instructor	Room	Syllabus	Description
HST 101	American History to 1865	MoWe	9:30-10:35	Tessa Murphy	Grant Auditorium		This introductory course will survey American history from the pre-colonial era to the Civil War. We will approach this period of history through a discussion of three themes. The first covers the period from the founding down to the middle of the eighteenth century and fo-cuses on how Europeans from a medieval culture became Americans. The second theme ex-plores the political, social and economic impact the Revolution had upon American society. And finally, we will focus on the modernization of American society in the nineteenth centu-ry and how that modernization was a major factor in causing the sectional crisis.
HOA 105	Arts and Ideas I	TuTh	12:30-1:25	Glenn Peers	Hall of Langauges 107		Introductory overview of art and architecture from antiquity through the late medieval peri-od that emphasizes how visual culture relates to historical and intellectual circumstances, society, technology, and diverse and changing identities.
HST 111	Early Modern Europe, 1350-1815	MoWe	11:40-12:35	Chris Kyle	Watson Theater		This course covers the history of Europe from the Black Death, which marked the end of the Middle Ages, to the French Revolution – the beginning of the modern world. While it will cover the major events of the period – the Renaissance, the Reformation, the English, French and scientific revolutions, the rise and fall of Napoleon, the growth of the modern state – the emphasis will be on changes in the lives of ordinary men and women. There will be a midsemester, a final, and two short (c. 5 page) papers. (Counts towards the Minor in Medieval and Renaissance Studies.)
ENG 117	American Literature, Beginnings to 1865	MoWe	3:45-5:05	Adams	Marshall Square Mall 206C		This is a course about the making of America. “America” (the idea—the concept of this particular place and what it symbolized) was produced in and through representations of the Western Hemisphere written both by people who lived and traveled here and by people who had never been here at all. This course will investigate how these representations did the work of “making” “America,” in ways that still influence our conceptions of this place. We will treat early American writing as an historical artifact, in which writers responded to and attempted to shape major events and issues in their historical context. We will cover over three hundred years, during which span of time various literary genres waxed and waned in their importance, moving especially from nonfictional poetry and prose in the early periods to the rise of the novel and other fictional forms in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This course will be discussion-based and will help you to develop and sharpen your skills of reading, analyzing, and writing about literature, as well as encouraging you to question and investigate the meaning of “America.”
HST 121	Global History to 1750	MoWe	11:40-12:35	George Kallander	Hall of Languages 207		This course introduces students to global history from the thirteenth century through 1750 by focusing on social, economic, political, intellectual, and religious developments in major regions of the world: Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and the Americas. Beginning with the Mongol’s Eurasian empire, their transformation of the continent, and the spread of Islamic empires from Central Asia to the Atlantic, it traces the historical patterns of different world regions in the fifteenth century through the trans-Atlantic slave trade and European imperialism. What types of exchanges were facilitated by maritime trade and trade diasporas? How were human interactions with their environment circumscribed by climate change and disease? The latter part of the course looks at global connections and local particularities facilitated by the spread of Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism. Course themes include empire, disease, environment, slavery, religion, state-formation, and the rise of global trade. Topics will be covered thematically in general chronological order. Lectures will be supplemented by maps, visual materials, music, documentaries and films. All students are required to attend lectures and one discussion a week.
ENG 121	Introduction to Shakespeare	MoWe	2:15-3:35	Dympna Callaghan	Life Science Building 001		This course offers an intensive introduction to the life and language of arguably the world’s greatest writer, William Shakespeare. This class will focus on two key issues: first, the rela-tion between Shakespeare’s life and his work, and secondly, on the language of his plays and poems. We will become familiar with Shakespeare’s biography, and we will read one work from every dramatic genre in which he wrote—comedy, tragedy, history and romance—, and also perhaps some of the poetry. No previous familiarity with Shakespeare is required, but you do need to be committed to careful and sustained critical reading and analysis as well as active participation in Friday discussion sections. The main goals of this class are to help you read and enjoy Shakespeare, to foster rigorous intellectual engagement his work, and to al-low you develop your own critical writing skills. We will emphasize understanding and engagement with Shakespeare’s language rather than simply its “translation” or the rehearsal of plotlines. Since Shakespeare’s language is what most distinguishes him from his rivals and collaborators—as well as what most embeds him in his own historical moment—this class will take language to be the very heart of Shake-speare’s literary achievement rather than as an obstacle to be circumvented by the reader or audience.
REL 156	Christianity	TuTh	11:00-12:20	Marcia Robinson	Eggers Hall 010		This course covers Christianity’s institutional forms, sacred writings, ideas and beliefs, worship practices, cultural and creative expressions, and ethical and political roles in society, from antiquity to the present. In covering these things, this course basically asks what Christianity has to do with being human. That is, how does Christianity address human needs, concerns, and desires? What are some of the problems that Christianity has caused believers and non-believers? And, why, in spite of its problems, does it remain appealing and viable to a broad array of people over centuries and across cultures?
REL/MES 165	Discovering Islam	MoWe	12:45-2:05	Jeanette Jouili/Tazim Kassam	Hall of Languages 114		Islam is the world’s fastest growing religion. Like Judaism and Christianity, it is an Abrahamic monotheistic faith but it remains unknown and misunderstood especially in the West. Take this course to understand the Islamic tradition and discover its historical roots, core teach-ings, ritual and spiitual practices, and multicultural diversity.
ENG 174	World Literature, Beginnings to 1000	TuTh	11:00-12:20	Harvey Teres	CH020		Gilgamesh, The Iliad, Ramayana, the Bible, Chinese and Japanese literature, the Quran, and 1001 Nights. Texts are explored in historical context, both past and present.
REL 206	Greco-Roman Religion	TuTh	12:30-1:50	Virginia Burrus	CH 020		Various aspects of religious thought and experience in the Greco-Roman world. Variety of ways in which Greco-Roman people expressed the human situation, constructed their world, and viewed salvation through myth, symbol, and ritual.
MES 208	Middle East Since the Rise of Islam	TBA	TBA	Amy Kallander	TBA		This course is an introductory survey of Middle East history from the rise of Islam in the seventh century to 1900. It discusses major empires in Middle East covering topics such as culture and society, science and technology, and women and politics. We will approach the Middle East through the theme of exchange, considering the connections between Southwest Asia and North Africa and neighboring regions, as the crossroads of Asia and Europe. Other prominent themes include multiculturalism, reform, and modernization.
HST 213	Africa: Ancient Times to 1800	TuTh	11:00-12:20	Martin Shanguhya	Eggers Hall 070		This course is a survey of pre-modern African history, presenting an overview of the main themes and chronology of the development of African culture and society. It provides an exposition of the regional and continental diversity and unity in African political, economic, social and cultural histories with special emphasis on major African civilizations, processes of state formation, encounters with the Euro-Asia world, Africa’s role in the international Trans-Saharan, Indian Ocean and Atlantic trades, ecology, and urbanization.
LIT 256/REL 200	Blood. A Cultural History	MoWe	12:25-2:05	Anne Leone	HB Crouse 217		While many courses have focused on courtly love or erotic love, this course asks instead: where are the boundaries between the categories of ‘romantic’ love if we can call it that, and religious devotion? If we focus only on love in only a literary tradition, what do we miss? Neither today nor in the medieval-renaissance period did people live in isolated literary worlds – they were surrounded by religious iconography, they engaged in devotional practices, immersed in cultures that may have been only partly (if at all) literary. In addition, who shapes and controls the narrative of what love is? If we were to focus mainly on literary representations of love from the medieval period, most if not all of the texts we could read would be written by men. Thus, while being cautious about methodological differences, we investigate different kinds of love as it is represented by male poets and theologians, as well as by female mystics. We pay particular attention to how these categories overlap or break down – placing literary, philosophical and medical texts alongside accounts of mystical vision and experience. Over the course of the semester, we will investigate, among other things: the physiology of love, love as sickness, love as ecstasy, love of Christ, maternal and familial love, courtly love, impossible love, forbidden love, selfish and selfless love, marriage, adultery, earthly love, male and female love, medieval representations of medieval love, caritas, hearts (as relics, literal organs of sensation and as symbols) and mystical union with God. Readings (in English and Italian) will include works by Andrea Capellano, Angela of Foligno, Boccaccio, Catherine of Siena, Dante, Petrarch, Ovid, and others. Discussion in Italian.
HOM/MHL 267	European Music before 1800	TuTh	11:00-12:20	Amanda Winkler	Hall of Languages 102		Our culture has repurposed the music of the past to serve our own very modern needs. Star producers have transformed chant into New Age soundscapes and even electronic dance music. Bach has been used in multiple film soundtracks to signify evil genius. But what did these musics mean to people when they were originally composed? This course seeks to answer this question through extensive listening, targeted readings, musical analysis, and performance.
LIT 300	Japanese Literature and Culture before 1600	MoWe	2:15-3:35	Brian Hurley	HB Crouse 200
JSP 300/REL 300	Art and Architecture: Jewish Sacred Space	MoWe	5:15-6:35	Samuel Gruber	Physics Building 104N		This course will investigate the development of a wide range of sacred spaces recognized in Judaism, from those described in the Bible to those designed and built today, or those appropriated when needed for Jewish use. This involves the Jerusalem temple(s), but most of the course will focus on the architectural, artistic and liturgical development of the synagogue and ancillary spaces as well as on cemeteries and memorial spaces. We will discuss how sacred spaces are designed, used, interpreted, adapted and preserved. The notion of the sacred – and by extension sacred places and spaces – has varied over time and place and between cultures. For some these places are distinctly linked to the Divine (however that might be perceived). For others, they are more broadly understood as appropriate, designated and respected places for the practice of religion. In Judaism sacred spaces have served both roles, since the practice of Judaism involves both engagement with the Divine and the more mundane but constant practice of maintaining a functional society (albeit one traditionally organized to follow divinely inspired rules). For almost two thousand years the synagogue has been the focal point of Jewish life and identity. Architecturally, it has been the most prominent of Jewish buildings, for Jews and non-Jews. As the ceremonial center of Jewish life in the Diaspora, it has also been the locus for Jewish ritual art - the primary artistic expressions of Jewish patrons and artists throughout the centuries. By following the development of the architecture and art of the synagogue throughout the ages and across continents, we will examine several themes, including what defines Jewish art, what role art and architecture have played in Jewish history and life, and to what degree has interaction with Christian and Muslim cultures determined the production and appearance of Jewish art. We will consider the institution and the building of the synagogue in its historical, religious, and cultural context, and will consider its development from the points of view function, symbolism, design, aesthetic, liturgy, gender, politics, geography and more.
HST 311	Medieval Civilization	MoWe	12:45-2:05	Samantha Herrick	CH 001		This course explores European civilization from about 800 to about 1200. We will study kings, saints, and villains; faith and violence, love and hatred; ideas and beliefs. Our questions include: how did these people make sense of their world? How did they respond to crisis and opportunity? How did their civilization work? What was life like in medieval Europe? To answer these questions, we will mainly read primary sources that show us what medieval people themselves had to say about their world. Our goal will be to understand the past on its own terms. We will also emphasize the skills of close reading, strong argumentation, and clear expression of ideas.
ENG 311	Literary Periods before 1900	MoWe	3:45-5:05	O'Mara	Life Science Building 100		Chronological periods or movements in literary history with a focus on texts written before 1900; issues of periodization.
HOA 312	Art, Architecture and the Supernatural in 11th-12th Century Europe	MoWe	2:15-3:35	Matilde Mateo-Sevilla	Bowne Hall 105		European art and architecture of the 11th and 12th centuries explored in their cultural, social, and artistic contexts.
HST 320	Traditional China	TuTh	11:00-12:20	Norman Kutcher	Falk Room 104		In this course we will survey Chinese history from earliest times to the end of the Ming dynasty in 1644. This seemingly remote time witnessed the formation of a complex government and society whose influence extended to much of East Asia. Ranging over the centuries, the class will explore some of the main currents in Chinese political, cultural, social, and intellectual history. These include: Confucianism, Buddhism, Daoism, and Legalism as competing and sometimes intersecting philosophies; the imperial system and major changes in its form over time; the changing roles of women in society; popular rebellion and heterodox religion; and the place of science and technology in the Chinese past.
ENG 321	Shakespeare’s Medieval World	TuTh	6:30-7:50	Patricia Moody	HB Crouse 204		Shakespeare belongs unquestionably to the early modern period, yet his world was largely medieval. Almost half of Shakespeare’s plays have direct or indirect medieval sources, and such sources are present in others. Not only the theater itself, but what he read and wrote about show direct inheritance from the Middle Ages: the stories of Macbeth, Hamlet, and Lear; the feud of the Montagues and Capulets, the blend of comedy and tragedy, the very presence of kings and clowns on the same stage. We can recognize what Shakespeare achieved by recognizing how much the Middle Ages gave this greatest of playwrights to work with. We will examine this legacy from the medieval world, from mystery and morality plays, to medieval story tellers such as Chaucer; some works we will compare side by side.
ENG 325	History and Varieties of English	TuTh	11:00-12:20	Patricia Moody	Hall of Languages 115		Want to know what runes are really about? Be able to decipher literature written in Anglo-Saxon? Read some Chaucer in Middle English? Better understand Shakespeare? Know what IPA is and how it is used? Learn why and how English speakers across the US and globe sound so different from “us”? This course aims to provide students with as much knowledge as possible, as interactively as possible, of fundamental linguistic concepts, the basic structures of the English language and representations of its history. Equally important, the course aims to develop critical awareness of contemporary language issues and the complex ways in which language and our ideas about language embed attitudes in popular culture (including Disney!) about issues such as gender, race, and class.
ARC 331/HOA 396	Art and Architecture of India	TuTh	3:30-4:50	Romita Ray Kapoor	Hall of Languages 207		Art and architecture of the Indian subcontinent from the Indus Valley Civilization to the present.
WGS 342	Women in America: 17th Century to the Civil War	MoWe	2:15-3:35	Susan Branson	Lyman Hall 115A		This course examines and analyzes the changing social, economic, and political roles of American women from European settlement to the Civil War. Using primary documents, historical essays, and fiction, we will explore how women's roles and identities have been defined by American society over different historical periods. We will pay particular attention to the ways in which women of diverse races, classes and ethnic groups have either embodied or challenged dominant social norms.
ITA 407	Love, Italian Style	MoWe	3:45-5:05	Anne Leone	HB Crouse 200		This course investigates the issue of love in the Italian tradition, asking what the boundaries between romantic love and religious devotion are and how the idea of love changes over the centuries.
HOA 410	Art and Ideology in Medieval Spain	MoWe	5:15-6:35	Matilde Mateo-Sevilla	School of Management 003		Examines works of art and architecture from Medieval Spain, within their multicultural Christian/Islamic/Jewish context. Emphasizing their ideological value as vehicles for identity, authority, and spiritual ideals.
ENG 421	Shakespeare and the Natural World	TBA	TBA	TBA	TBA		Global pandemic, drought, flood, deforestation, toxic water and air, food-insecurity: these are but a few of the effects of climate-change brought on or accelerated by human agents, and Shakespeare has much to say about them. His plays witness and reflect on a period of radical transformation of deep-set ideas and the social and cultural institutions (gender, church, city, state, family, market, etc.) that housed them. Reading a selection of Shakespeare’s plays and poetry, we will explore ways that meditations on the natural world shape his reflections on these social and political transformations, and vice versa. Our investigations will be guided by attention to the relationship between form and matter in Shakespeare’s work and in the early modern period. To that end, our reading of the plays will emphasize dramatic technique and foreground aspects of theatrical performance, which we will consider through experiments in staging and performance wherever possible. Together, we will learn to read, observe, and listen for the ways that live, embodied, multisensory theatrical experience shapes our capacity to observe and imagine the dynamism of Shakespeare’s natural worlds. This course will address the interests of students in the sciences and theater/literary studies alike. No prior Shakespeare experience required. Pre-1900 Class.
ARC 435/HOA 389	Islamic Architecture	MoWe	3:45-5:05	Susan Henderson	Slocum Hall 104		Major building traditions of Islam in the Middle East, North Africa, Spain, Turkey, and India elucidated through in-depth examination of major works and principles of architectural, urban, and garden design. Additional work required of graduate students.
HOA 445	Baroque Art in Southern Europe	MoWe	12:45-2:05	Wayne Franits	Bowne Hall 313		Painting and sculpture in Italy and Spain during the 17th century; Caravaggio, the Carracci, Bernini, Poussin, Lorrain, and Velázquez.
HOA 600	Caravaggio and His School	MoWe	3:45-6:30	Wayne Franits	Bowne Hall 313		This seminar will examine the life and work of the famous Italian painter, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610) as well as his influence upon artists of all nationalities, who flocked to Rome in large numbers during the opening decades of the seventeenth century. The latter group, now known as the Caravaggisti, includes such masters as Bartolomeo Manfredi, Jusepe de Ribera, Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi, The course will consist of lectures, discussions of assigned readings, and seminar reports by its participants. A reading knowledge of French and/or Italian would be helpful for conducting research in connection with the seminar report (and related term paper) though they are NOT REQUIRED
HOA 620	Seminar: Renaissance Art	Fr	12:45-3:30	Francis Gage	Bowne Hall 313		This seminar investigates Renaissance theories and practices of viewer response. It examines Renaissance expectations concerning how sacred and profane images induced varied sensory and somatic responses in beholders from altering mood or inspiring awe, to healing and consolation, considering these in relation to the methods artists developed to heighten affect through style and technique. Students will study both primary and secondary sources.
REL 630	Textual Bodies in the Study of Religion: Martyrs and Saints	TBA	TBA	Virginia Burrus	TBA		An exploration of the intersections of texts and bodies within religious cultures texts as bodies (from literary corpus to material object), bodies as texts (inscribed and read), and above all bodies in texts.
PHI 710	Seminar in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy	Mo	6:45-9:30	Kara Richardson	Hall of Langauges 538