Spring 2024

Spring 2024 courses

Research in Literature and Geography or Space: Space, Place, and Landscape in Middle English Arthurian Romance

ENG-L610/L755 with Professor Patricia C Ingham

Camelot, Carlyon, and Winchester; Inglewood Forest, the Wirral and the Terne Wathelyn; the land of faerie, and the Green Castle. Insular Arthurian texts are filled with references to places, factual and fictional, real and imaginary. Throughout the Middle Ages, Arthur’s court had associations with diverse, if specific, locales in Wales, Scotland, and England, from Northumbria to Cheshire, London to Winchester, Cornwall, and outward toward Rome. This course engages current research in medieval geography and the rhetoric of place to examine the political meaning and imaginative power of the preoccupation with landscapes both real and imaginary regularly found in Middle English Arthurian Romance. What does it mean that the insular Arthurian tradition is both more specific with regard to place than is its continental analogues and sources, and more interested competitive dynamism of action within and across landscapes? What can theories of place and politics, space and gender, biopower and landscape teach us about the wide-ranging, regionally inflected, interest in tales of Arthur in the British Middle Ages? While continental Arthurian romances will be of interest, the primary focus of this course will be traditions of Middle English Arthuriana. Readings may include, Geoffrey of Monmouth’s, Historia regum Brittaniae; Gerald of Wales, Itinerarium; ME Arthurian tales, particularly those related to the figure of Gawain: The Avowing of King Arthur; The Adventures of Arthur at the Terne Wathelyn; Sir Gawain and Gallergos; Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; The Alliterative Morte Arthure; The Stanzaic Morte Arthur; Malory’s Morte Darthur, selections from The Mabinogi (in translation). Expect to read theories of place and space, especially excerpts from Foucault, Balasopoulos, Bachelard, de Certeau, Lefebvre, Alaimo, and the work of various scholars on medieval geography and place.

Manichean Middle Persian and Parthian

CEUS-T656/356 with Professor Jamsheed Choksy

The course provides an introduction to the alphabets, grammar, vocabulary, reading, translation, and analysis of texts in Manichean Middle Persian and Parthian. Students will be taught the grammatical and lexical differences that distinguish Manichean Middle Persian and Parthian, and will be taught to read, translate, and analyze basic Manichean Middle Persian and Parthian texts. Readings for the semester will be chosen by the instructor from manuscripts and manuscript fragments to introduce students to religious and social materials from the third century through twelfth century CE. Regions covered include Iran, Iraq, Egypt, and Central Asia.

Medieval Literature

CMLT-C523/MEST-M502 with Professor Rosemarie McGerr

Did you know a woman wrote the earliest plays we have from medieval Europe? This course explores many forms in which women in medieval Europe made their voices heard: lyric poems, plays, letters, vision accounts, romance narratives, allegorical narratives, and autobiography, in Greek, Latin, and Arabic, as well as Occitan, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. The authors include saints and heretics, members of royal courts and of the merchant class, mothers and nuns. We will explore are how medieval women engaged with literary, feudal, and theological authority; and consider how their texts present concepts like gender, nobility, motherhood, and holiness, as well as questioning such categories. This course meets with-CMLT-C340 (Women in World Literature: Literature by Women in Medieval Europe ), cross-listed with MEST-M390.

History of the French Language 2

FRIT-F604 with Professor Barbara Vance

In this course we will explore in greater theoretical and empirical depth the issues introduced in FRIT-F603 (History of French 1), focusing especially – but not exclusively – on the later medieval and early modern periods and on areas of student interest. We will read texts from the 11th-18th centuries, develop (partial) accounts of their syntactic, morphological, and phonological systems, and compare these accounts to the comments of 16th and 17th-century grammarians in an attempt to understand the origins of the spoken and written French of today. The semester projects may be on any aspect of the history of the French language as long as it involves close scrutiny of texts from several centuries. Prerequisite: FRIT-F603 or permission of instructor. This is a theoretical linguistics course but some students from other programs have audited it in a productive way that complements their research.

Old Saxon

GER-G639 with Professor Christopher Sapp

This course is an introduction to the Old Saxon language, the language most closely related to Old English. The focus will be on Old Saxon grammar and vocabulary, both as an aid to translation and in comparison with other Germanic languages. The majority of class time will be spent translating passages from the Heliand, an epic retelling of the Gospels in Germanic alliterative verse, along with student presentations on historical and linguistic topics. The textbook and lectures are in English, no knowledge of German is necessary. Textbook: Cathey, James. 2002. Heliand: Text and Commentary. West Virginian University Press. ISBN: 9780937058640.

Performance Practice: Medieval Music

MUS-M 517 with Professor Dana Marsh

How did medieval musicians approach their work? We'll deal with the study, interpretation, and modern performance of European medieval music. With chronological emphases from C10th-C15th, we shall cover a broad range of musical genres (ecclesiastical and secular), deriving from a corresponding breadth of primary source material. The influence of musical traditions beyond Europe will also be taken into account. A close look at medieval music performance of the past century will offer opportunities for students to understand how performer/scholar interpretations of various genres have shifted over time in reflection of changes in modern historiographies. This course meets on Wednesdays and Fridays, 9:10-10:00am, in JSoM Merrill Hall (MU 204) from the week of January 29, 2024.

Imperial Old Tibetan: Introduction to the Language of the Tibetan Empire

CEUS-T673/373, LING-L590 with Professor Christopher I. Beckwith

Imperial Old Tibetan is the language of the Tibetan Empire, a contemporary of the Frankish Kingdom/Empire. (Both realms fought with and against the Arab Empire—on the eastern side and western side respectively—and both broke up with a civil war over the succession, beginning in almost the same year, 842 and 840 respectively). Tibetan is a Tibeto-Burman language and Imperial Old Tibetan is typologically interesting for its unusual phonology. There is a substantial, very interesting literature in the language, which developed into both Late Old Tibetan and Classical Tibetan. The course teaches the alphabetic writing system, phonology, and grammar, using several well-known Old Tibetan texts: mainly a story from ca. 850 and the Old Tibetan Annals (649/650 to 764), plus one short imperial inscription and excerpts from others, and at least part of the Shorter Heart Sutra (9th century). No previous knowledge of Tibetan is required. This section meets with CEUS-T373.

The Medieval Studies Institute

Spring 2024

Spring 2024 courses

Research in Literature and Geography or Space: Space, Place, and Landscape in Middle English Arthurian Romance

Manichean Middle Persian and Parthian

Medieval Literature

History of the French Language 2

Old Saxon

Performance Practice: Medieval Music

Imperial Old Tibetan: Introduction to the Language of the Tibetan Empire

The College of Arts & Sciences

Spring 2024

Spring 2024 courses

Research in Literature and Geography or Space: Space, Place, and Landscape in Middle English Arthurian Romance

Manichean Middle Persian and Parthian

Medieval Literature

History of the French Language 2

Old Saxon

Performance Practice: Medieval Music

Imperial Old Tibetan: Introduction to the Language of the Tibetan Empire

Medieval Studies Institute social media channels

The College of Arts & Sciences