COURSE REQUIREMENTS
Required Books (available for sale at the UNCG bookstore):
Amt, Emilie, ed., Women's Lives in Medieval Europe: A Sourcebook (NY: Routledge,1993)
Erler, Mary and Maryanne Kowaleski, eds., Women and Power in the Middle Ages (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1988)
Gies, Frances and Joseph Gies, Marriage and the Family in the Middle Ages (New York: Harper Collins, 1987)
Christine de Pisan, The Treasure of the City of Ladies (Penguin, 1985)
The Letters of Abelard and Heloise, trans. Betty Radice (Penguin, 1977)
A Course Reader comprised of selected primary sources
The reader will be available for sale at Copy-1, 801 W. Lee Street
(phone 273-0644)
ADDITIONAL READINGS, ON RESERVE IN JACKSON
LIBRARY
I am only asking you to read very small portions of the following works;
for this reason, I have decided not to require you to buy them. Instead
they will be available on closed reserve in Jackson Library.
Medieval Masculinities: Regarding Men in the Middle Ages, ed. Clare A. Lees (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1994). You will read only this article: Jo Ann McNamara, "The Herrenfrage: the Restructuring of the Gender System, 1050-1150," pp. 3-29.
Elizabeth Petroff, Body and Soul: Essays on Medieval Women and Mysticism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994). You will read pp. 51-65 and 66-79.
Carolyn Walker Bynum, "Fast, Feast and Flesh: the Religious Significance of Food to Religious Women," Representations 11 (1985): 1-25.
Sainted Women of the Dark Ages, trans. Jo Ann McNamara (Durham: Duke University Press, 1992). You will read pp. 60-105.
The Lais of Marie de France, trans. Robert Hanning and Joan Ferrante (Durham: the Labyrinth Press, 1978). You will read pp. 73-91.
Geoffrey Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, trans. Nevill Coghill (Penguin, 1975). You will read pp. 276-298.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
Short Writing Assignments: 10%
Discussion and Attendance: 10%
Bibliography
10%
First Paper:
20%
Second Paper:
20%
Take-Home Final Exam : 30%
1. Short Writing Assignments: I will normally distribute a guide for each week's readings. On that reading guide (along with more general questions about the specific readings), I will list two broader questions; you should choose one of these questions and write your Short Writing Assignment in response to it. These short responses will be due each Thursday and should be ½ to 1 page in length. These short writing assignments should be typed, and I expect you to put some thought into them. I will not assign a letter grade to them, but rather will grade them by the check, check-plus or check-minus system. These short writing assignments will ensure that students are reading the assigned material, will help prepare them for discussion, and will identify for me areas of misapprehension that can be corrected in discussion or lecture.
2. Discussion and Attendance: attendance in class and active participation in discussion are important components of learning. As such, 10% of the overall grade will depend upon attendance and discussion.
3. Bibliography: one of the most important elements of historical
analysis is research. Although this course will not require a formal
research paper, I will ask each student to prepare a bibliography on a
topic relevant to medieval women's history. I will provide a list
of potential topics, but students will also be encouraged to choose a topic
that has interested them from lecture or the readings. Students should
then prepare a bibliography containing 5-10 primary sources and 15 to 20
secondary sources (including articles) relating to that topic. Assistance
in the use of the library and the Internet will be offered by the instructor.
Click here for the Bibliography assignment
sheet.
4. First Paper: the first paper will be an essay on the letters of Heloise and Abelard. In this paper students may either write upon the thorny issue of authorship (a perennial topic for scholarly debate) or may consider what the Letters can tell us about the social, intellectual, and religious roles of women in the twelfth century. Specific questions will be distributed in class. This paper should be 4-6 pages in length. Click here for First Paper assignment sheet.
5. Second Paper: the second paper will comprise an analytical essay based on the students' reading of Christine de Pisan's Treasure of the City of Ladies. Although specific questions will be distributed in class, the topics for the paper will undoubtedly ask students to analyze her portrait of ideal women of various social classes in light of in-class discussions of medieval gender roles. I expect a paper that is 5-8 pages in length. Click here for Second Paper assignment.
6. Take-Home Final Exam: a comprehensive written synthesis of the themes of the course. I will distribute questions one week in advance of the due-date, and will expect a total of 6-10 pages of typed answers to a combination of short-answers and a longer essay.