Summer 2013:
MEMS in Mannheim (summer study abroad)
Now being offered as a distance learning course in Summer B:
Castles and Cloisters: An Introduction to Medieval Studies (H,N)
MEM 3300 (4A95)
Professor Mary Watt
The goal of this course will be to develop a familiarity with some of the salient characteristics of monastic and courtly-chivalric communities in the European Middle Ages, by means of a study of the ways in which they organized their lives temporally and spatially, and of the ways in which they gave expression to their views about life, love, work, God, etc. in their art, literature, and music.
Fall 2013:
MEM 3931 (#1C29)/ITT 3431 : Pilgrimages in Italy (H,N)
Professor Mary Watt
Through lectures, readings and discussions in English, this course considers the continuing presence of Rome and other Italian cities as metaphors and focal points of Italian artistic and literary sensibilities.
MEM 3931 (#1C30) /JPT 3300 (#009G): Samurai War Tales
Professor S. Yumiko Hulvey
An investigation of the historical, political, and cultural circumstances that led to the following nine wars that were later recorded as narratives: The Revolt of Taira no Masakado (935), The Revolt of Fujiwara no Sumitomo (936), The Revolt of Taira no Tadatsune (1028), The Earlier Nine Years’ War (1051), The Later Three Years’ War (1083), The Hôgen War (1156), The Heiji War (1159), The Genpei War (1180), and The Shôkyû War (1221). Scholarly articles analyzing historical items will be read in conjunction with narratives and picture scrolls to identify positive attributes valued as proper conduct by the samurai. These attributes later coalesced into bushidô or the “code of the samurai” that are the stuff of legend. Authentic though these war tales are, there are fictional elements that revise historical facts for literary effect. Thus it will be our purpose to glean fact from fiction as we gather the threads being woven into the brocade of bushidô. We will learn of important historical figures and events that form the core of Japanese literature, theatre, and culture for a greater understanding of the people who inhabit the Japanese archipelago.
ENL 4221: John Donne
Professor Peter Rudnytsky
This course will offer a close study of writings by John Donne, the most famous “metaphysical” poet and one of the greatest love poets, as well as preachers, in the English language. We will spend the most time on the Songs and Sonnets, but also take up an assortment of other poems, including the Anniversaries and Donne’s major religious poems. The prose works to be read include Biathanatos, Donne’s paradoxical defense of suicide, and Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, a meditation on his serious illness, as well as selected sermons. The course will consist almost entirely of line-by-line analysis of the texts, which are generally quite difficult, with attention to the use of metaphor, psychological, social, and theological issues, etc. Course requirements are a midterm, final, and one five-page paper. Regular attendance and active participation in class discussions are also expected.
ENL 4333: Shakespeare: Comedies and Romances
Professor Peter Rudnytsky
This course will be primarily devoted to Shakespeare’s final plays, including the four known as “romances”: Pericles, Cymbeline, The Winter’s Tale, and The Tempest, but also Henry VIII and The Two Noble Kinsmen. If time permits, we will read at least one earlier comedy, such as Twelfth Night. The emphasis will be on developing skills of close reading and on exploring the psychological issues posed by these works. Course requirements are a midterm, final, and one five-page paper. Regular attendance and active participation in class discussions are also expected.
ENL 4333: Shakespeare: Comedies and Romances
Professor R. A. Shoaf
EUH 4930: ‘Converting’ the Mediterranean World: From Classical to Christian Civilization
Professor Andrea Sterk
Course website from the last time taught: http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/sterk/junsem/syllabus10.html
MEM 4931 (#1C41) /FRE 4930: French Poetry of the Renaissance: Eight Poets of the Golden Age
Professor William Calin
Conducted in French. The period extending from 1400 to 1660 is one of extraordinary richness in the production of lyric poetry. We can consider these years to have been a Golden Age. This course will focus on eight poets from the late Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Baroque, and early classicism. these are Charles d’Orléans, François Villon, Louise Labé, Pierre de Ronsard, Jean de Sponde, Agrippa d’Aubigné, Jean de La Ceppède, and Jean de La Fontaine. We shall look at the relationship of literature to historical reality, the mind-set of a feudal-aristocratic and classical-Christian culture, an age of enthusiasm for Graeco-Roman antiquity, and the Wars of Religion. Central to our preoccupations will be gender (attitudes toward women) and devotion (attitudes toward the church, death, and God). In other words, Eros and Caritas. We shall also scrutinize the workings of literature itself, with special attention to image and archetype, from the perspective of modern criticism. We shall concentrate on the close reading of selected brief texts or brief passages from longer texts.