Spring 2013
Note: all readings in these courses are in English.
Arab Women MEM 3931 (#09D8)/ARA3510 (#03A3)
Professor Sarra Tlili
This course will examine the status and role of Arab women following a combined diachronic and thematic organization. Starting from pre-Islamic Arabia, we will study selected poems by prominent female figures and ponder the tribal function of their poetry. Continuing with the theme of women in literature, we will consider how the advent of Islam and the ensuing social, cultural, and political changes affected the voices and depictions of women in Arabic poetry and, later on, in other literary productions. Reaching the modern era, we will consider the impact of modernity on women’s literary role. The course will also examine the role of Arab women in politics. Starting from early Islam down to the Arab Spring, we will examine the participation of women in political life and assess the legacies and struggles of Arab queens, revolutionaries, parliament members, and protesters. Moving to the theme of women in religion, we will learn about the major contributions of pre-modern female ascetics, engage with the issue of the veil, and compare between the struggles and aspirations of Muslim and Christian Arab women. Female singers and musicians are another group of women that will teach us about the unique complexities of the role and status of Arab women. . . .
Humor in Arabic Literature MEM 4931 (#089C)/ARA4930 (#04EF)
Professor Sarra Tlili
This course will explore a variety of Arabic narratives in translation through the theme of humor. Arabic literature, particularly from the pre-modern era, abounds in literary themes and figures that can be entertaining even across the barriers of time, culture and language. The study of social values, etiquettes, habits, and norms will help students acquire a fuller appreciation of the tensions and complexities that form the backdrop of humorous texts. From a literary standpoint, this course will consider how Arabic texts create humorous effect, characterize humorous personalities, and structure humorous anecdotes. The period covered extends from early Islam (6th century) to the modern period, with a special focus on the Abbasid period, from the 8th to the 13th centuries CE. . . .
Journey to the West MEM 4931 (#02E7)/CHT 4603
Professor Richard Wang
This course is designed to explore the religious culture, cultural history and literary expression of traditional China through a 100-chapter novel known as Journey to the West, or Monkey. Based on the famous Tang Buddhist monk Hsüan-tsang’s (596-664) historical pilgrimage to India, and encompassed the story cycle of the journey to the west developed in a millennia, the novel of the Ming dynasty demonstrates its rich texture of religious and literary themes, sentiments, and assumptions in this novel, a work considered one of the masterpieces of traditional Chinese fiction, and the finest supernatural novel. The Journey’s scope includes a physical journey, a heroic adventure, a religious mission, and a process of self-cultivation, through the encounters between the pilgrims, mainly the well-known character Monkey who is Hsüan-tsang’s chief disciple and guardian, and various monsters. This novel has an unsurpassingly penetrating impact on Chinese cultural history and society. It represents the maturity of the Chinese novel, and most literary genres in its pages. While basically a supernatural novel, it also describes social customs and daily life of different regions of China. More than any other traditional Chinese narratives, the Journey presents concerns and themes directly related to Chinese religious, intellectual and cultural history, in addition to literary tradition. . . .
Milton’s Major Poems MEM 4931 (#09CD)/ENL 4221
Professor Peter L. Rudnytsky
The course will focus on a close reading of Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes. Theological, political, psychological, and gender issues will be considered. Course requirements are a midterm, final, and one five-page paper.
Palaces and Cities MEM 3931 (#12AO)/ GET 3930
Professor Will Hasty
This course focuses on cultural developments in the European early modern period as situated in, or oriented towards the residential palaces of increasingly absolutist kings and princes and the cities of an increasingly influential and powerful merchant class. (This course will be offered in tandem with MEM 3300 “Castles and Cloisters: An Introduction to Medieval Communities”; either course may be taken before the other.) In early modern palaces and cities, a new kind of European culture – the outlines of which were already visible in medieval castles and cloisters – emerges in full force. The new operant principle in cultural processes is the primacy of individuality and the individual, and the more or less implicit assumption that individual things or cultural domains – such as politics, theology, poetry, economics, etc. – have to be understood first and foremost as functioning according to intrinsic principles. It is in the residential palaces and cities that the principle of individuality is cultivated as nowhere else and to such a degree, that the early modern world – with numerous indispensable technological enhancements – eventually becomes the modern one in which we live today. . . .
The Nibelungenlied: Superheroes, Valkyries, and the End of the World. MEM 4931 (#09BH)/ IDH 3931 (078E)
1 Credit
Professor Will Hasty
A focused study of the twelfth-century heroic epic about Siegfried the dragon slayer, his murder, and his wife Kriemhilde’s bloody revenge on kith and kin. We shall also explore the influence of this medieval epic on Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle and consider how and why this story could become regarded as the “national epic” of Germany in modern times.
odern times.
The Courtly Romances. MEM 4931 (#1F04)/GET 4930 (#1F02)
Professor Will Hasty
A consideration of the courtly verse romances composed in German in the late twelfth and early thirteenth century. Readings include Arthurian and Grail romances, as well as the heroic epic “Nibelungenlied” and two vernacular religious narratives that are demonstrably influenced by the romances. The seminar begins with a brief consideration of the Latin literary culture of the Christian “Roman empire” that was seen to continue in the Middle Ages. The vernacular verse romances produced in the High Middle Ages are then considered according to the ways in which they can be regarded both as a continuation of and as a break from Latin-Christian “Roman” imperial culture that prepares the way for the Renaissance and Reformation (the latter is represented by a seminal early text by Martin Luther we will consider at the end of term). In conceptualizing the continuities and discontinuities evinced by the romances, particular attention is paid to them as documents of a cultural transition occurring in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries from an understanding of self as sacrifice to an understanding of self as investment or wager.
Medieval Archaeology MEM 3931 (#09EA)/EUH 3182
Professor Florin Curta
Historians of the Middle Ages readily acknowledge the advantage that documentary evidence gives them over archaeologists. After all, why would anyone need to dig in the dirt, when so many archives remain unexplored? Why would anyone prefer the drab remains of past material culture to the spiritual and artistic achievements of the Middle Ages? Many view archival material as a control lacking in archaeology. The true task of the archaeologist is thus to discover whether the evidence of material culture properly reflects the documentary record or vice versa. During the last few decades, however, the discipline of medieval archaeology experienced a spectacular growth. It has become clear that the research carried by archaeologists has no direct connections with, or implications for, the question posed of the documentary record by historians. But the medieval history of material culture raises some important issues, all of which are of historical importance. The study of urban history, for example, cannot be conceived today with a solid training in medieval archaeology. Problems of production and distribution, as well as intricate questions of group identity, gender, and social status can now be re-phrased in the light of the archaeological research. Increasingly, medieval archaeology has become a major component of Medieval Studies. The main goal of this course is to outline some of the most important areas of current archaeological research and to point to major results. From rural settlements to pottery, the impact of medieval archaeology on the study of medieval society cannot be ignored without the risk of serious distortion. Following a topical, rather than chronological, order, we will take a glimpse to life in the Middle Ages through the window opened by archaeologists. We will look at how they gather their sources, analyze them and reached conclusions of historical importance. . . .
Holy War in the Middle Ages MEM 4931 (#09B1)/EUH 4123
Professor Florin Curta
Crusades and crusading remain a very popular topic. The idea of holy war–either the Muslim jihad or the Christian crusade–conveys the image on epic clash between two of the world’s great religions. In the aftermath of September 11, 2001, this is in fact the prevailing view among those who are eager to project onto the present their interpretations of the past. Islamists call fellow Muslims to take part in a worldwide jihad against the people of the “West,” whom they label “crusaders.” In reality, medieval holy wars were much more complex and contradictory, often involving such things as friendship and alliances between Muslims and Christians, triumphs of diplomacy rather than by the sword, as well as crusades launched against Christians or jihads proclaimed against fellow Muslims. The historical understanding of what happened is therefore vital for a positive outcome of the present turmoil in that trouble part of the world, the Middle East. This course is designed as a chronological and topical introduction to the history of the Crusades, from the beginning to the present. Since this is a survey, it is impossible to cover everything. Instead, the course will offer a selection of representative topics from a much larger possible list. We will examine some of the key concepts of theology that had historical significance, the political circumstances leading to the launching of the Crusades, and the main aspects of Christian-Muslim interactions throughout the Middle Ages. Our focus will at times shift towards the organization of the crusader states, but we will also take quick glimpses at some other Christian groups in the Near East, especially at the Orthodox and the Armenians, as well as the fate of the Jews in Europe. Anyone with enough curiosity and desire to learn is welcome. There are no pre-requisites and no special recommendations for this course. . . .
Classical Japanese Poetry MEM 3931 (#09D1) /JPT 3150
Professor S. Yumiko Hulvey
The primary objective of classical Japanese poetry is to trace the development of the poetic tradition in Japan: from the Ancient (500s-700s), Nara (710-794), Heian (794-1185) and Kamakura (1185-1333) periods to the early modern period (1600). We will focus on the genre of poetry (e.g. poetry anthologies), beginning with the Man’yôshû (ca. 759), the Kokin wakashû (ca. 905), and the Shin Kokinwakashû and investigate the development of the genre of poem tales (uta monogatari) that weaves prose narratives and poems into a cohesive unit. Within the genre of poetry we will concentrate on the topic of love poems since the language of love sustained Japanese poetry (waka) when Chinese poetic influence ruled at court until the 9th century. From the 10th century and beyond, waka regained its place of prominence and continues to be composed today . . .
The Tale of Genji MEM 4931 (#0886) /JPT 4130
Professor S. Yumiko Hulvey
The Tale of Genji is one of the masterpieces of Japanese literature, written by a woman known as Murasaki Shikibu. In many ways, the Genji represents the essence of an aristocratic culture that is as unfamiliar to many Japanese as non-Japanese. Heian-period (794-1185) Kyoto was inhabited by an aristocratic class and an elegant, sensitive male is the idealized hero of this masterpiece. Primary objectives: first we read the precursor to The Tale of Genji, the poetic memoir (nikki), The Gossamer Diary written by Michitsuna’s mother, who lived a generation before Murasaki Shikibu wrote The Tale of Genji(hereafter Genji); next we read the masterpiece, Genji, that influenced subsequent generation of fiction (monogatari), drama, and the like; and finally we read the 20th century novel, Masks by Enchi Fumiko, based entirely on The Tale of Genji for its inspiration. Secondary objectives are to read articles of literary criticism as frameworks for discussion, to improve written skills by writing reaction papers and a creative paper, and to enhance meaningful cross-cultural communication skills by focusing on class and gender distinctions prevalent in premodern Japanese culture. Knowledge about the origin of Japanese tradition and culture in the premodern period is the necessary foundation for a proper interpretation of modern and postmodern Japan. This class fulfills the Humanities (H) and International Studies and Diversity (I) requirements, but it does not meet Gordon Rule requirements.