MEM 3300 (08D7)/GET3930: “Castles and Cloisters: An Introduction to Medieval Communities.”
Will Hasty, Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures.
A study of monastic and courtly-chivalric communities as these evolved in the Middle Ages. Explorations of architecture, art, literature and music illustrate how different monastic and chivalric communities saw the world and their place in it. (H and N).
MEM 3931 (04C3)/ARA 3510: “Arab Woman”
Sarra Tlili, Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
This course examines the role of women in Arab societies and how Arab women and men understand gender relations and roles. The course follows a combined historical and thematic organization. Starting from pre-Islamic Arabia down to the modern period (with substantial medieval content), we will consider the role of women in literature, arts, social and economic life, religion and religious scholarship, and politics. All readings for this course are in English. Audio-visual materials are either in English or in Arabic with English subtitles.
MEM 4931 (0369)/CHT 4603 (13C0): “Journey to the West”
Richard Wang, Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
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.
MEM 3931 (04C1)/EUH 3931 (2A79): “HOLY WAR”
Nina Caputo, Department of History
Examines the shifting terrain of historical and theological conceptions of war and holy war in the Middle Ages. The material is divided into four distinct sections: theological foundations, early medieval conceptions of war and community, the Crusades and changes in the high and late Middle Ages.