Volker Mertens, ‚Wagner's Middle Ages,‛ in Ulrich Muller & Peter Wapnewski,.
Wagner Handbook (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992) 236-268 ...
HIST 720 – Imagining the Middle Ages Prof. Jarbel Rodriguez SCI 268 Office: SCI 267A Phone: 415-338-1560 E-mail:
[email protected] Office Hours: M 1:30-3:30; W 11:00-11:50; or by appt. Webpage: http://bss.sfsu.edu/jrodriguez/courses/720/720home.htm This is a course on the use and abuse of medieval history by intellectuals, the political elite, and the purveyors of popular culture. The Middle Ages that we know and study today are not the Middle Ages as they actually happened. In the time that has elapsed between the end of the medieval period and our own age, the Middle Ages have been reshaped, reconstructed and re-imagined—a process known as medievalism—for myriad reasons. As I see it, part of the job of being a medievalist is being a historical archaeologist. Our goal in this course is to wipe away all the layers of myth, misinformation, anachronisms, and bias and arrive at a position where we are better able to understand the Middle Ages without all the historical sediment that has accumulated over the last five centuries. But just as much as the Middle Ages have been reshaped by our own prejudices, so too has the specter of the medieval past altered modernity. In the second half of the seminar, we will be looking at the impact that the Middle Ages have had on modern mass and popular movements and learn to recognize just how central the Middle Ages are to modern culture. This is a graduate seminar. Students must have graduate standing in history and HIST 700 or permission of the instructor to enroll. Learning Outcomes 1. Students will learn and be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of medievalism and its impact on our understanding of the Middle Ages as well as the medievalisms that are still current in modern society. 2. Students will be able to demonstrate the ability to analyze and interpret historical evidence, both primary and secondary, by their participation in class discussions and the research paper. 3. Students will have to demonstrate an ability to do extensive research in primary and secondary sources on a topic of their choice pertaining to Medievalism. They will also have to effectively communicate the results of this research in a 20-25 page research paper due at the end of term. Books Nicholas Haydock, Movie Medievalism: The Imaginary Middle Ages (Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company, 2008) Norman Cantor, Inventing the Middle Ages: The Lives, Works, and Ideas of the Great Medievalists of the Twentieth Century (New York: William Morrow and Co, 1991) Patrick Geary, The Myth of Nations: The Medieval Origins of Europe (Princeton, 2003)
Bruce Holsinger, Neomedievalism, Neoconservatism and the War on Terror (Chicago: Prickly Paradigm Press, 2007) Bruce Holsinger, The Premodern Condition: Medievalism and the Making of Theory (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2005) David W. Marshall, Mass Market Medieval: Essays on the Middle Ages in Popular Culture (Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company, 2007) Veronica Ortenberg, In Search of the Holy Grail: The Quest for the Middle Ages (London: Hambledon Continuum, 2006) Grades and Assignments Class Participation: 15% (missing classes will impact this part of the grade. I expect every student to participate in every class) Book Review: 15%, 1000-1250 words. (Select a book of your choice that you plan to use for your research paper.) Lead a class discussion: 5% Research Paper Abstract: 10% Research Paper First Draft: 15% Final Research Paper: 20-25 Pages 40% Disability Statement Policy Students with disabilities who need reasonable accommodations are encouraged to contact the instructor. The Disability Programs and Resource Center (DPRC) is available to facilitate the reasonable accommodations process. The DPRC is located in the Student Service Building and can be reached by telephone (voice/TTY 415-338-2472) or by email (
[email protected]). Readings and Discussion Topics Week 1 (Sept. 8): Introduction Week 2 (Sept. 15): An Introduction to Medievalism Ortenberg, In Search of the Holy Grail Week 3 (Sept 22): Medievalism in the Academy - I Cantor, Inventing the Middle Ages, chs. 1-4, 6-7, 9-10 Week 4 (Sept 29): Medievalism in the Academy – II Judith Bennett, ‚Medievalism and Feminism,‛ in Speculum 68 (1993) 309-331 [JSTOR]
Kathleen Biddick, ‚Bede’s Blush: Postcards from Bali, Bombay and Palo Alto,‛ in in John van Engen, ed. The Past and Future of Medieval Studies (Notre Dame: Notre Dame University Press, 1994) 16-44 [e-reserve] Paul Freedman and Gabrielle M. Spiegel, "Medievalisms Old and New: The Rediscovery of Alterity in North American Medieval Studies," The American Historical Review 103 (1998) 677-704 [JSTOR] Richard Glejzer, ‚The New Medievalism and the (Im)possibility of the Middle Ages,‛ in Studies in Medievalism X (1998) 104-119 [e-reserve] William C. Jordan, ‚Saving Medieval History; or, the New Crusade,‛ in John van Engen, ed. The Past and Future of Medieval Studies (Notre Dame: Notre Dame University Press, 1994) 259-272 [e-reserve] Gabrielle Spiegel, ‚In the Mirror’s Eye: The Writing of Medieval History in America,‛ in Anthony Molho and Gordon S. Wood, eds. Imagined Histories: American Historians Interpret the Past (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998) 238-262 [ereserve] Week 5 (Oct. 6): Medievalism in the Academy – III Holsinger, The Premodern Condition Week 6 (Oct. 13): Medievalism and the State – National Mythmaking Geary, The Myth of Nations ABSTRACTS DUE Week 7 (Oct. 20): NO CLASS INDIVIDUAL MEETINGS Week 8 (Oct. 27): Medievalism and the State – The Formation of Identity William C. Jordan, ‚Saint Louis in French Epic Drama,‛ in Studies in Medievalism VIII (1996) 174-194 [e-reserve] Laura Kendrick, ‚The American Middle Ages: Eighteenth Century Saxonist Myth-Making,‛ in Marie Francois Alamichel & Derek Brewer, eds. The Middle Ages and the Middle Ages in the English Speaking World (Cambridge, UK: D. S. Brewer, 1997) 121-136 [e-reserve] Adam Knobler, ‚Saint Louis in French Political Culture,‛ in Studies in Medievalism VIII (1996) 156-173 [e-reserve] George Mosse, The Crisis of German Ideology: Intellectual Origins of the Third Reich (New York: The Universal Library, 1964) 13-87 [e-reserve] T. A. Shippey, ‚The Undeveloped Image: Anglo-Saxon in Popular Consciousness from Turner to Tolkien,‛ in Donald Scragg & Carole Weinberg, eds. Literary Appropriations of the Anglo-Saxons from the Thirteenth to the Twentieth Century (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000) 215-236 [e-reserve]
Brian Vick, ‚The Origins of the German Volk: Cultural Purity and National Identity Nineteenth-Century Germany,‛ in German Studies Review 26 (2003) 241-256 [JSTOR] Week 9 (Nov. 3): Medievalism and the State – The Post 9/11 World Holsinger, Neomedievalism, Neoconservatism and the War on Terror Umberto Eco, Turning Back the Clock: Hot Wars and Media Populism (Hartcourt, Inc., 2006) 235-259 [e-reserve] Michael E. Moore, ‚Wolves, Outlaws, and Enemy Combatants,‛ in Eileen Joy, et al. eds. Cultural Studies of the Modern Middle Ages (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007) 217-236 [ereserve] Thomas Madden, ‚Crusade Propaganda: The Abuse of Christianity’s Holy Wars,‛ in National Review Online [LINK THROUGH ONLINE SYLLABUS] Jonathan Philips, ‚Why a Crusade will lead to Jihad,‛ in The Independent (London) Sept. 18, 2001 [LINK THROUGH ONLINE SYLLABUS] Jonathan Riley-Smith, ‚What an Osama bin Laden means by ‘Crusade’,‛ in National Review Online [LINK THROUGH ONLINE SYLLABUS] BOOK REVIEWS DUE Week 10 (Nov. 10): Medievalism in the Romantic Age Marc Baer, ‚The Memory of the Middle Ages: From History of Culture to Cultural History,‛ in Studies in Medievalism IV (1992) 290-309 [e-reserve] Mark Girouard, The Return to Camelot: Chivalry and the English Gentleman (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1981) 163-176 & 231-248 [e-reserve] Volker Mertens, ‚Wagner’s Middle Ages,‛ in Ulrich Muller & Peter Wapnewski, Wagner Handbook (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992) 236-268 [e-reserve] David H. Richter, ‚From Medievalism to Historicism: Representations of History in the Gothic Novel and Historical Romance,‛ in Studies in Medievalism IV (1992) 79-104 [e-reserve] Louis S. Warren, ‚Buffalo Bill meets Dracula: William F. Cody, Bram Stoker, and the Frontiers of Racial Decay,‛ in American Historical Review 107 (2002) 1124-1157 [JSTOR] Leslie Workman, ‚Medievalism and Romanticism,‛ in Poetica 39-40 (1994) 1-40 [e-reserve] Week 11 (Nov. 17): NO CLASS RESEARCH PAPER DRAFTS DUE Week 12 (Nov. 24): NO CLASS Thanksgiving Holiday Week 13 (Dec. 1): Medievalism and Popular Culture – Movies
Nicholas Haydock, Movie Medievalism Susan Butvin Sainato, ‚Not your Typical Knight: The Emerging On-Screen Defender‛ in Martha Driver & Sid Ray, eds. The Medieval Hero on Screen: Representations from Beowulf to Buffy (Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company, 2004) 133-146 [e-reserve] Week 14 (Dec. 8): Medievalism and Popular Culture – Mass Media Umberto Eco, Travels in Hyper-reality: Essays (San Diego: HBJ, 1983) 61-85 [ereserve] Fredric Jameson, ‚Postmodernism in Consumer Society,‛ in Hal Foster, ed. The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays in Postmodern Culture (Port Townsend, WA: Bay Press, 1983) 111125 [e-reserve] Valerie Krips, ‚Medievalism as Heritage: Australian Children’s Books,‛ in Stephanie Trigg, ed. Medievalism and the Gothic in Australian Culture (Turnhout: Brepols, 2005) 119-128 [e-reserve] David W. Marshall, Mass Market Medieval, Introduction, chs. 2, 4, 5, 7, 11-13 VIDEOS (Access through online syllabus) Corvus Corax, "Dulcissima" Dimmu Borgir, "The Serpentine Offering" Enigma, "Sadeness" Enya, "The Celts" Gregorian, "The Sound of Silence" Mediæval Bæbes, "Adam lay Ibounden" Spinal Tap, "Stonehenge" Turisas, "Rasputin" Week 15 (Dec. 15): FINAL THINGS RESEARCH PAPERS DUE
