COMP 237
Medieval Worlds Fall 2024
Division I Writing Skills

Class Details

While the word “medieval” was first used to designate the period in European history between the fall of Rome and the Renaissance, historians and literary scholars frequently use the term to label periods in other regions and cultures that not only overlap chronologically with the European Middle Ages, but also appear to share similarities in terms of technology, social structures, and religious orientation. In this course we will focus on how medieval literary works from multiple traditions represented past events both public and personal, from conflicts that impacted huge swaths of society to the minutiae of an individual’s daily life. Readings will range from European verse epics such as the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf and a Chinese civil servant’s poem on the destruction wrought by war to the memoirs of a Japanese court lady and a set of narratives about influential women of the past by the first professional female writer in Europe. We will explore the stories these works tell about historical (or purportedly historical) events and their claims to historicity or truthfulness, asking questions such as: In an age where information traveled very differently from how it does today, how did people form an understanding of recent and historical events? How did people create, experience, and transmit literary texts in different medieval cultures? What roles did religion play in texts that are not explicitly religious? What does it mean to think of the medieval as a category across different cultures?
The Class: Format: seminar
Limit: 18
Expected: 10
Class#: 1711
Grading: yes pass/fail option, yes fifth course option
Requirements/Evaluation: Requirements/Evaluation: Regular attendance and participation in class; multiple written assignments of varying lengths building towards a final paper of 10-12 pages.
Prerequisites: none
Enrollment Preferences: Comparative Literature majors
Distributions: Division I Writing Skills
WS Notes: Writing skills justification: Multiple writing assignments over the course of the semester that prepare students to produce a polished essay of 10-12 pages by the end of the semester. The final paper will be drafted in stages, and students will receive substantial feedback on these drafts as well as on other written assignments.

Class Grid

Updated 3:31 am

Course Catalog Search


(searches Title and Course Description only)
TERM




SUBJECT
DIVISION



DISTRIBUTION



ENROLLMENT LIMIT
COURSE TYPE
Start Time
End Time
Day(s)