Medieval Literature

Catalog description

This course introduces students to literary texts from a variety of medieval European traditions and genres. Readings will span the period from the early Middle Ages to the seventeenth century, including texts from French, German, Italian, Greek, Yiddish, and the ever present Latin [all in translation], illustrating the broad scope of genres of the time, including love poetry, epic, letters, dramas, theology, biography, and romantic-erotic fables. Among the functions of the course will be to redirect critical attention away from the [almost exclusively male] canon of medieval texts and toward texts written by women, so that some insight may be gained into problems of literary reception and production on the part of women, of the role of women in literate society, and their informing activities in religious movements, and to gain some perspective on the history of women’s literature in Europe as it is relevant to contemporary issues in gender studies.