Course Description
What were the Middle Ages like after they ended? Examination of how modern cultures have imagined the medieval past — from the Victorians and their Viking heroes to Monty Python, Derrida, Game of Thrones, and white nationalism — and how the Middle Ages are still shaping the present as a result.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
Graduate students will also be required to write an
article-length study and to read additional materials for every
class session. Graduate student papers and/or projects will
entail in-depth research and will be graded according to much
higher research and writing standards than the undergraduate
students.
Athena Title
Modern Medievalisms
Prerequisite
One 2000-level HIST course or one 3000-level HIST course or one 4000-level HIST course
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
Both undergraduate and graduate students will become familiar with a variety of ways that medieval history has been “used” in both academic scholarship and popular culture in the nineteenth to twenty-first centuries. They will learn to evaluate how different cultures’ interests and biases have led them to discover, and also to obscure, different aspects of medieval history. And they will learn how to identify the ongoing feedback loop between medieval and modern forms of politics, warfare, gender, race, and culture. Students will also learn to analyze primary and secondary sources by reading and thinking on their own, but also by discussing and writing. In particular they will become more fluent in determining what perspectives the sources highlight or marginalize, what they reveal unintentionally, and what uncertainties remain. Students will develop a research project on a case study of their choice, which will involve formulating their own working questions about a subject, using primary and secondary sources, and building a convincing and clear argument based on a critical use of the evidence. Graduate students will be required to write an article-length study and to read additional materials for every class session.
Topical Outline
1. Gargoyles in Notre Dame and America 2. Archaeology and the “Germanic” Bedrock 3. The Novel versus the Age of Enchantment 4. Victorians and Vikings 5. Arthuriana 6. The KKK and Nostalgic Chivalry 7. Monty Python and the Funny Middle Ages 8. French Postmodernists and the Bible 9. Disneyland and Medieval Times: 3D Cartography 10. Game of Thrones and Medieval Rulership 11. Magic and Medicine 12. White Nationalism and the Crusades 13. D&D, RPGs, LARP 14. The Future of Medievalism