Course Description
The ideas about and images of women throughout the medieval period. The issues of political, economic, and social rights of women of different classes. The presence of misogyny will be questioned.
Athena Title
WITCHES/DAMSELS/NUN
Equivalent Courses
Not open to students with credit in HIST 3332
Semester Course Offered
Offered every year.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
Students will examine the roles and experiences of medieval western European women across the social spectrum, including peasant women, townswomen, aristocratic women, and women who sometimes found themselves on the fringes of society. Thematic considerations include upbringing and education, marriage and family, political and economic power, courtly love and romance, sexuality, religious life, heresy, and witchcraft. The principal objective of the course is to teach students to think critically for themselves about the relationships between the past and the present, to learn to ask questions of the past that enable them to understand the present and mold the future, and to become attuned to both the limitations and possibilities of change. The course seeks to acquaint students with the ways in which past societies and peoples have defined the relationships between community and individual needs and goals, and between ethical norms and decision-making. In general students will be expected to: 1. read a wide range of primary and secondary sources critically. 2. polish skills in critical thinking, including the ability to recognize the difference between opinion and evidence, and the ability to evaluate--and support or refute--arguments effectively. 3. write stylistically appropriate and mature papers and essays using processes that include discovering ideas and evidence, organizing that material, and revising, editing, and polishing the finished papers.
Topical Outline
The Classical Inheritance The Religious Inheritance Conditions of Life: Upbringing & Marriage Conditions of Life: Home & Family Peasant women Urban women Aristocratic women Courtly Love, Chivalry, and Romance The Religious Life: Nuns & Nunneries The Religious Life: Lay women The Religious Life: Saints and Mystics Medicine, Reproduction, and Sexuality Heretics and Witches