HMS-208A Medieval Literature and Culture

3 Credits

Since the term "Middle Ages" is burdened with designating one thousand years of history (c.500-1500), this course will provide a necessarily limited overview of a few major literary, philosophical, religious, and aesthetic issues that defined the period in Western Europe. Literary and philosophical texts will be situated within the historic, aesthetic, social, and intellectual contexts in which they emerged in order to provide a sense of the specific trends that characterized shorter periods within the medieval era. The trends to be studied will vary each semester the course is taught.