History seminar
Thursdays, 1-4pm, Sem II E2109

Faculty:    Stacey Davis
              Sem II C3104
              x6761
              davisst@evergreen.edu

Welcome to the history seminar for Illuminations!  This quarter we will explore the mindsets and value systems of medieval French kings, nobles, merchants, knights, poets, widows, monks, nuns and peasants from the very early post-Roman world of Merovingian Gaul in 500 A.D. through age of chivalry of the High Middle Ages of the 12th and 13th centuries, and finally during the disastrous era of famine, plague and war that marked the 14th and early 15th centuries.  

Through our readings together, we will try to understand the ways in which both the elites and common women and men constructed their world.  Therefore, we will pay special attention to understanding and analyzing the stories medieval French folks told themselves, including tales of saints' lives and the redemption of pilgrimage; the stories of charismatic kings, wandering friars, chivalric knights and fair demoiselles in distress; the panicked rumors about lepers, Jews and witches that sparked riots and massacres; and the stories common people spun when asked by religious or secular authorities to explain their actions and lives.  Our texts will range from the tales of great writers to the images in illuminated manuscripts and stained glass windows, from the laws of French kings to the confessions of convicted killers.  

In short, we will track how notions of good and evil, as well as ideas about the right way to behave, how to define oneself in relationship to the world, and what to believe, changed over the course of these thousand years.  


Seminar readings:

Please note:  starred readings are also all-program readings for that week.

Week 1 (Sept 27):        *Victor Hugo, Notre-Dame de Paris

Week 2 (Oct 4):        *Two chapters from Charlemagne's Mustache;
                Plus Merovingian and Carolingian capitularies, as well as
                Excerpts on saints' lives (all in photocopied packet)

Week 3 (Oct 11):        *Burgess, Lais of Marie de France

Week 4 (Oct 18):        *Edwin Mullins, The Pilgrimage to Santiago;
                              *Articles on pilgrimage (photocopied packet)

Week 5 (Oct 25):        Georges Duby, The Knight, The Lady and the Priest
                                Book review choice due today

Week 6 (Nov 1):        *Beroul, Chrétain de Troyes' Roman de Tristan;
                              *Christopher Tyerman, The Crusades:Very Short Intro
                
Week 7 (Nov 8):        No history seminar; work on book review assignment

Week 8 (Nov 15):        *Daniel Hobbins, The Trial of Joan of Arc
                                Book review due today at beginning of seminar

Thanksgiving Break        Remember:  Final exam due Monday Nov 26 at 9

Week 9 (Nov 29):        David Nirenberg, Communities of Violence

Week 10 (Dec 6):        Natalie Zemon Davis, Fiction in the Archives;
                                Book review oral presentations