Graduate Office - Literature and Criticism Course Offerings By Semester

Course schedules are subject to change.  Please see Cathy Renwick for more information.

FALL 2005

ENGL 763 Topics in British Literature before 1660: Women and Writing in the Middle Ages

Dr. Gail Berlin

Wednesday 6:00-9:00

In this course, we will examine literature by, for, and about women in the approximately one-thousand years that comprise the Middle Ages.  Texts will all be in modern English translation and will include such works as the writings of the desert mothers, the songs of women troubadours, the lais of Marie de France, the plays of Hrotsvit of Gandersheim, the first autobiography in English (by Margery Kemp), and the first history of women (Christine of Pizan’s Book of the City of Ladies).  We will examine such topics as the representation of and attitudes toward women in the Middle Ages, the anti-feminist tradition, the Cult of the Virgin Mary, medieval mysticism, courtly love, women as rulers and literary patrons, early gynecological texts, etc.

This course is intended for students who have no extensive background in the literature of the Middle Ages and will provide a survey of key female authors, literary conventions, and pertinent genres (such as saint’s life, mirror, fabliau, vision, lai, lyric, riddles, plays, miracles of the Virgin Mary, etc.).  Through our study of the literature in its historic and cultural milieu (including such areas as music, art, handcrafts, and manuscripts), students will find that it is still possible to have new insights into medieval literature and to discover pertinent issues for discussion and research.

Course requirements may include a brief oral report on some aspect of daily life of medieval women, a review of criticism, a paper examining the role of women in one particular literary genre, and a final paper of your own choosing.

Possible texts include: Alcuin Blamires, Women Defamed, Women Defended; Benedicta Ward, Harlots of the Desert; Hildegard of Bingen’s Scivias,  Christine de Pizan’s Book of the City of Ladies, Margery Kemp’s autobiography, The

Book of Margery Kemp, and Silence: A Thirteenth Century Romance.  The course will also include a text that will provide a general introduction to issues concerning women in the Middle Ages.

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