January 6: Introduction to the course. What is love? What is marriage? Why is the history of love and marriage important?
Read: McCarthy 30-33, 36-40, 64-68, 184-191; Rampolla 1-8
Klaus Oschema, “Sacred or profane? Reflections on love and friendship in the Middle Ages,” in Love, Friendship, and Faith in Europe, 1300-1800, edited by Laura Gowing, Michael Hunter, and Miri Rubin (Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, 2005), pp. 43-65.
January 11: Discussion: What is history and (why) is it important?
Written assignment: Imagine you are traveling by plane. You enter a conversation with the person sitting next to you, who is very curious to know why you want to study history. He/she cannot understand why you study history when so many other subject matters are faster tracks to money-making professions. In a two-page essay (due in class), develop an argument that history is worth the effort and can lead to a life-fulfilling profession. You need to explain to him/her 1) why history is important as a subject of study in and for itself; 2) why teaching history is in fact a key component of any profession. Come to class prepared to discuss.
January 13: Falling in love in the Middle Ages. Sex and the Middle Ages. How to study history?
Read: McCarthy 191-195, 266-268. 272-273; Rampolla 106-107
Bernard McGinn, “Love’s last millennial turn,” in Truth as Gift. Studies in Medieval Cistercian History in Honor of John R. Sommerfeldt, edited by Marsha Dutton, Daniel M. La Corte, Paul Lockey (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 2004), pp. 3-26.
Jill Mann, “Falling in love in the Middle Ages,” in Traditions and Innovations in the Study of Medieval English Literature. The Influence of Derek Brewer, edited by Charlotte Brewer and Barry Windeatt (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2013), pp. 88-110
January 18: Discussion: How to succeed in the history major? How to take notes in a history course?
Written assignment: Come to class with notes (they can be electronic) on all of the readings for this week (McCarthy, McGinn, and Mann).
January 20: A medieval invention: courtly love.
Read: McCarthy 174-177, 184-191; Rampolla 9-13
Sarah Kay, “Courts, clerks, and courtly love,” in The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Romance, edited by Robert L. Krueger (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), pp. 81-96.
Albrecht Classen, “Dialectics and courtly love: Abelard and Heloise, Andreas Capellanus and the Carmina Burana,” Journal of Medieval Latin 23 (2013), 161-183.
Georges Duby, “The courtly model,” in A History of Women in the West, 2: Silences of the Middle Ages, edited by Christiane Klapisch-Zuber (Cambridge, Mass: Belknap, 1992), pp. 250-266.
January 25: Discussion: Reading and evaluating primary sources
See a guide to how to read primary sources
Written assignment: in a one-page essay (due in class), reflect on two of the secondary literature items pertaining to one of the primary source readings (in McCarthy) for January 20 (either Andreas Capellanus or Marie de France). How did the analysis in these items either support or undermine your interpretation of that source? How are those two items different from each other in their interpretation of that source? Be specific and include at least one footnote (using the Chicago Manual of Style) in your response.
January 27: Marriage in the early Middle Ages
Read: McCarthy 53-60, 102-107, 167-171; Rampolla 13-18, 34-40
Auđur Magnúsdóttir, “Women and sexual politics,” in The Viking World, edited by Stefan Brink (Abingdon: Routledge, 2008), pp. 40-48.
Bart Jaski, “Marriage laws in Ireland and on the Continent in the early Middle Ages,” in The Fragility of Her Sex? Medieval Irish Women in the European Context, edited by Christine Meek and Katharine Simms (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1996), pp. 16-42.
Martha Rampton, “Love and the divorce of Lothar II,” in On the Shoulders of Giants. Essays in Honor of Glenn W. Olsen, edited by David F. Abbleby and Teresa Olsen Pierre (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 2015), pp. 91-115.
February 1: Discussion: Interrogating primary sources and deriving research questions from them.
Written assignment: choose two sources from among those in the assigned readings for last week—a narrative (e.g., Beowulf) and a non-narrative (e.g., laws of Canute)—and answer the following questions: 1. When was the text written, and who was (or may have been) the author? What is the broader historical context in which this text was created? 2. What genre is the text, and how is it organized? 3. What is the goal of the author, and who is the audience? 4. What are the main points or arguments in the text? 5. Are there any indications of rhetorical strategies, and if so why are they used?
February 3: Marriage in the High Middle Ages
Read: McCarthy 61-64, 108-109, 112-121; Rampolla 19-26, 43-51
Gillian Kenny, “When two worlds collide: marriage and the law in medieval Ireland,” in Married Women and the Law in Premodern Northwest Europe, edited by Cordelia Beattie and Matthew Frank Stevens (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2013), pp. 53-70.
Jörg Peltzer, “The marriages of the English earls in the thirteenth century: a social perspective,” Thirteenth-Century England, XIV. Proceedings of the Aberystwyth and Lampeter Conference, 2011, edited by Janet Burton, Philipp Schofield, and Bjorn Weiler (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2013), pp. 61-85.
John R. Sommerfeldt, “Bernard of Clairvaux on love and marriage,” Cistercian Studies Quarterly 30 (1995), no. 2, 141-146.
Cynthia Johnson, “Marriage agreements from twelfth-century southern France,” in To Have and to Hold. Marrying and its Documentation in Western Christendom, 400-1600, edited by Philip L. Reynolds and John Witte (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), pp. 215-259.
February 8: Discussion: Reading and using secondary sources.
Writing assignment: In a two- to three-page essay highlight what you believe to be the three most important characteristics of marriage in Western Europe between ca. 1000 and ca. 1300. You must select one trait from each of the four secondary literature items. In the second part of the essay consider the legal sources in the readings for February 3. Do they complement or contradict the conclusions of the secondary literature? Explain. Do these texts approach the question of marriage in the Middle Ages in different and perhaps conflicting ways, or do they really agree in perspective and outlook? Make sure you support your answer with examples from the texts (both primary and secondary sources).
February 10: Marriage in the Late Middle Ages
Read: McCarthy 83-88, 206-207, 242-245; Rampolla 51-54
Charlotte Vainio, “Empowered spouses: matrimonial legal authority in Sweden, 1350-1442,” in Authorities in the Middle Ages. Influence, Legitimacy, and Power in Medieval Society, edited by Sini Kangas, Mia Korpiola, and Tuija Ainonen (Berlin: Walter De Gruyter, 2013), pp. 283-305.
Patrick J. Hornbeck II, “Love and marriage in the Norwich heresy trials, 1428-1431,” Viator 44 (2013), no. 3, 237-255.
Christine Peters, “Gender, sacrament, and ritual: the making and meaning of marriage in late medieval and early modern England,” Past and Present 169 (2000), 63-96.
February 15: Discussion: How to study for a history course? History exams and test-taking strategies.
Writing assignment: Using all the readings for last week (including the primary sources), bring a list of 7-10 discussion questions (in the form of important ideas, people and events) that highlight the major themes of this week’s topic—marriage in the Late Middle Ages. Bring the list to class as a hard copy.
February 17: Heloise and Abelard—a sex scandal or a great love story?
Read: McCarthy 146-149; Rampolla 55-65
Deborah Fraioli, “Heloise’s first letter as a reponse to the Historia Calamitatum,” Mediaevistik 26 (2016), 119-141.
Sally Livingstone, “’Consider, I beg you, what you owe me’. Heloise and the economics of relationship,” in Women and Wealth in Late Medieval Europe, edited by Theresa Earenfight (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2010), pp. 51-65.
Constant J. Mews, “Abelard, Heloise, and discussion of love in the twelfth-century schools,” in Rethinking Abelard. A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by Babette S. Hellemans, Brill’s Studies in Intellectual History, 229 (Leiden: Brill, 2014), pp. 11-36.
February 22: Discussion: Developing a thesis and constructing an argument.
Writing assignment: Developing a topic that is effective and appropriate for an undergraduate research paper requires significant thought and work. You will describe and justify a topic in class by means of a brief presentation to your peers. So come to class with notes that address three major issues:
- What is the broad theme or issue you will be addressing?
- How you are going to examine that theme? What is the specific gateway to your topic? It needs to be discrete, concrete and worthy of study.
- What are the primary sources that you will use to examine that specific focus of your paper? Also briefly mention the types of secondary sources you will use.
February 24: Family love and affection
Read: McCarthy 208-210, 250-253; Rampolla 65-77
John Moore, “Inside the Anglo-Norman family: love, marriage, and the family,” in Anglo-Norman Studies, XXVIII. Proceedings of the Battle Conference, 2005, edited by C. P. Lewis (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2006), pp. 1-18.
Diane Owen Hughes, “Domestic ideals and social behavior: evidence from medieval Genoa,” in Medieval Families. Perspectives on Marriage, Household and Children, edited by Carol Neel (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004), pp. 125-156.
Stanley Chojnacki, “The power of love: wives and husbands in late medieval Venice,” in Women and Power in the Middle Ages, edited by Mary Erler and Maryanne Kowaleski (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1988), pp. 126-148.
March 1: Midterm.
March 3: Adultery, domestic violence, and divorce
Read: McCarthy 44-53, 89-92, 179-182, 195-198; Rampolla 77-88
Sarah Hamilton, “Inquiring into adultery and other wicked deeds: episcopal justice in tenth- and eleventh-century Italy,” Viator 41 (2010), no. 2, 21-43.
Ronald P. Akehurst, “Adultery in Gascony,” in De sens rassis. Essays in Honor of Rupert T. Pickens, edited by Keith Busby, Bernard Guidot, and Logan E. Whalen (Amsterda: Rodopi, 2005), pp. 1-15.
Hannah Skoda, “Violent discipline or disciplining violence? Experience and reception of domestic violence in late thirteenth- and early fourteenth-century Paris and Picardy,” Cultural and Social History 6 (2009), no. 1, 9-27.
Constance B. Bouchard, “Eleanor’s divorce from Louis VII; the uses of consanguinity,” in Eleanor of Aquitaine. Lord and Lady, edited by Bonnie Wheeler and John Carmi Parsons (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2002), pp. 223-235.
March 7-11: Spring break – no classes
March 15: Discussion: Editing for style and grammar.
Writing assignment: In no more than two paragraphs, answer the following questions. What is Sarah Hamilton’s argument concerning adultery? In what way is she changing your own interpretation of Akehurst’s arguments about the same? What is the unique perspective that each brings onto this social phenomenon in the Middle Ages, and how do their ideas contrast with the work of other scholars mentioned in their articles?
March 17: Same-sex love
Read: McCarthy 177-179, 183-184, 215-216; Rampolla 93-105
Matthew Kufler, “Male friendship and the suspicion of sodomy in twelfth-century France,” in The Boswell Thesis. Essays on “Christian, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality”, edited by Matthew Kufler (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2006), pp. 179-212.
Carol Lansing, “Donna con donna? A 1295 inquest into female sodomy,” Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History 2 (2005), 109-122.
Karma Lochrie, “Between women,” in The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Women’s Writing, edited by Carolyn Dinshaw and David Wallace (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp. 70-88.
Andrzej Wyrobisz, “The ‘great fear’ in Venice and Florence in the 15th century and its possible causes,” Acta Poloniae Historica 93 (2006), 55-67.
March 22: Discussion: Conducting research – bibliographical databases
Written assignment: Use the library catalog to identify one “traditional” primary source that offers a window onto some aspect of love and marriage in the Middle Ages. Provide complete citation information. Using the International Medieval Bibliography database, identify two articles and/or chapters dealing with homosexuality in the Middle Ages. Justify your selection and, in a single paragraph, explain how you are going to obtain a copy of each article.
March 24: Raptus (rape or abduction) and prostitution
Read: McCarthy 100-102, 126-128; Rampolla 111-118
Carol Lansing, “Concubines, lovers, prostitutes: infamy and family identity in medieval Bologna,” Beyond Florence. The Contours of Medieval and Modern Italy, edited by Paula Findlen, Michelle M. Fontaine, and Duane J. Osheim (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003), pp. 85-100 and 256-258.
Trevor Dean, “A regional cluster? Italian secular laws on abduction, forced, and clandestine marriage (fourteenth to fifteenth century),” in Regional Variations in Matrimonial Law and Custom in Europe, 1150-1600, edited by Mia Korpiola (Leiden: Brill, 2011), pp. 147-159.
Caroline Dunn, “The language of ravishment in medieval England,” Speculum 86 (2011), no. 1, 79-116.
Julie Coleman, “Rape in Anglo-Saxon England,” in Violence and Society in the Early Medieval West, edited by Guy Halsall (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 1998), PP. 193-204.
Keiko Nowacko, “Persecution, marginalization, or tolerance: prostitutes in thirteenth-century Parisian society,” in Difference and Identity in Francia and Medieval France, edited by Meredith Cohen and Justine Firnhaber-Baker (Farnham: Ashgate, 2010), pp. 175-196.
March 29: Discussion: What is plagiarism and how to avoid it?
Written assignment: Complete the following exercises on plagiarism
https://plagiarism.arts.cornell.edu/tutorial/exercises.cfm
https://usm.maine.edu/sites/default/files/library/PlagiarismExercise.pdf
March 31: Contraception, abortion, and infanticide
Read: McCarthy 198-203; Rampolla 119-124
Emily R. Coleman, “Infanticide in the early Middle Ages,” in Women in Medieval Society, edited by Susan Mosher Stuard (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1977), pp. 47-70.
Danuta Shanzer, “Voices and bodies: the afterlife of the unborn,” Numen 56 (2009), nos. 2-3: 326-365.
Marilyn Sandidge, “Changing contexts of infanticide in medieval English texts,” in Childhood in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The Results of a Paradigm Shift in the History of Mentality, edited by Albrecht Classen (Berlin: Wlater de Gruyter, 2005), pp. 291-306.
April 5: Discussion: To quote or not to quote
Writing assignment: Analyzing secondary material. Read Danuta Shanzer’s essay, “Voices and bodies…”. Your writing assignment consists of no more than two paragraphs. In one paragraph, summarize her arguments and answer the following questions: what is the main point? what are her major claims? In the other paragraph, analyze her use of evidence through the footnotes. What are the sources she uses? How many can you identify? How does she deploy them to support her claims? Does she ever make a claim that she does not seem able to substantiate?
April 7: Bigamy and celibacy
Read: McCarthy 139-145, 220-241; Rampolla 124-126
Sara McDougall, “Bigamy: a male crime in medieval Europe?” Gender and History 22 (2010), no. 2, 430-446.
Brian Patrick McGuire, “In search of the good mother: twelfth-century celibacy and affectivity,” in Motherhood, Religion, and Society in Medieval Europe, 400-1400. Essays Presented to Henrietta Leyser, edited by Conrad Leyser and Lesley Smith (Farnham: Ashgate, 2011), pp. 85-102.
Jennifer D. Thibodeaux, “The sexual lives of medieval Norman clerics: a new perspective on clerical sexuality,” in Sexuality in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times. New Approaches to a Fundamental Cultural-Historical and Literary-Anthropological Theme, edited by Albrecht Classen (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2008), pp. 471-483.
April 12: Discussion: Documenting sources
Writing assignment: Read and complete the following exercises on documenting sources:
http://www.grammar-quizzes.com/writing_citations.html
http://www8.esc.edu/htmlpages/writerold/exwhedoc.shtml
April 14: Marriage patterns: nobles, peasants and “the right of the first night”
Read: McCarthy 123-125; Rampolla 127-158
Robert F. Berkhoffer, “Marriage, lordship, and the ‘greater unfree’ in twelfth-century France,” Past and Present 173 (2001), 3-27.
Paul Branda and Paul R. Hyams, “Seigneurial control of women’s marriage,” Past and Present 99 (1983), 123-133.
Michael Sheehan, “Theory and practice: marriage of the unfree and the poor in medieval society,” Mediaeval Studies 50 (1988), 457-487.
April 19: Discussion: Documentation models
Writing assignment: Using the resources discovered in this class, create an annotated bibliography on the topic presented on February 22. Your bibliography should have at least 25 titles—books, articles, or chapters.
April 27, 7:30 to 9:30 am: Final exam