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Reinventing the Middle Ages: Influential Arguments, Ideas and Personalities in Twentieth Century Medieval Historiography HIST 3110 T01 Fall Semester, 2011

September 8 – December 7th, 2011 Location: 403 Tier Monday, Wednesday and Friday: 8:30 am - 9:20 am Voluntary Withdrawal Date: November 16th, 2011 Examination Date/Time: TBA Instructor: Robert Penner Office: 455 Fletcher Argue Office Hours: Monday & Wednesday, 9:30-10:30 or by appointment E-mail: [email protected]

Required Texts: All on e-reserve, JSTOR or other digital databases

Course Content: The primary purpose of this course is to provide you with a sense of how Twentieth Century historians have constructed their accounts of medieval Europe. We will be pursuing a variety of theoretical and conceptual themes such as the distinction between cultural, political, economic and social ; the use historians have made of analytical categories such as class, gender, race and religion; big arguments about periodization and causation; what types of sources historians have used and why; the influence of the political present on the imagined past and maybe even a little of the reverse; and of course, what it precisely is that historians mean when they say “the Middle Ages.”

Each week will consist of three classes. In the first we will establish the context, key concepts and theories used by a particular scholar or school. In the second we consider the argument of a single case study or text, and in the third we conduct in-class primary text, video or film work. The course text will be a compilation of articles and individual chapters from the relevant works. Course work will consist of: 1) A historiographical essay on a school, scholar or subject which will be evaluated in three parts: proposal and bibliography due September 30th (5%), draft due October 28th (10%), final version due December 2nd (15%) worth a total of 30%. 2) In-class assignments and reading responses worth 30% 3) A final exam worth 40%.

Policy on Late Submissions: With the exception of those with documented medical reasons and in cases of family emergency, late assignments will be penalized one-half a letter grade for every 24-hour period they are late. An A becomes a B+; a B+ becomes a B; and so on. Extensions may be granted upon submission of a written request received at least one week prior to the due date. I do not consider broken printers; incompatible file formats; irresponsible pets, family members, or friends; poor time management; or car troubles to be sufficient reasons for last minute extensions.

Academic Integrity: All University policies concerning plagiarism and academic dishonesty will be enforced. It is your responsibility to know these policies. If you have any questions or concerns, ask. See Section 8 of the General Academic Regulations of the online University Calendar & Catalog for details. See also Section 1200 Policy 1202 of the University of Manitoba Governance by-laws regarding disciplinary procedures and penalties for additional details pertaining to the consequences of plagiarism, cheating, or impersonation. The University takes these transgressions very seriously and their regulations state, among other things, the following:

“The common penalty in Arts for plagiarism on a written assignment is a grade of F on the paper and a final grade of F (DISC) (for disciplinary action) for the course. For the most serious acts of plagiarism, such as purchase of an essay and repeat violations, this penalty can also include suspension for a period of up to five (5) years from registration in courses taught in a particular department/program in Arts or from all courses taught in this Faculty. The Faculty also reserves the right to submit student work that is suspected of being plagiarized to Internet sites designed to detect plagiarism or to other experts for authentication.

Grading:

A + 90-100 Exceptional work A 80-89 Excellent B+ 75-79 Very Good B 70-74 Good C+ 65-69 Satisfactory C 60-64 Adequate D 50-59 Marginal F 49 > Failure

I will not discuss grades the day on which assignments and tests are returned—with the exception of arithmetic errors. If you believe a grade you receive is unfair or mistaken send me written notice the next day, with your arguments included, and we will set up a meeting during office hours to discuss your concerns.

Students who wish to appeal a grade given for term work must do so within 10 working days after the grade for the terms have been made available to them. Any uncollected term work (essays, assignments) will become property of the Faculty of Arts and will be kept in a secure and confidential area of the Department of for a minimum of four (4) months following the end of the course, after which time they will be confidentially destroyed.

Evaluative feedback will be provided prior to the Voluntary Withdrawal deadline: November 16, 2011.

Course Outline: Introduction: First Class, September 8th: Introductions

Week 1, September 12th, 14th, 16th : “What Really Happened” and all that Rot: The Historiography of the Middle Ages in the Nineteenth Century and the Discovery of the Archive Selections from Leopold von Ranke, History of the Latin and Teutonic Nations (1494 to 1514), (London: George Bell & Sons: 1909) on E-Reserve: “Author’s Introduction,” pp. 1-19

J. D. Braw, “Vision as Revision: Ranke and the Beginning of Modern History,” History and Theor, Vol. 46, No. 4, Theme Issue 46: Revision in History (Dec., 2007), pp. 45-60, www.jstor.org/stable/4502283

M. A. Fitzsimons, “Ranke: History as Worship,” The Review of Politics, Vol. 42, No. 4 (Oct., 1980), pp. 533-555, www.jstor.org/stable/1406639

Part I: Early Reevaluations: Week 2, September 19th, 21st, 23rd: The Pirenne Thesis: Locating the Middle Ages Selections from Henri Pirenne, Mohammed and Charlemagne, (W.W. Norton & Company: New York, 1939), on E-Reserve: Chapter 3, “The Beginnings of the Middle Ages,” and “Conclusion,” pp. 236-285.

Adriaan Verhulst, “The Origins of Towns in the Low Countries and the Pirenne Thesis,” Past & Present, No. 122 (Feb., 1989), pp. 3-35, www.jstor.org/stable/650950

Andrew S. Ehrenkreut, “Another Orientalist's Remarks concerning the Pirenne Thesis,” Journal of the Economic and of the Orient, Vol. 15, No. 1/2 (Jun., 1972), pp. 94-104 www.jstor.org/stable/3596313

Week 3, September 26th, 28th, 30th: The Politicization of the Middle Ages: Ernst Kantorowicz and the Nazi Appropriation of the Past Selections from Ernst Kantorowicz , The King’s Two Bodies: A Study in Medieval Political Theology, ( Press: Princeton, 1957) on E-Reserve: Introduction, pp. 1-6, Chapter 4, “Law-centred Liturgy, Part 1, From Liturgy to Legal Science, pp. 87-97, and Chapter 9, “Epilogue,” pp. 496-506.

Martin A. Ruehl, “'In This Time without Emperors': The Politics of Ernst Kantorowicz's Kaiser Friedrich der Zweite Reconsidered,” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 63, (2000), pp. 187-242 http://www.jstor.org/stable/751526

Carl Landauer, “Ernst Kantorowicz and the Sacralization of the past,” Central European History, Vol. 27, No. 1 (1994), pp. 1-25, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4546389

Bernhard Jussen, “The King's Two Bodies Today,” http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/rep.2009.106.1.102 And Victoria Kahn, “Political Theology and Fiction in The King's Two Bodies,” www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/rep.2009.106.1.77 in Representations Vol. 106, No. 1 (Spring 2009), pp. 77- 101

Week 4, October 3rd, 5th, 7th: A Medieval State of Mind: Johan Huizinga and The Waning of the Middle Ages Johan Huizinga, The Waning of the Middle Ages: A Study of the Forms of Life, Thought and Art in France and the Netherlands in the XIVth and XVth Centuries, (Anchor Books: New York City, 1954), “DC 33.2. H83 1954: Chapter One, “The Violent Tenor of Life,” pp. 9- 30

Pieter Geyl, “Huizinga as Accuser of His Age,” History and Theory, Vol. 2, No. 3 (1963), pp. 231-262 http://www.jstor.org/stable/2504105

Edward Peters and Walter P. Simons, “The New Huizinga and the Old Middle Ages,” Speculum, Vol. 74, No. 3 (Jul., 1999), pp. 587-620, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2886762

R. L. Colie, “Johan Huizinga and the Task of ,” The American Historical Review, Vol. 69, No. 3 (Apr., 1964), pp. 607-630, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1845780

William J. Bouwsma, “"The Waning of the Middle Ages" by Johan Huizinga,” Daedalus, Vol. 103, No. 1, Twentieth-Century Classics Revisited (Winter, 1974), pp. 35-43, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20024184

Week 5, October 10th (Thanksgiving), 12th, 14th : Oxford Dons Celebrate the Middle Ages and C.S. Lewis Falls in Love with the Medieval Mind Selection from C.S. Lewis, The Allegory of Love: A Study in Medieval Tradition¸(Oxford University Press: New York, 1968), on E-reserve: Chapter One, pp. 1-43.

J.R.R Tolkien. “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics." Proceedings of the British Academy, 22 (1936), 245–95, http://www.scribd.com/doc/21301124/J-R-R-Tolkien-Beowulf-The-Monsters-and-the-Critics

Roger Sale, “England's Parnassus: C. S. Lewis, Charles Williams and J. R. R. Tolkien,” The Hudson Review, Vol. 17, No. 2 (Summer, 1964), pp. 203-225, www.jstor.org/stable/3848393

Part II: History at Midcentury: Week6, October 17th, 19th, 21st: The Annales Recalibrate the Middle Ages and Saves The World Selections from Marc Bloch, The Royal Touch: Sacred Monarchy and Scrofula in England and France, (McGill-Queen’s University Press: Montreal, 1973) on E-reserve: Introduction, pp. 1-11 and Book 3, A Critical Interpretation of the Royal Miracle, pp. 229-252

Peter Burke and Eric J. Hobsbawm, “Reflections on the Historical Revolution in France: The Annales School and British Social History Comments [with Comments and Discussion],” Review ( Center), Vol. 1, No. 3/4, The Impact of the "Annales" School on the Social Sciences (Winter - Spring, 1978), pp. 147-164 , www.jstor.org/stable/40240777

Week 7, October 24th, 26th, 28th: Past and Present Repoliticizes the Middle Ages and Rodney Hilton counts some Peasants Rodney Hilton, “Feudalism and the Origins of Capitalism,” History Workshop, No. 1 (Spring, 1976), pp. 9- 25, www.jstor.org/stable/4288032

R. H. Hilton, “The Origins of Robin Hood,” Past & Present, No. 14 (Nov., 1958), pp. 30-44 www.jstor.org/stable/650091

Christopher Hill, R. H. Hilton and E. J. Hobsbawm, “Past and Present. Origins and Early Years,” Past & Present, No. 100 (Aug., 1983), pp. 3-14 www.jstor.org/stable/650618

Week 8, October 31st, November 2nd, 4th: Shrinks the Middle Ages and and Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie Interrogate Heretics Selections from Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, Montaillou: Cathars and Catholics in a French Village, 1294- 1324, (Scolar Press: London, 1978) DC 801 M753 L4713 1978: Introduction, p.vi-xvii, Chapter VIII, Body Language and Sex, pp. 139-152

Carlo Ginzburg, John Tedeschi and Anne C. Tedeschi, “Microhistory: Two or Three Things That I Know about It,” Critical Inquiry, Vol. 20, No. 1 (Autumn, 1993), pp. 10-35, www.jstor.org/stable/1343946

Sigurdur Gylfi Magnússon, "The Singularization of History": Social History and Microhistory within the Postmodern State of Knowledge,” Journal of Social History, Vol. 36, No. 3 (Spring, 2003), pp. 701-735, www.jstor.org/stable/3790736

Part III: After the Cultural Turn: Week 9, November 7th, 9th, 11th (Remembrance Day): American Ethnology and the Middle Ages: Natalie Zemon Davis and Thick Description

Natalie Zemon Davis, “Ghosts, Kin, and Progeny: Some Features of Family Life in Early Modern France,” Daedalus, Vol. 106, No. 2, The Family (Spring, 1977), pp. 87-114, www.jstor.org/stable/20024478

“Geertz, Cultural Systems, and History: From Synchrony to Transformation,” William H. Sewell Jr, Representations No. 59, Special Issue: The Fate of "Culture": Geertz and Beyond (Summer, 1997), pp. 35-55, www.jstor.org/stable/2928814

Week 10, November 14th, 16th, 18th: What about Gender? What about Bodies?: Reincorporates the Medieval Caroline Bynum, “Why All the Fuss about the Body? A Medievalist's Perspective,” Critical Inquiry, Vol. 22, No. 1, (Autumn, 1995), pp. 1-33 www.jstor.org/stable/1344005

Caroline Walker Bynum, “The Body of Christ in the Later Middle Ages: A Reply to Leo Steinberg,” Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 39, No. 3 (Autumn, 1986), pp. 399-439 , www.jstor.org/stable/2862038

Judith M. Bennett, “Medievalism and Feminism,” Speculum, Vol. 68, No. 2 (Apr., 1993), pp. 309-331, www.jstor.org/stable/2864555

Week 11, November 21st, 23rd, 25th: A Deconstructed Middle Ages: Umberto Eco and the Medieval Text Brian Stock, “History, Literature, and Medieval Textuality,” Yale French Studies No. 70, Images of Power Medieval History/Discourse/Literature (1986), pp. 7-17 www.jstor.org/stable/2929846

Week 12, November 28th, 30th, December 2nd: The Archival (re)Turn: The Archive and Memory Patrick Geary, “Medieval Archivists as Authors: Social Memory and Archival Memory,” from Archives, Documentation and Institutions of Social Memory, edited by Francis X. Blouin and William G. Rosenberg

Shannon McSheffry, “Detective Fiction in the Archives: Court Records and the Uses of the Law in Late Medieval England,” History Workshop Journal, Vol. 65, No. 1, (2008), pp. 65-78.

Conclusion: Week 13, December 5th, 7th : Medieval History at the University of Manitoba and Wrap Up Caroline W Bynum, “Perspectives, connections & objects: what's happening in history now?” Daedalus, Vol. 138, No. 1, ( Winter 2009), pp 71-87, http://lion.chadwyck.com.proxy2.lib.umanitoba.ca/searchFulltext.do?id=R04117096&divLevel=0&area=a bell&forward=critref_ft

Roisin Cossar, “A Good Woman": Gender Roles and Female Religious Identity in Late Medieval Bergamo,” Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome, Vol. 46, (2001), pp. 119-132, www.jstor.org/stable/4238782

Erik Miller, “France’s Grotian moment? Hugo Grotius and Cardinal Richelieu’s Commercial Statecraft,” French History, (December, 2007): 377-394, http://fh.oxfordjournals.org.proxy2.lib.umanitoba.ca/content/21/4/377.full.pdf+html