HIS2129 ¨C Topics in Early Medieval Culture

Course content

The early Middle Ages was the period that witnessed the profound transformation of Europe in economic, social, and political spheres. Last but not the least, a radical cultural change took place in those centuries, whereby a new world of Christian Europe was built upon the remnants of the classical civilization. Many cultural traits of that world have survived into modern times and are repeatedly invoked in modern debates on European identity. Moreover, the new cultural history, a new historiographic trend gaining popularity from the 1990s, has made medieval culture a field of historiographic research as important as medieval political or economic history. It is not surprising therefore that various topics of early medieval culture have attracted growing interest among medievalists in the past few decades. This interest combined with new methodological insights have thus made the history of early medieval culture a vibrant academic field both in Europe and North America.

Learning outcome

This course aims to familiarize students with a number of topics pertaining to early medieval cultural history such as political culture, ritual, cult of saints, magic, visual art, literacy, orality, and various forms of visual communication. Some of them have been focusing points of ardent academic discussion in the past two decades. The course will therefore not only overview those selected topics of early medieval cultural history but also introduce students to on-going theoretical debates in that field - such as the nature and role of early medieval rituals and the interplay between literary texts and other media, between word and image, and between literacy and orality. Students will also learn to critically read relevant academic literature and to participate in related oral discussions in English.

The course is intended for students with a working knowledge of English, who have already taken introductory survey courses in medieval history and are familiar with the factual and chronological framework of European history between c.300 to c.1000.

Admission to the course

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