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Spring 2006: Undergraduate Courses
MI 20474 Pilgrimage
Blake Leyerle
TR 03:30-04:45
This course will examine the literary record and lived experience
of pilgrimage throughout Christian history by focusing on particular
texts, persons and sites. To enrich our understanding of this phenomenon,
we will deliberately adopt a variety of perspectives (archeological,
sociological, anthropological, liturgical, and art historical).
We will necessarily also consider relics and the cult of the saints.
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MI 30204 Middle Ages II
Jonathan Lyon
MW 03:00-04:15
This course will explore important developments in the history of
Europe and the Mediterranean basin between approximately 1000 and
1500 A.D. Some of the topics that will be covered include the emergence
and development of the European kingdoms; the growth of Papal power
and authority; the Crusades; urbanization and the appearance of
distinctly urban social, religious and cultural forms; the foundations
of the modern system of university education; the Christianization
of Eastern and Northern Europe; and the Black Death and its impact.
The majority of reading assignments for this course will come from
primary sources, and students will have the opportunity to be introduced
to the broad range of evidence that medieval historians employ in
order to understand this dynamic period in the history of Europe.
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MI 30219 Science & Medicine in the Islamic World,
700--1500 CE
Nahyan Fancy
TR 11:00-12:15
This course traces the major trends in the history of Islamic
science and medicine from 700 CE to 1500 CE. By examining the
conceptual developments in the practice of science, and its position
within Islamic societies, the course seeks to assess the merits
of the various accounts for the inception, and subsequent fate,
of the scientific enterprise in the medieval Islamic world. Using
primary sources in translation, we will critically engage with
debates over the historical course of Islamic science and its
position in Western historiography as the transmitter of Greek
science to the West. In particular, we will re-evaluate the standard
periodization that posits a linear development of the sciences
in Islamic societies starting with the translation and assimilation
of the Persian, Indian, and Greek scientific legacies; then, a
"Golden Age" of original contributions; and, finally,
the decline of scientific activity and the transmission of these
sciences to Europe.
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MI 30282 Pagans, Preachers, and Passions: Medieval
Missions and Christianization
Jonathan Couser
TR 12:30-01:45
How did medieval Europe come to be a Christian civilization?
This course will examine the process of Christianization from
late Antiquity through the end of the Middle Ages, including the
initial conversion of the Roman Empire, missions to and from Ireland
and England, missionary movements on the continent of Europe,
and the growth of efforts to convert the Islamic and Mongol worlds.
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MI 30301 Ancient and Medieval Philosophy
Stephen Dumont
TR 11:00-12:15
A survey of Western philosophy from its beginnings in the early
Greek physicists to the late middle ages. The emphasis in class
will be on the reading and analysis of fundamental texts by main
figures of the period: Parmenides, Plato, Aristotle, Augustine,
Anselm, Bonaventure, and Thomas Aquinas. Concurrent reading of
a standard history will supply additional background and continuity.
Requirements: Two papers (one each for the ancient and medieval
portions of the course), a mid-term, and final examination.
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MI 30301 Ancient and Medieval Philosophy
Alfred Freddoso
MW 03:00-04:15
A survey of western philosophy from the 6th-century B.C. Presocratics
to the 16th-century Scholastics. The lectures will focus primarily
on Plato, Aristotle, St. Augustine, and St. Thomas Aquinas, using
the twin themes of nature and human nature as an occasion for
(a) formulating with some precision the main metaphysical and
moral problematics that emerge from the works of Plato and Aristotle,
(b) investigating the influence of Plato and Aristotle on the
Catholic intellectual tradition, and (c) exploring in some depth
the relation between faith and reason.
Texts: Because the lectures will not try to cover all the important
figures (though there will be ample references to them, as well
as to key early modern philosophers), the students will be expected
to read all of the assigned secondary source, viz., James Jordan's
Western Philosophy: From Antiquity to the Middle Ages, as well
as the primary sources assigned for the lectures. For the rest
of the texts consult http://www.nd.edu/~afreddos/courses/301/phil301-spring.htm
Requirements: In addition, the requirements include (a) two 6-7
page papers on assigned topics, and (b) two exams.
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MI 30477 Reading the Qur’an
Gabriel Said Reynolds
TR 09:30-10:45
To Muslims the Qur'an is the uncreated, eternal Word of God.
As Jesus Christ is to Christians, the Qur'an to Muslims is the
fullest expression of God's mercy and concern for humanity. It
is both the source of complete spiritual wisdom and the constitution
for a more perfect society. In the present course we will encounter
this revered text with the following goals: To examine the history
of the Qur'an's composition and reception; to explore the major
themes of the Qur'an; to discuss new theories on and debates over
the Qur'an, and, finally, to research the Qur'an's statements
on issues of contemporary interest, especially sex, politics and
war.
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MI 30530 Survey of French Literature I
Jo Ann Della Neva
MW 11:00-12:1501:30-02:45
This course is designed as an introduction to French literature
of the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Classical Period. It will
focus on six major authors: Chrétien de Troyes (Yvain),
Villon (select poems), Rabelais (Pantagruel), Ronsard (select
poems), Racine (Ph?dre), and Moli?re (Tartuffe). Other authors
and representative works will be read in excerpts. In addition
to acquiring a basic familiarity with early French literature,
students will be introduced to the vocabulary of literary criticism,
versification, and classical rhetoric. Throughout the course,
a close reading of texts will be emphasized; in this way, students
will be introduced to the practice of explication de textes and
will be required to do at least one formal explication. Oral work
is heavily emphasized: this includes active participation and
quality contributions to the discussion. Students will have the
chance to engage in other forms of interpretation, including the
memorization and oral recitation of a sonnet, and the performance
of one scene from a play (done in groups of two or three). Additionally,
students will be asked to write 10 “perfect” one-page
papers, as well as one longer paper done in conjunction with the
final exam. Other writing practice will include short answers
to daily preparation questions. There will be a final exam but
no mid-term.
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MI 30700 Introduction to Medieval Art
Nina Rowe
TR 12:30-01:45
This course will provide an introduction to the visual arts of
the period ca. 300 CE to ca. 1400 CE. In the course of the semester
we shall devote much time to considering the possibility of a
history of Medieval Art, as the objects and practices of the Middle
Ages will be shown to problematize our assumptions about the nature
of art history. Working from individual objects and texts we will
construct a series of narratives that will attend to the varieties
of artistic practices available to the Middle Ages. From these
it will be shown that art was a vital, complex, lucid and formative
element in the societies and cultures, both secular and sacred,
which shaped this period.
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MI 40142 The Canterbury Tales
Kathryn Kerby-Fulton
MW 03:00-04:15
An introductory study of Chaucer’s ”Canterbury Tales”,
this course will cover a range of genres (romance, fabliau, saint’s
life, mock-epic, legend, dream vision and allegory). We will read
Chaucer’s texts in the original language, and examine the
historical, literary, and cultural contexts of his poetry, exploring
themes like popular piety, anticlerical satire, women's issues,
courtly love, magic, and social unrest.
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MI 40161 Arthurian Legends
Dolores Frese
TR 02:00-03:15
The myth, history and fiction which goes by the collective term
of "Arthurian Legend" will be the object of our study
as we try to understand the powerful attraction which these materials
have exercised upon the imaginations of readers & writers
from the l2th to the 20th century. The texts we will read have
been written in Latin, French, German, Welsh, Middle & Modern
English, but we will read all of them in modern English translation.
The great characters--Arthur, Launcelot, Guinevere, Galahad, Gawain,
Merlin, Morgan, Vivien, etc.--and the great thematic templates--the
quest for the grail (holy and unholy), the fellowship of the Round
Table, the sword in the stone, the fatherless child, etc.--will
be studied in their various fictional forms as we try to build
a broadly based sense of the textual traditions surrounding the
once-and-future-king.
Midterm and final examinations. Term paper (l0-l5 pp.) or equivalent
project.
Readings will include Geoffrey of Monmouth, History of the Kings
of Britain; Chretien de Troyes, The Story of the Grail; Anon.,The
Quest of the Holy Grail; selected short fictions from the Welsh
Mabinogion; Marie de France, Lais; "Sir Gawain & the
Green Knight"; selections from Malory's Morte D'Arthur; Tennyson's
Idylls of the King and T. H. White, The Once & Future King.
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MI 40214 Renaissance Italy
Meserve, Margaret
WF 10:40-11:30
This course examines the political, cultural, social, and religious
history of Italy from about 1350 to 1550. Starting with an extended
study of Florence, its economic foundations, social and political
structures, artistic monuments, and key personalities, the course
then examines how the culture of the Florentine Renaissance spread
to the rest of Italy, especially to the papal court of Rome and
the princely courts of northern Italy, and, finally, to the new
nation-states of northern Europe. Key topics will include: the
growth of the Italian city-state; the appearance of new, Renaissance
"characters" (the merchant, the prince, the courtier,
the mercenary, the learned lady, the self-made man); Renaissance
humanism and the classical revival; the relationship between art
and politics; and Renaissance ideas of liberty, virtue, historical
change, and the individual's relationship to God. The course will
not tell a story of steady progress from medieval to modern institutions,
societies, and modes of thinking; rather, we will consider the
Renaissance as a period in flux, in which established traditions
thrived alongside creative innovations and vigorous challenges
to authority. Students will write one long paper and take a midterm
and a final exam.
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MI 40322 Founders of the Middle Ages
Stephen Gersh
TR 02:00-03:15
A study of three Christian writers of late antiquity who influenced
medieval thought and literature in significant ways: Boethius
- philosopher, theologian, and translator of Greek sciences and
logic, Cassiodorus - historian and theorist of education --, and
Isidore of Seville - etymologist, encyclopaedist, and theologian.
The course will begin with an introductory survey of the "Augustinism"
which underlies the thinking of the chosen authors, and will continue
with lectures on these authors, their works, and their contexts.
Special features of the course will be 1. regular readings in
class of the authors in their original Latin, and 2. preparation
among the students and under supervision of the instructor of
a prosopographical and bibliographical guide for each author studied.
The regular Latin readings and the guides will satisfy the written
requirements of the course.
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40340 Aquinas on God
Alfred Freddoso
MW 11:45-01:00
A close reading of the first 43 questions of the first book of
the Summa Theologiae in a new and dazzling (well .... at least
adequate) translation by the instructor. These questions, which
deal both with the divine nature or essence and with the three
divine persons, provide as comprehensive a survey of St. Thomas's
metaphysics, philosophy of language, and philosophical psychology
as one could hope for, along with lots of enticing tidbits about
logic (including modal logic), space and time, causality, numbers,
and a whole host of other topics that figure in the Christian
understanding of God. But, more importantly, they exhibit how
St. Thomas uses an impressive array of philosophical and theological
tools in fashioning a coherent understanding of the central element
of the Catholic claim to wisdom.
Requirements: A class presentation, a 12-15 page term paper, and
a final exam.
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MI 40364 Anselm and Nicholas of Cusa: God as Maximum
Stephen Gersh
TR 12:30-01:45
A study of two of the most important non-scholastic philosophical
writers before 1500 - Anselm of Canterbury and Nicholas of Cusa
- laying emphasis upon the methodological and doctrinal continuities
and contrasts between them. Of Anselm, we shall read Monologion,
Proslogion, and De Veritate, and of Cusanus De Docta Ignorantia,
De li Non Aliud, and De Possest. Among the philosophical issues
selected for discussion will be 1. - starting from Anselm's notion
of God as "That-than-which-a-greater-cannot-be-thought"
- the theological and cosmological notion of maximum; 2. the contrast
between Anselm's Aristotelian-Boethian logic and the alternative
logic(s) of Cusanus; and 3. the contrast between Anselm's (apparently)
Augustinian Platonism and the more Dionysian and "Chartrian"
Platonism(s) of Cusanus. Requirement: one final written paper
of ca. 20 pp.
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MI 40476 The Monastic Way in the History of Christianity
Robin Darling Young
TR 09:30-10:45
This course considers the origins of monasticism in the ascetic
traditions of Second Temple Judaism/earliest Christianity and
examines the varying institutions of the monastic life from the
late third century through the Counter-Reformation of the sixteenth.
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MI 40505 The Picaresque Novel
Encarnacion Juarez
MW 11:45-01:00
An introduction to a unique Spanish genre, the Picaresque novel,
or literature of the delinquent, with major focus on the Spanish
Golden Age masterpieces: Lazarillo de Tormes, Guzman de Alfarache,
and El Buscon.
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MI 40553 Dante II
Christian Moevs
TR 09:30-10:45
An in-depth study, over two semesters, of the entire Comedy,
in its historical, philosophical and literary context, with selected
readings from the minor works (e.g., Vita Nuova, Convivio, De
vulgari eloquentia). Lectures and discussion in English; the text
will be read in the original with facing-page translation. Students
may take one semester or both, in either order.
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MI 40581 Renaissance Woman
Jo Ann Della Neva
MW 03:00-04:15
This course is designed as an introduction to the study of women
and literature of the Renaissance period in Europe. It will treat
the subject of the "Renaissance woman" in three ways.
First, there will be a brief historical overview of the condition
of women of different social classes during this period, focusing
on topics such as their education, the role of marriage, and the
convent as an alternative to married life. Secondly, it will survey
how women were viewed in the literature written by men in various
European countries. Here we shall read excerpts from Dante and
the courtly love tradition, Petrarch and the Petrarchists, Shakespeare,
and Rabelais, among others. We shall also consider the portrayal
of women in artistic works of this time, comparing this to their
literary representation. Next, we shall study the literature created
by women during the Renaissance in Europe. During this part of
the course, we shall consider some of the problems generated by
women's writing, using Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own as
a point of departure for our discussions. At the end of the course,
we will resume our study of the image of woman in the Renaissance
by reading a modern play set at that time (Peter Whelan's The
Herbal Bed on the trial of Shakespeare's daughter) that treats
some of the issues facing women at that time. All foreign texts
will be read in English translation.
There will be two short analytical papers. In addition, there
will be a final examination, but no midterm. Furthermore, active
participation in classroom discussions -- including oral presentations
on assigned topics -- will be expected and a close reading of
the texts will be emphasized.
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MI 40632 Medieval Latin Survey
W. Martin Bloomer
MW 11:45-01:00
The aim of this course is to experience a broad spectrum of Medieval
Latin texts. Readings representative of a variety of genres (literary
and subliterary), eras, and regions will be selected. Students
planning to enroll in this course should be completing Introduction
to Christian Latin Texts or they must secure the permission of
the instructor. Those with interests in particular text types
should inform the instructor well in advance so that he can try
to accommodate their interests.
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MI 40720 Late Antique and Early Christian Art
Charles Barber
MW 11:45-01:00
Art in Late Antiquity has traditionally been characterized as
an art in decline, but this judgment is relative, relying on standards
formulated for art of other periods. Challenging this assumption,
we will examine the distinct and powerful transformations within
the visual culture of the period between the third and sixth centuries
AD. This period witnesses the mutation of the institutions of
the Roman Empire into those of the Christian Byzantine Empire.
Parallel to these social changes we can identify the emergence
of a Christian art that defines our basic assumptions about the
role of art in a Christian society. The fundamental change in
religious identity that was the basis for this development had
a direct impact upon the visual material that survives from this
period. This course examines the underlying conditions that made
images so central to cultural identity at this period.
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MI 40725 15th-Century Italian Renaissance Art
Charles Rosenberg
TR 09:30-10:45
Open to all students. This course investigates the century most
fully identified with the Early Renaissance in Italy. Individual
works by artists such as Brunelleschi, Donatello, Ghiberti, Fra
Angelico, Botticelli, and Alberti are set into their social, political
and religious context. Special attention is paid to topics such
as the origins of art theory, art and audience, art and institutional
and personal spirituality, portraiture and the definition of self,
and Medician patronage.
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MI 43750 Medieval Art Seminar
Nina Rowe
TR 03:30-04:45
The Gothic Cathedral in Historical Perspective
This seminar will examine gothic cathedrals in relation to their
medieval, early modern and modern audiences. Our exploration will
begin in the thirteenth century, considering both the patrons
and audiences for medieval cathedrals. Here we will examine the
technical achievements of the builders and the iconography of
sculpted decorative programs, as well as the immense economic
toll such projects took on local economies. In our second unit
we will consider eighteenth-, nineteenth- and early twentieth-century
enthusiasm for gothic style as manifestations of nationalist and
idealist agendas of such thinkers as Victor Hugo, John Ruskin
and Henry Adams. Finally we will consider the position of gothic
style within the contemporary United States, exploring issues
ranging from medieval reenactment societies, through goth rock
to architecture on the Notre Dame campus.
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MI 46020
Directed Readings (for Undergraduates)
Thomas Prügl
Offers advanced undergraduate students a possibility to work
closely with a professor in preparing a topic mutually agreed
upon.
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