106-414 Medieval Representations

Credit Points:

Coordinator:

Timetable:

Contact:

Subject Description:

This subject engages with medieval forms of representation, focusing on questions of knowledge, sexuality and individual subjectivity. No prior experience in medieval studies will be assumed. Students will develop a basic reading-knowledge of Middle English, and will explore medieval representations of gender relations, the body and sexuality, religious heresies, madness and pornography. We will also engage with contemporary debates about the nature of medieval studies and the relation between medieval and modern theories of reading. Special attention will also be paid to the historical origins, in English, of 'authorship' and cultural authority.

Assessment:

Prescribed Texts:

• L D Benson ed et al, The Riverside Chaucer, Oxford.
• C Dahlberg trans, The Romance of the Rose, UP of New England.
• U Eco, The Name of the Rose, Secker and Warburg.
• M De France, Lais, Penguin.
• C De Pisan, The Book of the City of Ladies
• T Hoccleve ed B O'Donohue, Selected Poems, Carcarnet.
• E Ladurie, Montaillou, Penguin.
• J Mandeville, The Travels of John Mandeville, Penguin.