Approaches to Medieval Culture and Society (P00617)

? Credit Points : 20 ? SCQF Level : 11 ? Acronym : LLC-P-P00617

The course (intended primarily for students on the current MSc programme in Medieval Studies but envisaged as being available to students on other MSc programmes interested in its conceptual and interdisciplinary foci)introduces students to a range of modern approaches to important areas of study within medieval culture and society (broadly defined as the period c1100-1500). The course has two principal aims: to enable students to explore and assess the usefulness of interdisciplinary approaches (for example, from the intellectual disciplines of literature, history, fine art) in the context of a range of medieval cultural and historical topics; and to allow students, through the course's interdisciplinary focus, to compare and contrast some influential modern theoretical approaches to medieval studies with 'traditional' historical and cultural analyses.

Entry Requirements

? Pre-requisites : Admission to MSc Medieval Studies or a comparable programme of CHSS.

Subject Areas

Home subject area

Common Courses (School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures), (School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures, Schedule G)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : Postgraduate

? Delivery Period : Semester 2 (Blocks 3-4)

? Contact Teaching Time : 2 hour(s) per week for 10 weeks

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

The primary aims of the course are:
To introduce students to a representative range of interdisciplinary approaches within the broad field of medieval studies and, in so doing, to enable them to assess and evaluate the usefulness of interdisciplinarity;
To introduce students to some important modern or theoretical approaches within the field of medieval studies, thereby enabling them to reflect critically upon the boundaries and intersections between traditional and modern modes of historical and cultural modes of interpretations;
To introduce students to some important topics and areas of cultural and historical study within medieval studies (e.g. orality and literacy; literary theory; ideas of history; gender) and to enable them to assess and evaluate the usefulness of different intellectual approaches.

The overall intended learning outcomes are:
To foster in students a better understanding of the distinctiveness and specificity of the particular intellectual discipline in which their studies may broadly be based (e.g. history; literature)
To nurture awareness of how insights and methodologies from other disciplines may illuminate and transform an 'approach' to any given subject within medieval studies.