Undergraduate Course: Early Medieval Sexualities, c.500-1000 (HIST10420)
Course Outline
| School | School of History, Classics and Archaeology |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 40 |
ECTS Credits | 20 |
| Summary | This course is an in-depth analysis of the history of sexuality in early medieval societies. Students will be introduced to key concepts and debates in the history of sexuality, and will use themes in early medieval history to probe these concepts and debates. The course also uses sexuality and gender to re-evaluate political, religious and social dynamics across western and eastern, Christian and Muslim, societies between c.500 and 1000. |
| Course description |
The centuries between c.500 and 1000 can still seem like the 'dark ages' in the broader history of sexuality. This course is intended as an in-depth analysis of what sexuality meant in early medieval societies; and also as an exploration of how early medieval historians can use themes in the history of sexuality to generate new insights into early medieval societies. It has three core threads:
1) Introduction to key concepts and debates in the history of sexuality. The course will use themes in early medieval history to probe and reassess these concepts and debates.
2) Sexuality and gender as ways of re-evaluating political, religious and social dynamics across early medieval societies.
3) Comparative history across space and time. Particular attention will be given to understanding dynamics of continuity and change; and to a range of evidence and distinct historiographies from eastern (Byzantine, early Islamic) as well as western (Merovingian, Anglo-Saxon, Carolingian, Ottonian) societies.
Key themes include: dynamics of Christianisation/Islamicisation; politics of sexuality in courts and kingdoms; sexual stratification across lay, clerical and religious divides; gendering of sexual norms and practices; connections between sexuality and the ethnic, social and religious identities of individuals and groups.
After establishing important conceptual and theoretical preoccupations in the history of sexuality, semester one will trace and contextualise evolving discourse on sexuality in the later Roman empire and post-Roman western societies roughly up to the eighth century.
Semester two is split into two halves. The first half will explore shifting interfaces between sexuality and political, religious and social dynamics in Carolingian and Ottonian society in the eighth to tenth centuries.
Moving eastward, the second half will explore distinctive conjunctions of sexuality, gender, politics and religion in Byzantium and early Islamic societies, and identify and analyse affinities and variances between east and west.
With the exception of seminars at the very beginning and end of the course, all seminars will involve close examination of a primary source or set of primary sources together with relevant historiography.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | A pass in 40 credits of third level historical courses or equivalent.
Before enrolling students on this course, Personal Tutors are asked to contact the History Honours Admission Secretary to ensure that a place is available (Tel: 503780). |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2017/18, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: 30 |
| Course Start |
Full Year |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
400
(
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 44,
Feedback/Feedforward Hours 2,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 8,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
346 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
80 %,
Practical Exam
20 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Coursework, semester 1:
1 x 3,000 word essay (15%)
1 x 3,000 word essay (20%)
Coursework, semester 2:
1 x 3,000 word essay (20%)
1 x 4,000 word essay (25%)
1 x assessed class presentation (10%).
Seminar participation (10%) |
| Feedback |
Students will receive written feedback on all coursework and presentations, and will be offered the opportunity to discuss each piece of feedback in person with the course organiser during office hours or by appointment. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- demonstrate, by way of essays, presentations and seminar participation, a coherent grasp of key political, religious, social and cultural dynamics in early medieval societies from 500 to 1000; and of the history of sexuality and gender in this period;
- demonstrate, by way of essays, presentations and seminar participation, an ability to read, analyse and reflect critically upon relevant scholarship in early medieval, Byzantine and early Islamic historiography, and in the history of sexuality;
- demonstrate, by way of essays, presentations and seminar participation, an ability to understand, evaluate and utilize a variety of primary source material;
- demonstrate, by way of essays, presentations and seminar participation, the ability to develop and sustain scholarly arguments in oral and written form, by formulating appropriate questions and utilizing relevant evidence;
- demonstrate independence of mind and initiative; intellectual integrity and maturity; an ability to evaluate the work of others, including peers.
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Reading List
Judith M. Bennett and Ruth M. Karras (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Women & Gender in Medieval Europe (Oxford, 2013)
John Boswell, Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the beginning of the Christian era to the fourteenth century (Chicago, 1980)
Peter Brown, The Body and Society: Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity (New York, 1988)
Leslie Brubaker and Julia M.H. Smith (eds), Gender in the Early Medieval World: East and West, 300-900 (Cambridge, 2004)
Stephen Garton, Histories of Sexuality: Antiquity to Sexual Revolution (London, 2004)
David Halperin, One Hundred Years of Homosexuality: And other essays on Greek love (New York, 1990)
Kyle Harper, From Shame to Sin: The Christian Transformation of Sexual Morality in Late Antiquity (Cambridge, 2013)
Karl Heidecker, The Divorce of Lothar II: Christian Marriage and Political Power in the Carolingian World (Ithaca, 2010)
Mark Jordan, The Invention of Sodomy in Christian Theology (Chicago, 1997)
Ruth M. Karras, Sexuality in Medieval Europe: Doing Unto Others (London, 2005)
Mathew Kuefler (ed.), The Boswell Thesis: Essays on Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality (Chicago, 2006)
Rachel Stone, Morality and Masculinity in the Carolingian Empire (Cambridge, 2012) |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
- ability to draw valid conclusions about the past
- ability to identify, define and analyse historical problems
- ability to select and apply a variety of critical approaches to problems informed by uneven evidence
- ability to exercise critical judgement in creating new understanding
- ability to extract key elements from complex information
- readiness and capacity to ask key questions and exercise rational enquiry
- ability critically to assess existing understanding and the limitations of knowledge and recognition of the need regularly to challenge/test knowledge
- ability to search for, evaluate and use information to develop knowledge and understanding
- possession of an informed respect for the principles, methods, standards, values and boundaries of the discipline(s), as well as the capacity to question these
- recognition of the importance of reflecting on one's learning experiences and being aware of one's own particular learning style
- openness to new ideas, methods and ways of thinking
- ability to identify processes and strategies for learning
- independence as a learner, with readiness to take responsibility for one's own learning, and commitment to continuous reflection, self-evaluation and self-improvement
- ability to make decisions on the basis of rigorous and independent thought
- ability to test, modify and strengthen one's own views through collaboration and debate
- intellectual curiosity
- ability to sustain intellectual interest
- ability to make effective use of oral, written and visual means convey understanding of historical issues and one's interpretation of them
- ability to marshal argument lucidly and coherently
- ability to collaborate and to relate to others
- readiness to seek and value open feedback to inform genuine self-awareness
- ability to articulate one's skills as identified through self-reflection
- ability to approach historical problems with academic rigour
- ability to manage and meet firm deadlines
- flexible, adaptable and proactive responsiveness to changing surroundings
- possession of the confidence to make decisions based on one's understanding and personal/intellectual autonomy
- ability to transfer knowledge, learning, skills and abilities flexibly from one context to another
- ability to work effectively with others, capitalising on diversities of thinking, experience and skills
- working with, managing, and leading others in ways that value their diversity and equality and that encourage their contribution |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Zubin Mistry
Tel:
Email: Zubin.Mistry@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Stephanie Blakey
Tel: (0131 6)50 3580
Email: steph.blakey@ed.ac.uk |
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