Race, Ethnicity, and Religion in Medieval Literature
ENGL 353
Fall 2018 not offered
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| Crosslisting:
MDST 353 |
| Certificates: Jewish and Israel Studies |
Why do white supremacists celebrate the European Middle Ages as a lost era of racial and religious purity? This course approaches that question by considering the invention of medieval ideas of race, ethnicity and religious difference. Our focus will be on a selection of texts dealing with encounters -- real and imaginary -- of Western European Christians with cultures from the Mongol Empire to the Celtic "borderlands." The readings will begin historically with the Crusades and the grisly chronicles written by Christian, Muslim, and Jewish authors. Other genres will include religious polemics and travel accounts by missionaries, spies, and colonial propagandists. We will also read some later romances and plays, fictions that re-imagine the past in terms of exoticized sexuality, racial transformation, cannibalism, and nationalist fantasy. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA ENGL |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (CJST-MN)(CSCT)(ENGL)(MDST)(MDST-Art/Arch)(MDST-History)(MDST-Lang/Lit)(MDST-Phil/Reli) |
Major Readings:
Christian, Muslim and Jewish Crusader Chronicles
Usamah Ibn Munquidh, The Book of Contemplation
The Song of Roland
The Quest for the Holy Grail
The Barcelona Disputation
Mandeville's Travels
The King of Tars
William of Rubruck, Journey to the Mongol Empire
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Examinations and Assignments:
Two formal papers, weekly writing responses, one class presentation |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
This course fulfills the Literatures of Difference and Literary History I requirements and contributes to the Theory and Literary Forms concentration of the English major. |
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