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Interpreting the Middle Ages (SMLM020)

Module aims

This module aims to introduce students to a variety of inter-disciplinary research skills and to
different topics within the field of Medieval Studies. At a series of two-hour workshops, students
will analyse a wide range of evidence - including artistic works, written documents, and material
objects - and explore some of the questions these different types of source materials elicit and the
methodologies that can be deployed to tackle them. The module is team-taught and draws on the
expertise of a range of specialist tutors in the various different disciplines and topics studied.

Syllabus plan

The seminars on offer will vary slightly from year to year depending on the size of the group
taught (8 hours for one student, 12 for two students, 16 for three students, 20 for four or more
students), student interests and other factors.
Sessions to include a selection of topics in various disciplinary areas falling within the three broad
strands as identified below (sessions are subject to staff availability):
A. Interpreting the Arts
(exploring primary sources that lend insight into cultural and artistic life; these may include
literary, musical, and art works)
1. ‘Interpreting Medieval Music'
2. ‘Authorship in the Middle Ages'
3. ‘Theoretical Approaches to Reading Medieval Literature'
4. ‘Dante as Literary Historian'
B. Interpreting Social Contexts
(exploring texts that lend insight into the secular and the religious in medieval society; these may
include liturgy, chronicles, charters, legal texts, concilia and epistola)
5. ‘Confession and Preaching Manuals'
6. ‘The European Medieval Economy'
7. ‘Papacy and Society in the 14th century'
8. ‘Liturgy and Ritual'
C. Interpreting Material Culture
(exploring material objects that lend insight into habits and tastes of medieval society; these may
include archaeological objects (e.g. buildings), books, and costume)
9. ‘Text and Image in Medieval Manuscripts'
10. ‘Space and Architecture in Medieval Literature'

Learning and teaching methods

The module is taught primarily through seminars. Students benefit from varied teaching styles and
methods, but in all cases a high degree of preparation and participation is expected. Students are
required to give presentations. Students are given an opportunity to discuss essays individually
with the relevant tutor at the planning stage, and detailed feedback is given once marking is
complete.

Indicative basic reading list

M.T. Clanchy, From Memory to Written Record (2nd ed. Blackwell, 1993)
Richard Hoppin, Medieval Music (New York: Norton, 1978)
Hans Robert Jauss, Towards an Aesthetic of Reception (Brighton: Harvester, 1982).
A.S. McGrade, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Philosophy (Cambridge: CUP, 2003).
Alastair J. Minnis, and A.B. Scott, Medieval Literary Theory and Criticism c. 1100-c. 1375: The
Commentary Tradition (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991).
Walter J. Ong, Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word (London/N.Y.: Methuen,
1982).
Brian Stock, Listening for the Text: On the Uses of the Past (Baltimore/London: Johns Hopkins
University Press, 1990).

Last revision date

12 August 2010

Total student study time

300 hours (including 8-20 hours of seminars, depending
on the number of students, and the remainder of hours
as private study

Intended learning outcomes

On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
1. Module Specific Skills:
a) demonstrate a detailed knowledge and understanding of a range of different kinds of sources
from the middle ages;
b) demonstrate a critical awareness of past and current scholarly debates relating to the middle
ages.
2. Discipline Specific Skills:
a) orientate him/herself quickly within cultures with which he or she is initially unfamiliar; engagecritically with a broad range of cultural phenomena, including musical works, texts, material
artefacts (including manuscripts), institutions, and public discourses;
b) understand the assumptions on which his or her own approaches to cultural analysis are based;
c) argue at length and in detail about aspects of the cultures studied, supporting the argument with
textual evidence and with opinions from secondary literature;
d) access, and use critically, printed and, where appropriate, electronic learning resources identified
as useful by the course tutors; find independently and evaluate critically other relevant resources;
e) using recommended bibliographical tools, present a critical bibliography giving a balanced
overview of an aspect of the subject.
3. Personal and Key Skills:
a) manage own learning time and learning activities, where appropriate with guidance from course
tutors;
b) undertake independent researches on the basis of a taught course;
c) negotiate individual assessment tasks and/or topics with course tutor(s), identifying own areas of
strength and interest;
d) present information and arguments on a designated or negotiated topic to a group of listeners
and respond to questions and responses from the group;
e) adopt a critical approach to the selection and organisation of a large body of material in order to
produce, to a deadline, a written or oral argument of some complexity;
f) demonstrate ability to combine a variety of IT skills in researching and reporting on a topic.

Assignments and assessments

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