| Unit name | Constructing the 'Other' in Western Europe, c.1000 - 1400 (Lecture Response Unit) |
|---|---|
| Unit code | HISTM0045 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | M/7 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
| Unit director | Dr. Wei |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
None |
| Co-requisites |
None |
| School/department | Department of History (Historical Studies) |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
Historians working in different fields of medieval Western European history have noted a tendency for medieval people to construct an ‘other’ against which to establish their own identity. We will bring together these various fields to pose fundamental questions about the nature of medieval society and to test various explanatory models.
Were some groups defined and persecuted in order to enhance the power of rulers and their bureaucrats? Was there a distinctive medieval concern about purity and taboo? How much can be explained by medieval beliefs about sin and evil? Were some images of the ‘other’ constructed in attempts to understand the unknown? Are historians misled by a rhetoric of abuse which they over-interpret? Was ‘otherness’ merely a construction of learned clerics which most people ignored? Topics will include: heretics, Jews, Moslems, angels, devils, ghosts, concepts of race, class conflict, gender difference, sexual deviance, animals, monsters, travel, criminals, lepers.
1) To provide students with a detailed understanding of the way in which the ‘other’ was conceptualised and treated during the Middle Ages.
2) To improve students’ ability to argue effectively and at length (including an ability to cope with complexities and to describe and deploy these effectively).
3) To be able to display high level skills in selecting, applying, interpreting and organising information, including evidence of a high level of bibliographical control.
4) To develop the ability of students to evaluate and/or challenge current scholarly thinking.
5) To foster student’s capacity to take a critical stance towards scholarly processes involved in arriving at historical knowledge and/or relevant secondary literature.
6) To be able to demonstrate an understanding of concepts and an ability to conceptualise.
7) To develop students’ capacity for independent research.
1 x 2-hour interactive lecture per week.
One summative coursework essay of 5000 words (100%). This will assess ILOs 1-7.
S. C. Akbari, Idols in the East: European Representations of Islam and the Orient, 1100-1450 (Ithaca, 2009)
N. Cohn, The Pursuit of the Millennium (London, 1970)
M. Douglas, Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo (London, 1966, reprinted 2002).
R. I. Moore, The Formation of a Persecuting Society: Authority and Deviance in Western Europe, 950-1250 (Oxford, second edition, 2007).
D. Nirenberg, Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages (1996)
J. R. S. Phillips, The Medieval Expansion of Europe (Oxford, second edition, 1998).
J. Richards, Sex, Dissidence and Damnation: Minority Groups in the Middle Ages (London, 1991).
J. E. Salisbury, The Beast Within: Animals in the Middle Ages (New York, 1994).
D. H. Strickland, Saracens, Demons, Jews: Making Monsters in Medieval Art (Princeton, 2003)
