Unit information: Constructing the Other in 2020/21

Unit name	Constructing the Other
Unit code	HIST30107
Credit points	20
Level of study	H/6
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
Unit director	Dr. Wei
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	N/A
Co-requisites	N/A
School/department	Department of History (Historical Studies)
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

Did Christian society become increasing intolerant, attacking Jews, Muslims and heretics more and more violently? Or did Christians simply imagine others in ways that helped them to define their own identities? Were non-human others, such as animals, angels and devils, imagined differently from human others? These questions have underpinned the work of historians in different fields of medieval Western European history. 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? 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, Muslims, angels, devils, ghosts, concepts of race, class conflict, gender difference, sexual deviance, animals, monsters, travel, lepers.

Intended Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to: 

1. Demonstrate a sound knowledge and understanding of medieval western Europe through the analysis of the Other
2. Reflect critically and sensitively upon a variety of theoretical and ideological perspectives related to an understanding of medieval society
3. Assess and interpret primary sources and select pertinent evidence in order to illustrate specific and more general historical points 
4. Present their research and judgements in written forms and styles appropriate to the discipline and to level H/6 

Teaching Information

Classes will involve a combination of class discussion, investigative activities, and practical activities. Students will be expected to engage with readings and participate on a weekly basis. This will be further supported with drop-in sessions and self-directed exercises with tutor and peer feedback.

Assessment Information

1 x 3500-word Essay (50%) [ILOs 1-4]; 1 x Timed Assessment (50%) [ILOs 1-4]

Reading and References

• Suzanne C. Akbari, Idols in the East: European Representations of Islam and the Orient, 1100-1450 (Ithaca, 2009)
• Norman Cohn, The Pursuit of the Millennium (London, 1970)
• Mary Douglas, Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo (London, 1966, reprinted 2002)
• Robert I. Moore, The Formation of a Persecuting Society: Authority and Deviance in Western Europe, 950-1250 (Oxford, second edition, 2007)
• David Nirenberg, Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages (1996)
• John R. S. Phillips, The Medieval Expansion of Europe (Oxford, second edition, 1998)