HSTRY 201 A "Medieval Made Modern," WIN23
Th 12:00-1:20PM, plus attendance at the Wednesday night lecture series
2 cr., CR/NC, sln: 15833
Since 1975, the UW Department of History has been offering a History Lecture Series for lifelong learners. This year, Professor Emeritus Robin Chapman Stacey will be doing a series of lectures on the theme of "Medieval Made Modern." She will also be teaching a course, HSTRY 201, offered jointly with the lectures, for undergrads. The Lectures and class will examine: dragons, King Arthur, Medieval outlaws, Templars, and Joan of Arc.
This 2-credit, C/NC colloquium is designed to be taken in conjunction with the History Lecture Series for Winter of 2023, “Medieval Made Modern.” Both the series and the colloquium are focused on the ongoing reinterpretation of characters from the European Middle Ages. “Medievalism,” as it is called in academic circles, is a hot topic nowadays. As a culture, we are literally surrounded by symbols and images taken from the medieval period, as is evident from the multi-genre popularity of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and Martin’s Game of Thrones. However, we not alone in this. Theologians, politicians, artists and advertisers have been reimagining the Middle Ages ever since 1500 CE, when the medieval period is usually regarded as having ended. We are, in fact, the beneficiaries of literally centuries of reinterpreting the period and its inhabitants—to such an extent indeed that the Middle Ages to which we are responding often bears little resemblance to what the medieval persons in question would recognize as their own experience.
This disjunction between past and present is the primary focus of the class this term. Each session will encourage us to think in more depth about the issues raised in lecture by allowing us to place medieval evidence side-by-side with later re-imaginings of particular individuals or groups. The broader goal of the class, as of the series, is not to identify “errors” since, after all, “real” history itself is also a reconstruction of sorts. Rather, my hope is rather to encourage all of us to become more aware of the ways we integrate the past into our own contemporary experience. How have we--and others before us, of course--made use of historical symbols and images in voicing our own priorities and shaping our present reality? Why and how do we use the past to speak about the present?
A colloquium is not a lecture but, rather, a discussion of questions and ideas generated largely by students in response to the lectures, readings, and screenings you have done for that week. Students are expected to come to class with topics and questions that we can pursue over the hour we have together. This is your chance to react to what you are hearing, seeing, and learning; it is also an opportunity to draw connections between the materials covered in the lectures and readings and your own everyday experiences. My hope for this course is that we have a great deal of fun and learn something serious in the process. If contemporary politics teaches us nothing else, it is that the past is never truly past!
Winter 2023 History Lecture Series page.
