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Core Course Medieval and Early Modern Studies

Vak
2017-2018

Admission requirements

Not applicable

Description

Part 1

In the first six weeks, the students of Medieval Studies and Early Modern Studies work together. We start with presentations by guest lecturers from different fields of research. After these presentations, you will take part in a group discussion on the presentation and on the text(s) which the guest lecturer has chosen. In the presentations and the group discussions, we will focus on the central question of our core course: what is the extent of the traditional distinction between the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period? To answer this question, we focus on writers, artists, scientists, philosophers and rulers who lived between 500 and 1800. As such, we explore whether there really was a fracture around 1500 — traditionally seen as the peak of the Renaissance. We will question this traditional periodization from a methodological and interdisciplinary perspective, looking at innovation in the Middle Ages and tradition in the Early Modern period. Part 1 will be completed with an examination.

Students can choose to limit themselves to this first part of the core course (see Course Load). Students from the following programmes have to take this course for 10 EC (part 1 & 2):

  • MA Arts and Culture: Art and Architecture before 1800

  • MA Arts and Culture (Research)

  • MA Literary Studies: English Literature and Culture

  • MA Literary Studies (Research)

Part 2

In the second part of our Core Course you can choose between a seminar in Medieval Studies or a seminar in Early Modern Studies:

Part 2: Medieval Studies

The second part of the core course that focuses on the Middle Ages continues on the theme of the ‘modernity’ of this period. We will look especially at medieval centers of innovation: the court, city and church/convent, taking as a lead Ronald Witt’s The Two Latin Cultures and the Foundation of Renaissance Humanism in Medieval Italy (Cambridge, 2012). This book traces the origins of Renaissance humanism in the long Italian tradition of two book cultures, religious and secular, associated with the Church and legal procedures in the widest sense. We will study changes and shifts in social structures, art, literature in Western Europe as a response to or confirmation of Witt’s thesis that the Renaissance humanism could only have emerged from late medieval (northern) Italy, because of the special circumstances in political, social and intellectual life.

This seminar continues the methodological and interdisciplinary approach of the first part of the core course, by discussing texts or objects from a wide range of disciplines, and investigating the points of contact between the various cultures that are often studied in isolation. Each class will discuss (at least) one primary and one secondary source.

You will complete Part 2 with a presentation and a paper in English or in the language of the own discipline (c. 4000 words, incl. notes and bibliography). The subject can be chosen, but has to connect closely to the course, the methodology has to be interdisciplinary. You can start from your own discipline, but need to use at least one other discipline.

Part 2: Early Modern Studies

In this second part of the core course, you can continue by following the seminar on the Early Modern period. Whereas the focus of Part 1 was especially on the periodization and on the Renaissance as the ‘bridge’ between the Middle ages and the Early Modern Period, we will now look more closely at the latter period. However, instead of highlighting the ‘modernity’ of this period, this seminar will focus on the ‘traditional’ aspects of Early Modernity, and ask how (and why) the many new developments in this period were actually based on and ‘anchored’ in Antiquity and the Middle Ages.

In order to do so we will characterize this period as a period of ‘collecting’: of texts, of objects, and of knowledge in general. We will examine the backgrounds of this quest; discuss how this accumulation of (traditional) knowledge called for new methods of knowledge management; and how it could lead to new insights in various (scientific) fields. At the same time, we will see how the renewed interest in the (ancient) past also shaped the arts and literature of this period, and how innovative features were often unintentional, and often framed in traditional terms.

This seminar continues the methodological and interdisciplinary approach of the first part of the core course, by discussing texts or objects from a wide range of disciplines, and investigating the points of contact between the various cultures that are often studied in isolation. Each class will discuss (at least) one primary and one secondary source.

You will complete Part 2 with a presentation and a paper in English or in the language of the own discipline (c. 4000 words, incl. notes and bibliography). The subject can be chosen, but has to connect closely to the course, the methodology has to be interdisciplinary. You can start from your own discipline, but need to use at least one other discipline

Course objectives

Knowledge

Students will become acquainted with the Early Modern period in Europe from the viewpoint of a wide range of disciplines. They will question what shifts are discernible between the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period (Part 1) and gain knowledge about the ‘traditional’ aspects of this period, that is the Early Modern fascination with the past (Part 2).

Insight

Students will gain insight in the practices and challenges of interdisciplinary research, and the analysis of primary sources. They will also become acquainted with various modern approaches to the Middle Ages and especially the Early Modern period.

Skills

Students will be able to find and assess relevant scholarly literature, and use it to analyze and interpret primary sources from their own discipline. They will be able to understand these sources in an interdisciplinary context and to compare them with sources from other disciplines. They can use their knowledge, insight and skills in weekly assignments, discussions and a small research project of their own.

Timetable

Please consult the timetable on the MA Arts and Culture website.

Mode of instruction

  • 6x2 hours Lecture & response in group discussion (Part 1);

  • 6x2 hours Seminar (Part 2);

  • Closing Presentations.

Attendance is compulsory. Students are allowed to miss a maximum of two seminars, provided they present a valid reason beforehand. Students who have missed more than two seminars will have to aply to the Examination Board of the Ma Arts and Culture in order to obtain permission to further follow and complete the course.

Course Load

Total course load for the course 280 hours (10 EC)

Part 1

  • 6x2 hours class: 12 hours

  • Reading secondary literature: 40 hours

  • Preparation examination: 30 hours

  • Examination: 2 hours

Part 2

  • 6x2 hours class: 12 hours

  • Reading primary and secondary literature: 70 hours

  • Research Project: 52 hours

  • Attendance and presentation at symposium: 6 hours

  • Paper: 56 hours

Students can limit themselves to this first part of the core course. In order to successfully finish the course (5 EC), the students who do not continue with Part 2 will have to write a paper in English or in the language of the own discipline (besides the examination) on periodization (c. 2000 words incl. notes and bibliography), starting from your own discipline.

The students who only follow Part 1:

See course load Part 1: 84 hours + Paper: 56 hours
Total: 140 hours (5 EC)

Assessment method

The students who only follow Part 1:

  • Examination: 60%

  • Paper: 40% (Paper is a further reflection on the lectures of Part 1)

No specific grade will be given on the input for class discussion. However, it is an absolute requirement and will be taken into consideration as the paper has to result from the lectures and the group discussions afterwards (Part 1) and the seminars (Part 2).

The students who follow Part 1 and Part 2:

  • Examination after part 1: 30%

  • Presentation: 20%

  • Research paper: 50% (Paper is the continuation of the presentation/poster pitch and the final closing work of the core course)

Weighing

The final mark for the course is established by determining the weighted average.

Resit

Re-examination via examination and/or paper

Deadlines

  • Please note that if you do not hand in your essay before the first deadline, your essay will be considered as the resit.

  • For the time tables exams 2017-2018 see; Timetable

Exam review

How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organized.

Blackboard

Blackboard will be used for providing the readings of the lectures, the visual presentations and instructions.

Literature

The literature will be announced via blackboard during the course.

Registration

Students are required to register for this course via uSis, the course registration system of Leiden University. General information about uSis is available in English and Dutch.

Remarks

Programme details

part 1: Lecture and seminar; Dr. S.P.M. Bussels

  • week 1 Open Class with Susanna de Beer (CAC) on Periodization: All scholars of Medieval and Early Modern Studies at Leiden University will be invited to attend this class;

  • Week 2 History: Peter Hoppenbrouwer;

  • Week 3 Literature: Krista Murchison;

  • Week 4 Media: Erik Kwakkel;

  • Week 5 Archaeology: Roos van Oosten;

  • Week 6 Philosophy: Ahab Bdaiwi.

Part 2: Seminar Innovation in the Middle Ages; Dr. G. Warnar / Dr. R. Stein

  • Week 1 (to be announced);

  • Week 2 (to be announced);

  • Week 3 (to be announced);

  • Week 4 (to be announced);

  • Week 5 (to be announced);

  • Week 6 (to be announced);

  • Week 7 Closing Presentations. (January 2018)

Part 2: Tradition in Early Modernity; Prof. Dr. H.G.M. Jorink / Dr. S. T. M. de Beer

  • week 1 Cultures of Collecting

  • week 2 Philology (guest lecture by dr. Jan Waszink)

  • week 3 Discoveries

  • week 4 Literary culture – Early Modern Genres

  • week 5 Visual culture – Early Modern Iconography

  • week 6 Knowledge Management

  • week 7 Closing presentations (January 2018)

Contact