Medieval Clash of Cultures

Research Essays

2009-11-05T10:18:00.001-08:00

MDVL 301 (Fall 2009) Essay Topics

Write an essay on one of the following topics. The essay should be around 2000 to 2500 words in length.

This is a research essay. Hence an element of independent research may well be expected.

Due date: Tuesday 1st December (to be handed in to me in class, in my office at Buchanan 619, or to the English department office, Buchanan 397).

Late essay policy: Late essays will be assessed a penalty as I see fit.

Essay Topics

[1] From Pope Urban II’s call to arms in 1095 to the fall of the last outposts of Christian Outremer in 1291 (the fall of Acre), the Crusades can be read as a litany of failed dreams, military incompetence and political confusion. Is this a fair assessment of the legacy of the Crusades? Consider this question in relation to one or more of the texts – historical or literary – that we have read this year.

[2] Fear and desire, love and hate: these are simply the same thing, viewed from opposite perspectives. Discuss the strangely contradictory relationship between the West and the East (from the Western perspective) during the crusading period.

[3] Hybridity, méttisage and extimité. The historical reality of the crusader states – outremer – led to close contact and intermingling (both cultural and genetic) of the Christian conquerors / colonizers and their erstwhile enemies, the Saracens, in what a post-colonial critic such as Mary Pratt would term a “contact zone”. Such cultural intimacy necessarily blurs the lines of the identity politics of the period. Discuss the anxieties that manifest concerning the effects and implications of such contact in the texts that we have read this year.

[4] Christendom vs. the Saracen East. Many medieval propagandists (and post-medieval ones too, come to that) would have us believe that this “clash of cultures” was between two monolithic and homogenous “imagined communities” (pace Benedict Anderson). However, the reality “on the ground” was different. Both Christians and Saracens were heterogeneous communities with often-times internally divisive political agendas. Discuss the presence of, and / or attempts to elide, such internal difference within the texts we have read.

[5] Bevis of Hampton is, as Turville-Petre has argued, a romance that is deeply concerned with the construction of Englishness. In describing the Auchinleck manuscript as ‘a handbook of the nation’, Turville-Petre argues that the manuscript’s narrative of England, written in English, ‘does not simply recognise a social need but is an expression of the very character of the manuscript, of its passion for England and its pride in being English.’ ((Thorlac Turville-Petre, England the Nation: Language, Literature, and National Identity, 1290 – 1340 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1996), p. 112, 138). Discuss the identity politics of Englishness in Bevis.

[6] “Icham to meche te be cristine!” declares Ascopard when faced with the possibility of baptism at the hands of the Bishop of Cologne (Bevis, 2596). Write an essay on the tension between the Christian belief in the potential for universal conversion and the corporeally dimorphic (polymorphic?) identity politics that so pervade much of this literature. You may wish to range widely across a number of the texts that we have read, or to focus more closely on the way in which this issue is deployed in a smaller number of texts. You will also wish to contextualise your discussion in terms of the theological concepts of conversion and the debates upon this that were current in the crusading period.

[7] A topic of your own choosing. You will want to check the suitability of this topic with me before you begin work on it.

Happy writing.

Written mid-midterm - Week 9

2009-10-29T11:51:00.000-07:00

(... and you all thought I was checking facebook...)

In week 9 (first week of November), we will be reading the Siege of Jerusalem. Another Middle English poem, but this time set not in the crusades, but rather in the time of Titis, AD 70.

This poem is a real Halloween treat. It has been called "the chocolate-covered Tarantula of Middle English literature" - sweet and poetic on the outside, but with a nasty poisonous interior. What do you make of the poem? Outraged? Shocked? Or are these anachronistic responses to a work that reflected the sentiments of the time? (although this does not invalidate out modern responses to the poem and its vitriol).

While set in the first century, this is still about the Crusades (what isn't?), and here we see a recasting of the West-East struggle in terms of the events of the early Christian period.

Note how the Jews are constructed. They seem very much like Saracens. They have elephants, etc, that would have been familiar to the crusaders.

Now think about what this does to notions of crusade. We saw how Crusade was given a a venerable provenance in The Chanson: how is this text doing a similar thing.

Think also of the side-effects of such a move for notions of antisemitism, which already had a strong hold in the minds of medieval Christians.

Also compare the descriptions in the Siege to the accounts we read of the sack of the city in the First Crusade. Spooky, eh?

Right, that's enough for now. Happy reading.

Some stuff

2009-10-27T22:44:00.001-07:00

An interesting post on the legacy of the crusades and their ideology

http://modernmedieval.blogspot.com/2009/10/ross-douthat-thinks-islam-is-evil.html

First Update in a While

2009-10-24T18:57:00.000-07:00

So, having read our way through the material of the First Crusade and the Sultan of Babylon, we now find ourselves immersed in the strangely confusing hybridized world of Bevis.

Next Tuesday we continue with Bevis (although we may not end him), and then on Thursday we have the mid-term.

So, the mid-term. An hour of responding intelligently to a number of passages from texts that we have read thus far. Up to and including Bevis.

I'll be expecting you to able to:

[1] note parts of each passage that are worthy of note
[2] and then comment on them with regards to the themes and interests of the course
[3] you will also be given credit for contextualising these "textual moments" within their wider textal contexts: why are they important? How do they embody/sum up/represent the message(s) that the text seeks to convey?

The midterm will be from 11.10 - 12.10, and you will be asked to respond to 3 passages (from a selection of 4).

See you all Tuesday for Bevis. We'll be talking about Ascopard; conversion; bi-directional acculturation; the impossibility of ever "going home"; the cultural hybrid; and man-horse love. Very exciting stuff.

Deus lo volt! The First Crusade

2009-09-29T10:08:00.000-07:00

Today we will be looking at the differing versions of Pope Urban II's speech at Claremont (1095), and thinking about the reasons why these accounts might vary.

We'll also begin reading through Fulcher's Gesta and tracing the route and events of the first crusade. This will occupy the rest of this week (week 4).

**** post-class notes *********

Today we ranged widely in class, talking about such things as contact zones,the medieval system of the humours, women in the crusades, and the great schism of 1054.

We ended by looking at the first two versions of Pope Urban II's speech, and I asked you to read and compare versions 3 and 4 for Thursday. Thence onwards to Jerusalem!

The Hereford Map

2009-09-28T12:00:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday we looked at - and discussed - the medieval world view that is represented by the Hereford Map. We also have quite a bit of information about how the map was made.

Thursday 24th September

2009-09-23T14:17:00.000-07:00

As you will recall, we finished off the Chanson de Roland on Tuesday, ending with its call for a renewed and eternal clash of West vs. East.

This Thursday we will begin looking at the First Crusade, and the world into which the crusaders ventured.

I would like you to begin reading the First Crusade volume, and in particular (for Thursday) the first 46 pages. The 24 page historical introduction will begin to give you a notion of the shape of the crusades, while the versions of Pope Urban's speech that are found in pages 25-36 will introduce you to the varying historical accounts of this "originary" moment. When you read these different versions, I want you to consider the differences, and more importantly, the possible reasons for such differences. Who are the authors? What is their role, their status, their position? What part of "crusading" might they be wishing to emphasise, and for what reasons? When are versions written? how might this affect their contents?

If you are having problems accessing the First Crusade sourcebook (thank you, oh UBC Bookstore), might I suggest reading the versions of Pope Urban's speech here. Other First Crusade documents and materials can be found here in the immensely useful online Medieval Sourcebook.

We will also be looking at the western medieval conception of the world. For this you may wish to read a fascinating article by Andrew Jotischky (you need to be on Campus or VPN to access this).

Right, see you all Thursday.

Course syllabus

2009-09-21T13:19:00.001-07:00

MDVL 301 Syllabus

3 credits; Fall Semester, 2009

Medieval Orientalism: Writing the Other in the Time of a Clash of Cultures

***

Course Description

“It has become clear, in the year 2002 of the Common Era, that, contrary to prognostications, history has not, after all, come to an end; indeed, both history and the Middle Ages have returned, with a vengeance” (Geraldine Heng, Empire of Magic, 12).

The East has always been a fascination for English culture. In this seminar we will examine both fictional and historical accounts of such encounters, charting the development of the ideologies of difference that remain even to this day so powerful within the Western imagination. Through a reading of early accounts of cultural contact, we will revisit many of these stereotypes and assumptions about the non-European Other, reading them in terms of their origins in the anxieties of race, religion and group affinity. We will be reading a range of primary texts, ranging from historical accounts of real encounters and travelogues to fictional travels and adventures.

Assessment

20% Mid-term Exam (Thursday 29th October)

40% Term Essay

40% Final Exam

Essay late policy: late essays will be assessed a penalty as I see fit.

Course Texts

The Song of Roland (Penguin, 1990).

The First Crusade: The Chronicle of Fulcher of Chartres and other Source Materials, 2nd edn.

(University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998).

Three Middle English Charlemagne Romances (TEAMS, 1990).

Bevis of Hampton, in Four Romances of England (TEAMS, 1999).

The Siege of Jerusalem (TEAMS, 2004)

Christopher Dawson (ed.), Mission to Asia (University of Toronto Press, 1980).

The Travels of Sir John Mandeville (Penguin, 2005).

Reading Schedule – approximate

Week 1: Introduction

Week 2: Song of Roland

Week 3: Roland and an Introduction to the Crusades

Week 4: The First Crusade – Fulcher of Chartres and other sources

Week 5: The First Crusade – Fulcher of Chartres and other sources

Week 6: Sultan of Babylon

Week 7: Bevis of Hampton

Week 8: Bevis of Hampton

Week 9: The Siege of Jerualsem

Week 10: History of the Mongols

Week 11: William of Rubruck

Week 12: Mandeville’s Travels

Week 13: Review

Welcome to the course, and the first text

2009-08-23T10:56:00.000-07:00

Welcome to MDVL 301: A Medieval Clash of Cultures

This blogsite will act as the information store, discussion area, and general linkage-space for the course as it evolves over the span of the semester. Please feel free to contribute.

First Text - The Song of Roland

We'll be beginning the semester by reading the Penguin translation of the Chanson de Roland.

Please make sure that you've read the whole thing by Tuesday 15th September, as I'll be calling on people to comment on it as we read through the text. Make sure that you read the introduction as well in order that you have the historical context in place as you read the text itself.

Some questions to think about as you read are:

[1] What do we make of the fact that this is a manuscript produced in Oxford, England. How does the context inform the telling of a French narrative? Is it a French narrative?

[2] How is "otherness" constructed in the text? What do the Saracens/heathens represent, and in what ways are we alerted to their non-Christian/Western European nature?

[3] How might this narrative, set in the 8th century, relate to the period of its manuscript, c. 1100? In what ways might this be seen as a crusade text?

Right, enjoy your reading.