MSP 3501: Exploring the Middle Ages - Med. Identities and Cultures

(McGrady) T/Th,12:30-1:45

This course will (re)introduce you to the Middles Ages by decentering the common Eurocentric approach and prioritizing instead cross-cultural encounters that profoundly marked over a thousand years of shared history. Four units are planned for the semester: (1) early Iberia as an international center of  Muslim, Jewish, and Christian exchange; (2) crusading culture as portrayed in epic poetry, satire, the diary of a Byzantine princess and writings by Muslims living in occupied Jerusalem; (3) travel and discovery as recounted by the well-known Marco Polo as well as globetrotters from Africa and Asia; and (4) an early history of women, studied here through the Arabic epic tale of Princess Fatima, Warrior Woman, writings by the first professional female writer – Christine de Pizan (d. 1431), and the lives of female spiritual visionaries. Our discussions will be enhanced by visits from numerous UVA professors who will discuss their research in relation to our topics. Course assignments include response papers, collaborative class activities, and a final research project that may take the form of a traditional paper, a podcast, or a creative work. This course can satisfy the Second Writing Requirement; fulfills the Artistic, Interpretative, and Philosophical Inquiry; and is required for the Medieval Studies major. No previous knowledge of the Middle Ages is needed.

ARTH 1153-100 (with Discussion): Space Out!

(Ramirez-Weaver) MW 9-9:50 AM

Throughout history, artists, philosophers, & scientists have consistently sought to situate themselves within the cosmos & comprehend its heavenly machinery. This course traces the development of scientific, political, spiritual, magical, & intellectual technologies of power that have tied individuals to their views & uses for astronomy. Topics include: stars & rule, astrology, Ptolemy, alchemy, magic, medicine, Galileo, Chesley Bonestell, Remedios Varo, Kambui Olujimi, Star Trek, & Star Wars.

ARTH 1861: Silk Road Exchanges

(Wong) MW 1-1:50

Stretching some 8,000 kilometers, the Silk Road is a network of trade routes that provided a bridge between the east and the west between the first and fourteenth centuries CE. Despite periods of disruptions, the Silk Road flourished as a commercial and at times military highway. But more than that, it was a channel for the transmission of ideas, technologies, and artistic forms and styles, with far-reaching impact beyond China and the Mediterranean world. This course introduces the art forms, trade objects, and religions that flourished along the historical Silk Road.

HIEU 1501: Life & Death Dark Age Europe

(Kershaw) TuTh 11:00am - 12:15pm

 ‘Life and Death’ is an undergraduate seminar intended to introduce students to the social, cultural and political history of Europe during the so-called ‘Dark Ages’, the period from c. CE 600 to 1000 also known as the early Middle Ages. We’ll explore these centuries by looking each week at a different individual, examining the textual and material/archaeological evidence for their life (and death), as well as for the wider historical moment in which they lived. To do this we will make use of archaeological, anthropological, environmental and literary studies alongside historical analysis, much of it very new. Reading will conventionally consist of a combination of primary sources (in English translation) and accompanying scholarship. The class meets twice a week. Its discussion–based format means there are high expectations of class participation and informed engagement. This class satisfies the Second Writing and Historical Studies Requirements.  

ARTH 2961: Arts of the Islamic World

(Phillips) TuTh 12:30-1:45 (with Discussion)

What’s Islamic about Islamic art? What makes a mosque in Indonesia different from one in Iberia? Where are all the pictures? Should art historians only talk about the rock crystal and porcelains and silks made for sultans and emperors, or can we also look at ceramics and cottons and things made for humbler folk? What’s with all that ornament? Can fine art be mass-produced? To answer some of these questions, we’ll be exploring big themes, such as the requirements of worship and imperial building campaigns, daily life and its objects, conventions of representation (or picture-making), the absolute triumph of calligraphy as an art form, the way Mediterranean and Oceanic trade connected different cultures, and how looting, plunder, and finally colonialism and nationalism also impact on the way we see and understand art and architecture in the twenty-first century.

HIME 2001: The Making of the Islamic World

(Richardson) MW 1:00-1:50pm

This course explores the history of the Middle East and North Africa from late antiquity to the rise to superpower status of the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century. Topics include the formation of Islam and the first Arab-Islamic conquests; slave societies; the fragmentation of the empire of the caliphate; the historical development of Islamic social, legal, and political institutions; science and philosophy; and the impact of invaders (Turks, Crusaders, and Mongols).

RELG 2495: Religious Violence in the West: From the Crusades to #Charlottesville"

(Shuve) MW 9-9:50am

If religious teachings so often focus on love and peace, why is so much violence committed in the name of religion? Are some religions essentially peaceful, while others are essentially violent? Can violent actions be dismissed as aberrations from the sacred scriptures or traditional teachings of a religious movement? Why is anti-Jewish violence such a constituent feature of Western cultures? And why are we so inclined to view certain violent acts or movements as inherently religious—the Crusades, the 9/11 attacks—but not others, such as the Transatlantic Slave Trade, Jim Crow laws in the American south, or the August 12th alt-right gathering in Charlottesville? In this course, we will consider the ways in which religion and violence have intersected in Western religions (particularly Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) over the past two millennia, from the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire to the modern world. 

ANTH 3885: Archaeology of Europe

(LaViolette) MWF 10-10:50

This lecture course covers a selection of topics in the archaeology of Europe that cross-cut time periods, regions, and major transformations including: the peopling of Europe and the Neanderthal debate; the interpretation of rock art and other early modern cultural achievements; the emergence and eventual dominance of sedentary living; the phenomena of Neolithic henges and earthworks; further stratification of society and economic and political networks, palaces, and urban centers of the Bronze Age; the relationship of transformations in Europe to those in the Middle East; the Mediterranean and Aegean worlds; the Roman impact on western Europe and the life of Barbarian Europe; the Iron Age; and the Vikings and their contemporaries. (3.0 Units)

ARTH 3591-002: Medieval Mayhem 

(Ramirez-Weaver) TTh 9:30-10:45 AM

In this course, we will explore the historical and ideological frameworks in which medieval mystical practices joined the human body with nature, transcended the cosmic harmonies of divine proportion, and attempted to fashion the world according to desire and belief. We examine purifying practices such as the Eucharist or baptism as well as the manipulation of cosmic forces for personal or political reasons, using techniques ranging from horoscopic astrology to necromancy. Lastly, we will investigate the role of medievalism in the ideological presentation of histories about the medieval period, with a focus upon the “wizarding world” of Harry Potter. Topics covered include: celestial modeling, eschatology, apocalypses, astrological prediction, horoscopes, talismans and crystals, spells and incantations, medieval gynecology, Hildegard of Bingen, monstrous races, military machinations, relics and reliquaries, medieval mysticism, Margery Kempe, phenomena such as "holy anorexia," alchemical theory, Hieronymus Bosch, and the medievalism of Harry Potter.

ENGL 3010: History of the English Language

(Hopkins) TuTh 9:30-10:45 AM

This course studies the history and development of the English language, from the Old English period (550CE-1100CE) to Middle and Early Modern English, and concluding at present-day English. We will sample literature from these time periods, as well as come to understand the linguistic processes behind each historical stage of the language and its vocabulary.

ENGL 3162: Chaucer II - Fate and Chance

(Watts) TuTh 11-12:15 PM

Why do things happen the way they do? Are our fates controlled by the stars, by nature, by fickle Lady Fortune, by divine providence, by our own efforts and merits? This course will explore fate and chance in Chaucer, examining human agency and the forces that curtail it as we read beyond The Canterbury Tales. We will consider "grace" in "The Man of Law's Tale," "kinde" in Parliament of Fowles, "werke" in House of Fame, and the whole glut of fortunes in excerpts of Troilus and Criseyde. This class assumes no prior knowledge of Chaucer, Middle English, or the Middle Ages, although it will offer plenty of new material to students of these. As we read Chaucer in his original Middle English, we will learn about the history of the English language and about the intellectual inheritances of Chaucer and the Middle Ages. At the same time, we will consider the power of literary genres, modes, and sources to make things happen and to limit what can happen.

GETR 3464-001/002: Medieval Stories of Love and Adventure

(McDonald)

Fulfills the second -writing requirement. Course readings center on King Arthur and his court, as exemplified by the quests of Erec, Yvain, and Parzival. Readings include Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History and Gottfried’s Tristan. All readings in English. 

HIEA 3559: The Mongol Empire

(Cronan) TuTh 4–5:15 PM

This course traces the rise of the Mongol Empire on the Eurasian steppe in the 13th century, follows its campaigns in Eastern Eurasia, West Asia, and Southeast Asia, and examines how Mongol imperial rule was experienced in societies across the Eurasian landmass. Students will read eyewitness accounts, legal statutes, historical chronicles, and beyond, exploring how the Mongols transformed the societies they conquered––and how their legacy was remembered.

HIEU 3141 Age of Conquests: Britain from Romans to Normans

(Kershaw) MW 1:00pm - 1:50pm

This course surveys the history of Britain from the establishment of Roman rule to the Norman invasion of 1066, with particular focus on the social, political and cultural history of the early English kingdoms (and to a lesser extent their neighbors in what are now Wales and Scotland) and the Scandinavian impact of the eighth through eleventh centuries. This is a period defined by conquests: of the late Iron Age tribes of much of the island of Britain by the Romans; of Roman Britain by multiple invaders in the fourth, fifth and sixth centuries; of one emerging early kingdom by another; of those surviving kingdoms by the Vikings in the ninth century; of an emergent unitary English state by Knútr (Canute) of Denmark in 1016, and – finally – by the Norman Duke William ‘the Bastard’ in 1066. 

Topics to be addressed include: the post-Roman ‘Dark Ages’ of CE 400-600; the rise of multiple kingdoms in the course of the seventh and eighth centuries; Christianity and pagan beliefs; historical writing; the gradual emergence of a unified English state over the course of the tenth century; political thought and practice; the varieties of insular culture; manuscript production; social organization; law and dispute settlement; issues of trade and contacts with the wider world.

MESA 3270: A History of Astrology

(Richardson) MW 2:00-3:15pm 

In this course we will examine the global history of astrology, as both a body of knowledge and a process of discovery, from the ancient to the contemporary periods. Astrology played a significant, albeit underappreciated, role in the making of ancient and medieval societies. We will consider astrology’s early global status as a science with immutable laws, its 17th-century designation as a pseudo-science in Western thought, and its resurgence among Gen X-ers and Z-ers as a vital way of making sense of the contemporary world.

PETR3131/7131: Love, Lust & the Divine in Persian Literature

(Fayyaz) TuTh 12:30-1:45

Medieval Persian poets drew inspiration from what they knew, read, observed, or inherited from earlier traditions. Regardless of their sources, these poets pursued love in profoundly human ways, elevating it to a symbol of divine love. In doing so, they often blurred the boundary between love and lust, playing with subtle distinctions—conceiving love (‘ishq) as an inward act of devotion to the beloved or the Divine, while lust (shahwat) signifies a fleeting attraction to physical beauty. This course introduces students to Persian literature’s contribution to global humanism through its poetry and poetics. We will explore how Persian verse romances (masnavi) engage with themes such as love, desire, beauty, and the Divine, and how these themes intersect with questions of gender, religion, society, ethics, womanhood, and leadership. While we will consider poetic form and method, our primary focus will be on narrative content—the intentions behind the stories, the poets’ arguments, and the issues they illuminate through characters, situations, and events. *All readings in English.

PETR 3380/7380: Learning from Animals: Ethics in Medieval Persian Literature

(Fayyaz) MW 2-3:15

Much like their Greco-Roman counterparts, classical and medieval Persian poets were deeply engaged with questions of ethics and wisdom. Drawing from Zoroastrian, Islamic, Indian, Chinese, and Greek traditions, these poets developed a literary tradition that framed moral reflection not only as philosophical inquiry but as something to be imagined, narrated, and emotionally experienced. In this course, we’ll explore how Persian literature—especially in allegorical and narrative forms like the masnavi—addresses themes such as virtue, justice, empathy, and self-knowledge. Our focus will be on two key twelfth-century texts: Nasrullah Munshi’s Kalila and Dimna (translated by Wheeler Thackston), a collection of animal fables—featuring lions, jackals, elephants, hares, tortoises, snakes, ducks, and even ants—rooted in Indian and Persian moral traditions; and Farid ud-Din Attar’s The Conference of the Birds (translated by Afkham Darbandi and Dick Davis), a Sufi allegory exploring the soul’s journey—featuring thousands of birds from all species of the world gathering to find their King—toward divine truth. Through close reading and discussion, we will examine how poetic form—such as allegory, metaphor, and narrative structure—shapes ethical thinking and invites readers to reflect on their own values.

SPAN 3400: Spain: From Kingdom to Empire (1200-1700)

(Riva) TuTh 9:30-10:45

We will read and analyze works from the Iberian Peninsula from the Middle Ages to the Early Modern period in their original versions. Textual analysis will aim at the establishment of relationships between literary products and European and Mediterranean phenomena such as transmission of knowledge, translation, Counterreformation, among others. The works will serve as tools for cultural and political reflection whose impact can be found even in the twenty-first century. Course taught in Spanish.

ENGL 4510: Medieval Women

(Watts) TuTh 2-3:15 PM

The Middle Ages left behind written discourses about women, by women, and for women that are surprisingly rich and varied. In exploring that record, we will consider not only misogyny, but also women as protagonists of their own adventures and women as authors and authorities in both secular and religious texts. We will read the words of the visionaries St. Hildegard of Bingen and Julian of Norwich, tales of the crossdressing St. Euphrosyne and a fictional knight named Silence, and the writing of prominent female authors Marie de France and Christine de Pizan. Along the way, we will consider the meanings of gender, sexuality, and authority in Medieval Europe and the many roles of women as subjects of and participants in literary discourse. This course assumes no prior knowledge of Middle English or the Middle Ages, but it will require you to (learn to) read a few of these texts in their original Middle English. It will also invite you to think about gender, sexuality, and the medieval world in new and nuanced ways and to consider the inheritances, literary and intellectual, left to our own time.

ENGL 4902: The Bible Part 2: The New Testament

(Parker) MW 2:00pm - 3:15pm

The stories, rhythms, and rhetoric of the Bible have been imprinting readers and writers of English since the seventh century. Moving through much of the New Testament, from the Gospels to Revelation, this course focuses on deepening biblical literacy and sharpening awareness of biblical connections to whatever members of the class are reading in other contexts. Along the way we will discuss English translations of the New Testament; the process of canonization; textual history; and the long trail of interpretive approaches, ancient to contemporary. Our text will be the New Oxford Annotated Bible, 5th ed. All are welcome. No previous knowledge of the Bible is needed or assumed. It can be taken before or after the Bible Part 2: The Hebrew Bible/Old Testament.

FREN 4123-001: Medieval Love and its Modern Uses

(Ogden) TuTh 2:00-3:15 PM

Affection for family members, deep and casual friendships, maybe even passionate romance—everyone exists within a network of loving relationships.  We probably don’t often think about where our expectations for these relationships come from, and most people would be surprised that a lot of our ideas about love come from twelfth- and thirteenth-century France.  Marrying for love?  Soul mates?  Top Ten Tips for Attracting a Mate?  BFFs?  Parental devotion?  All have foundations in medieval French culture. Reading surprisingly modern stories of adventure and thoughtful (and sometimes funny) essays about emotions—all in modern French translation—and listening to soulful songs of the past, as well as to their modern counterparts, we will explore medieval ideas about love that continue to shape our modern understandings and assumptions about emotions and relationships. Course taught in French.

ARAH 9510: Seminar in Medieval Architecture

(Reilly) Tu 2-4:30 pm

How did ordinary men and women experience the sacred in their daily lives? This seminar investigates the vibrant world of lay religious practice in later medieval England, where the parish church served as the beating heart of community life. Through close examination of material culture—from rood screens and wall paintings to liturgical vessels and funeral monuments—we will reconstruct how pre-Reformation Christians encountered the divine through their senses, shaped their spiritual identities, and negotiated their relationships with the supernatural. Moving beyond elite ecclesiastical history, we will ask: What did it mean to be a parishioner? How did architecture guide devotional experience? What can churchwardens' accounts, wills, and surviving objects reveal about the religious imagination of the laity?

Classes will be discussion-based, engaging with recent scholarship in material religion, sensory history, and the social history of the church. Each student will develop a substantial research project in consultation with the instructor, culminating in either a traditional research paper or a digital humanities project.

ARAH 9585: Buddhist Art/ARH 7500

(Wong) W 3:30-6:00

This seminar examines the key topics and monuments across Buddhist Asia, with primary focus on East Asia. Topics include the worship of Buddhist relics, images, and related rituals and material culture. Key sites of stūpas, cave-temples, pilgrimage centers, and monasteries will be examined alongside archaeological discoveries to explore practices and patrons’ intentions. The seminar introduces seminal writings and reviews current scholarship from a variety of sources: liturgies, historical texts, inscriptions, and contemporary writing, and includes comparisons with western medieval traditions.

ENGL 5101: Beowulf and Its Monstrous Manuscript

(Hopkins) TuTh 3:30-4:45 PM

In this course (which requires reading proficiency in Old English), we will read about half of Beowulf in Old English, alongside samples from the other texts found in the same manuscript, Cotton Vitellius A XV. These other texts include Judith, the Letter of Alexander to Aristotle, Wonders of the East, and the Life of St. Christopher (a dog-headed saint!). Alongside extensive translation work, we will also study the manuscript itself and the various arguments about its date and the date(s) of the texts it contains. 

ENGL 5500: Transforming Desire: Medieval and Renaissance Erotic Poetics

(Clare Kinney) TuTh 11-12:15

This seminar will focus upon lyric, narrative and dramatic works from the medieval and Renaissance periods which explore the striking metamorphoses and the various (and on occasion very queer) trajectories of earthly—and not so earthly--love. We'll be examining the ways in which desire is represented as transforming the identity and consciousness and language of the lover; we will also be examining (and attempting to historicize) strategies employed by our authors to variously transform, redefine, enlarge and contain the erotic impulse. We'll start with some selections from the Metamorphoses of Ovid; we will finish with two of Shakespeare’s most striking reinventions of love. Along the way we’ll be looking at the gendering of erotic representation and erotic speech, the intermittent entanglement of secular and sacred love, the role of genre in refiguring eros, and some intersections between the discourses of sexuality and the discourses of power. Tentative reading list: selections from Ovid's Metamorphoses;the Lais (short romances) of Marie de France; Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde; lyrics by Petrarch, Philip Sidney and Lady Mary Wroth; Philip Sidney’s Old Arcadia; Shakespeare's As You Like It and The Winter’s Tale. And occasional critical/theoretical readings.

FREN 5510/8510:  Inventing the East in Premodern Lit/Culture

(McGrady) W 3:30-6

Edward Said's work on orientalism imposed a radical premodern/modern divide on the study of East-West relations that suppressed earlier intellectual, literary, and cultural traditions crucial to understanding the western invention of the East. This seminar recovers part of this lost history by turning to a medieval francophone corpus in which the East assumed a prominent role in the literary imagination. This corpus encompasses French works from the 12th through the 15th centuries produced in and outside of the French kingdom, including the Chanson de Roland, East-West romances, travel adventures, and late-medieval "alternate histories." Reports of merchants and spies who journeyed east, crusading propaganda, and diplomatic dealings will anchor our reading of these texts as creative responses to an ever-growing interconnected world. While echoes of modern takes on the Orient will emerge, we will discover a world in which western superiority was not a certainty and where contact with the Other often triggered discussion of received values. Western debates about conquest, empire, conversion, collective memory, human nature, gender and ethnicity will deeply inform our reading. This approach will lead to larger questions regarding the complex relationship between creative expression and critical thinking, how fiction constructs time and space, how reading and listening shape understanding, and the unique ways the imaginary processes lived experience (especially concerning collective trauma and cultural shifts). How might this recovered past alter our understanding of Orientalism, disrupt presentist thinking, provide new insights into the role of creative expression in society, and contribute to Global Medieval Studies? Student-led discussion, a mid-semester critical reflection, class presentations, and a final research paper will allow ample opportunity for participants to engage with and contribute to this active field of research. Reading knowledge of French a plus.

PETR 7131 (crosslisted with 3131): Love, Lust & the Divine in Persian Literature

(Fayyaz) TuTh 12:30 - 13:45 See PETR 3131 for description.

PETR 7380 (crosslisted with 3380): Learning from Animals: Ethics in Medieval Persian Literature

(Fayyaz) MoWe 14:00 - 15:15 See PETR 3380 for description.

SPAN 7220 History of the Spanish Language

(Velázquez-Mendoza) MW 2:00-3:15 PM

This course traces the historical development of the Spanish language (mainly) from its origins as a spoken Latin variety to the present. Topics include: The relationship between language change and language variation; Romanization of the Iberian Peninsula; Classical vs. 'Vulgar' Latin; Visigothic and Arab influence on the Spanish language; Latin and Medieval Spanish word order; Expressions of possession in Medieval Spanish; Direct object marking in Old Spanish; The role of analogy in the historical development of Spanish; New World Spanish. Course taught in Spanish.

ARTH 2861 East Asian Art (Wong)

Tu/Th 12:30 - 1:45 pm

This course is a general introduction to the artistic traditions of China, Korea, and Japan from the prehistoric period to the modern era. Major topics include funerary art, Buddhist art, and later court and secular art. The course seeks to understand artistic forms in relation to technology, political and religious beliefs, and social and historical contexts. It also introduces the major philosophic and religious traditions—Confucianism, Daoism, Shinto, and Buddhism—that have shaped cultural and aesthetic ideals of East Asia. The lectures survey major monuments and the fundamental concepts behind their creation.

RELB 2715 Introduction to Chinese Religion (Heller)

TR 9:30–10:45

This course serves as an introduction to the religious beliefs and practices of China, Taiwan, and the Chinese diaspora. Engaging textual, material, and visual traditions, the course covers several broad themes in Chinese religion, including ritual, self-cultivation, means of communicating with the gods, and the intersection of political authority and religion. 

RELC 2050 "Rise of Christianity" (Shuve)

MW 10-10:50am

How did a movement that began as a Jewish sect become the official religion of the Roman Empire and forever change the world? In this course, we will trace Christianity’s improbable rise to religious and cultural dominance in the Mediterranean world during the first millennium of the Common Era. We will examine archaeological remains, artistic creations and many different kinds of writings—including personal letters, stories of martyrs and saints, works of philosophy and theology, and even gospels that were rejected for their allegedly heretical content—as we reimagine and reconstruct the lives and struggles of early and medieval Christians. Our goal will be to understand the development of Christian thought, the evolution of the Church as an institution, and how Christianity was lived out and practiced by its adherents. 

RELG 2820 Jerusalem (Andruss)

Tu/Th 12:30-1:45

This course traces the history of Jerusalem with a focus on its significance in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. How have these communities experienced and inhabited Jerusalem? How have they imagined the city and interpreted its meaning? How have Jews, Christians, and Muslims expressed their attachments to this contested space from antiquity to modern times? Our exploration will be rooted in primary texts and informed by historical and cultural context, as well as scholarly approaches to sacred space.

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ARH 3500/ARTH 3591 Medieval Mediterranean (Phillips and Reilly)

Tu/Th 12:30-1:45 pm

In this course we will delve into the rich history of Muslim-Christian interactions in the medieval Mediterranean, focusing on the concept of 'encounters' through the lens of art, architecture, and material culture. We will consider how communities with differing beliefs and traditions shared landscapes and spaces, from religious buildings to marketplaces, workshops, and city streets. By examining case studies—from Constantinople to Palermo to Cordoba--we will gain insight into how these interactions affected contemporary visual, material and built environments. We will also reflect on whether the Mediterranean is special, or not, and assesses the ways in which connections to other parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa helped shape the region and its hinterlands.   Thus, we will develop a deeper understanding of how power, identity, and cultural translation shaped the medieval Mediterranean world and its art and architecture and reflect on contemporary issues of cultural coexistence and exchange. In a similar vein, we'll evaluate the way cultural heritage groups, tourist boards, and other official and unofficial bodies have described medieval architecture, art, and culture, and ask what is at stake right in the twenty-first century. This course fulfills the Second Writing Requirement.

ARTH 3591-003 Medieval Mayhem (Ramirez-Weaver) 

TTh 9:30-10:45 AM

In this course, we will explore the historical and ideological frameworks in which medieval mystical practices joined the human body with nature, transcended the cosmic harmonies of divine proportion, and attempted to fashion the world according to desire and belief. We examine purifying practices such as the Eucharist or baptism as well as the manipulation of cosmic forces for personal or political reasons, using techniques ranging from horoscopic astrology to necromancy. We will examine the medieval foundations of modern racist ideologies and the legacy of eugenics at UVA specifically. Lastly, we will investigate the role of medievalism in the ideological presentation of histories about the medieval period, with a focus upon the “wizarding world” of Harry Potter. Topics covered include: celestial modeling, eschatology, apocalypses, astrological prediction, horoscopes, talismans and crystals, spells and incantations, medieval gynecology, Hildegard of Bingen, monstrous races, military machinations, relics and reliquaries, late medieval mysticism, Margery Kempe, phenomena such as "holy anorexia," alchemical theory, Hieronymus Bosch, and the medievalism of Harry Potter.

ENGL 3161 Chaucer I (E. Fowler)

TTh 12:30-1:45

We’ll read The Canterbury Tales and perhaps some shorter works looking for the author that the Scots poet Gavin Douglas praised as “evir all womanis frend.” One governing question will be how, for Geoffrey Chaucer and for us, do sexual politics guide political philosophy? This is a course in Middle English, in reading poetry, in considering how fiction shapes political thought, and in thinking alongside someone who lived before modernity and can shake our sense of the world to its roots while telling brilliant stories. We’ll meet under the Scholar’s Tree by Dawson’s Row in camp chairs unless weather prohibits it: bring your sunscreen and hats. Write to Prof Fowler fowler@virginia.edu with questions.

ENGL 3275: The History of Drama I (Parker)

MW 2:00-3:15

The first third of this course will cover the drama of classical antiquity in translation, beginning with Greek plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes, then moving from there to the Latin plays of Plautus, Terence, and Seneca.  The next third of the course will consider the kinds of performance that displaced (and in some cases transformed) these pagan traditions after the Christianization of the Roman empire; we will likely read a liturgical drama, a morality play, a saint play, some vernacular Biblical drama and a secular farce.  The final third of the course will cover plays from the Renaissance, focusing particularly on the commercial London stage of Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare.   

GETR 3464 Medieval Stories of Love and Adventure (McDonald)

Tu/Th 2-3:15 OR 3:30-4:45 (online)

Fulfills the second -writing requirement. Course readings center on King Arthur and his court, as exemplified by the quests of Erec, Yvain, and Parzival. Readings include Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History and Gottfried’s Tristan. All readings in English. 

JPTR 3010 Survey of Traditional Japanese Literature (Heldt)

TTh 2:00-3:15 PM

This course provides an introduction to Japanese literature from earliest times through to the nineteenth century. We will read selections from representative texts and genres, including myth, poetry, prose fiction, memoir literature, drama, and works of criticism. No knowledge of Japanese culture or language is required.

JPTR 3400 Tales of the Samurai (Heldt)

TTh 3:30-4:45 PM

A seminar focusing on influential medieval and early-modern narratives such as the Tale of Heike in which the notion of the samurai first developed. No prerequisites. Satisfies the non-Western and Second-Writing requirements.

LATI 3090: Medieval Latin (Hays)

TR 2:00–3:15

In this course we will read (in the original Latin) the Romance of Apollonius of Tyre, an early medieval novel involving incest, murder, piracy, riddles, shipwrecks, ball-games, prostitution, virtuous fishermen, wicked step-parents, and more riddles. Time permitting, we will also look at the novel's later influence, notably on Shakespeare's Pericles.

PLPT 3010: Ancient and Medieval Political Theory (Bird)

MW, 3-3:50

Western Political Theory from Plato to the Reformation. Among authors covered are Plato, Aristotle, Epictetus, St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, and Martin Luther. For the medieval period, central themes are natural law, allegorical interpretation of Scripture, and the origins of modern liberal political theory.

RELC 3181 Medieval Christianity (Mathewes)

W 3:30-6:00 PM  

This seminar attempts to introduce undergraduate students with several major approaches to Christian thought in Medieval Europe, in order to offer them a taste of various styles of writing and thinking, in order to orient them to engage various major accounts of the Christian tradition. From Augustine and Boethius through Bernard, Anselm, Hildegard and Aquinas to Ockham, Eckhart, and Marguerite Porete, we will ask questions such as: What are the major debates and concepts that have informed Christian thought historically?  What styles of reasoning and deliberation have been explored, and to what ends? Engaging those questions should open angles of interpretation on what is “Christian” and “theology,” and how they relate to other disciplines.

SPAN 3400 From Kingdom to Empire (Riva)

TTH 9:30-10:45

This course will explore medieval and early modern works written in Castilian from El Cid to Calderón's theater. We will focus on the function of these literary texts in the European and Mediterranean context. Taught in Spanish. Prerequisite: SPAN 3010 and 3300, or departmental placement. Exclude Spanish majors on their 4th year.

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ENGL 4500 Metamorphosing Myth (Clare Kinney)

Tues/Thur 11:00-12:15 

This seminar will explore the appropriation and transformation of some of the influential narratives of pagan antiquity: the myths that are kidnapped and remade as artists pursue their own aesthetic, cultural and political agendas. We will start by reading (in translation) Virgil’s great epic of empire, the Aeneid, as well as Ovid’s influential and bewitching tapestry of mythic narratives, the Metamorphoses. We’ll then move on to discuss the ways in which some medieval, Renaissance and contemporary authors metamorphose these powerful archetypes. Our post-classical readings will include works by Chaucer, Christine de Pizan, Christopher Marlowe, and Shakespeare, as well as Mary Zimmerman’s Metamorphoses and Ursula K Le Guin’s Lavinia. With luck, we’ll also hear from some of our own creative writing faculty about the afterlives of myth within their own work. Course requirements: regular attendance and energetic participation in discussion.  A series of  discussion board postings.  A 6-7 page paper, an oral presentation, a longer term paper.

FREN 4848 The Good Life? (Ogden)

M, 3:30-6 PM

What is the good life, and what is a good life?  How should a person balance ethical responsibilities with comforts and pleasures?  Is sacrifice required for someone who wants to be good, and if so, how much and of what kind?  How do social expectations help and harm efforts to do the right thing?  We might think of saints as people who live perfectly good lives, but stories about them often grapple with all of these questions and don’t always provide clear answers, instead encouraging audiences to think deeply about their own lives in ways that go beyond any one religious or ethical system.  Above all, such stories can lay bare both how difficult it is to solve moral dilemmas (even for saints) and how closely extreme virtue can resemble appalling vice.  Looking at old and new stories of parent-child struggles, spectacular sinning and redemption, gender transformation, and daily moral predicaments, we will explore a variety of ways to understand what it means to live well.  Course taught entirely in French.

HIEU 4511 Viking Worlds (Kershaw)

Mo 5:30-8

Contact instructor for details.

ENGL 5100 Intro to Old English (Hopkins) 

TuThu 12:30p-1:45p

In this course (open to undergraduate and graduate students) we will learn to read the Old English language (roughly 500-1100 CE). To arrive at a sound reading knowledge, we will spend the first half of the semester internalizing the basics of Old English grammar and vocabulary, and will practice translating short bits of prose and poetry, from prose works like Bede's history, and later poetry such as the Exeter Book riddles, The Battle of Maldon, The Dream of the Rood, and excerpts from Beowulf. Along the way, we will also study Old English genres, contexts, and critical/theoretical approaches prevalent in the field, with an emphasis on the history of the book and writing technologies. Course work includes weekly translations, midterm and final exams, and a brief research presentation (~10 min) on a topic chosen by each student. Successful completion of this course is required for admission to ENGL 5110 Beowulf and Its Monstrous Manuscript in the Spring. 

ENGL 5510 Arthurian Romances (E. Fowler)

TTh 3:30-4:45

We'll dive into what is probably the most viral fan-fiction canon ever: stories about Arthur, Guenevere, Lancelot, Gawain, Merlin, the Ladies of the Lake, and their friends and enemies and magical stage props. What makes this kind of narrative work? How do different authors transform it? The late medieval Morte Darthur by Thomas Malory will be at the core of our inquiry, and we'll include texts from Marie de France and Chaucer to contemporary film. We'll be looking to describe how (and why) the romance genre offers us experiences of philosophy, emotion, political thought, spirituality, and wit. This is a graduate course with room for undergraduates who have some coursework in Middle English. We will meet outside under the Scholar’s Tree by Dawson’s Row in camp chairs unless weather prohibits it. Contact Prof Fowler fowler@virginia.edu with questions.