Premodern Worlds: 500-1500

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

In this seminar, we will travel back in time and around the globe to encounter some of the diverse literary and cultural traditions of the global Middle Ages (ca. 500-1500 C.E.). Our approach will be interdisciplinary, and our virtual itinerary will be ambitious. Starting in China and Japan, we will move on to India and along the Silk Roads to Persia, the Middle East, and Africa; then head across the Mediterranean to Italy, France, and England; and conclude with a foray into the Americas prior to the arrival of the first Europeans in 1492. Close readings of literary texts will be our primary critical practice, as we explore classics of world literature ranging from the The Tale of Genji to The Shahnameh to The Canterbury Tales to the Popol Vuh. Our classroom in Booth Special Collections will allow us to examine some of the rare books and manuscripts related to these early literary forms. Many of these texts can take us into the history of everyday life and private worlds of thought and feeling with remarkable immediacy. Tangible artifacts can be equally revealing. Taking inspiration from the British Museum’s History of the World in 100 Objects, we will supplement our literary studies with close attention to particular objects held in DC museums, including clay pots, musical instruments, manuscripts, icons, earrings, game boards. What can close attention to the crafting of objects reveal about cultural values, social structures, battle tactics, belief systems, aesthetic sensibilities, daily pleasures? Investigating such questions will take us to DC area museums, including the Smithsonian Museums, the National Gallery of Art, the Textile Museum, and Dumbarton Oaks. Conversations with curators at these museums will enrich our understanding of the interdisciplinary methods scholars use to gain a deeper appreciation of human creativity during this period and to reconstruct the past from the textual and material fragments that remain.