Medieval Sexualities

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

To what extent do social, religious, and political institutions form and deform erotic choices and definitions? This course aims to understand the variety of medieval sexualities and their impacts from a comparative sampling of varied textual types and social institutions in Irish, Welsh, English, French, and German texts. We will study depictions of sexualities and gender issues they raise, with some background on classical and medieval biological and medical texts, religious thought and law, depictions in art, and the cultural variation present across regions and periods from c. 500-1500. Students might expect, for example, to learn more of Anglo-Saxon attitudes concerning masculinity from penitentials or Beowulf, to think about the implications of Irish monastic attitudes for reading women in Irish myth, to read courtly literature through the lens of contemporary medical knowledge, or to consider the connection between prosecution of heresies and accusations of deviance. Those interested in material culture may extend their work to include art, manuscripts, and archaeological evidence. You will be expected to build up your understanding of medieval contexts and to learn to research sources in medieval studies and in the fields of sexuality and gender studies, working on a shorter paper and research during the term and culminating in a longer, final written project on a topic developed in consultation with the professor.