Religion, Race, and Empire in Medieval Literatures

Undergraduate

This course explores approaches to religion, race, and empire in medieval literatures. The Crusades, Europe’s first collective experiment in empire-building, unleashed new ideologies of religious and racial difference. Christian and Muslim authors drew upon their respective scriptures and the ancient Greek heritage they shared to construct polemical images of the “other.” These images not only fluctuated in tandem with changing geopolitical circumstances but existed in tension or conflict with others, whose literary and cultural functions transcend mere polemic. Questions that we consider, focus on the genres of epic, romance, travelogue, and dream allegory, including: how did histories of imperial expansionism, indigenous resistance, and peaceful coexistence shape literary production during the Crusades? How do medieval cultural objects perpetuate or unsettle dichotomies of religion and race? What circumstances (historical, geopolitical, personal) prompted writers to question ideas about empire, holy war, and religious others that they inherited from previous generations? The emphasis will be on Christian European writings (in Middle English, Old French, Middle High German, and Latin), but we also read some Arabic materials. These works are read alongside postcolonial criticism, by medievalists and modernists, as well as scholarship on premodern religious culture, ethnography, and race. HU T 1:30pm-3:25pm