Perceptions of Medieval and Early Modern Women
Course Description
Throughout the Middle Ages and the early modern period the absence of solid, detailed information by women stands in sharp contrast to the abundance of discourse and imagery about them. As Georges Duby and Michelle Perrot have written, "women were more likely to be "represented" than to be described or to have their stories told-much less be allowed to tell their own stories." What this means is that the imagined woman was far more likely to appear in literature, art, and history, than the real.
How do we interpret the variety of ways in which philosophers, social theorists, historians, artists, and scientists have discussed and portrayed women? More importantly, how do we determine the real from the imaginary woman? Historians and philosophers have traditionally wavered between two extremes: classical thought, upon which Renaissance thinkers based their assumptions, emphasized the differences between men and women. Baroque thinkers suggested a more androgynous solution: the possibility that male and female elements existed within every person. The purpose of this course is to explore the richly varied perceptions of Medieval and early modern European women in order to determine from the literature how the images of and discourse about women reflected (or contrasted) their reality.
This course aims to introduce you to 1) leading themes in the field of Women in Medieval and early modern Europe, 2) types of argumentation employed in the different genres of history, and 3) ways of conceptualizing history, that is, of constructing historical analyses and narratives. The chief goal of this course is to sharpen your skills of recognition, criticism, and use of field-specific, genre-specific, and discipline-specific concepts.
Class organization: While I will lecture on historical context, most of this course will be devoted to analyzing the materials we read and the movies we watch. This means it is imperative that you come to every meeting ready to discuss the assignments.
Assignments
This course requires one short book review and one short movie review, a longer
paper (7-10 pages), and mid-term and final exams.
Class contribution 15%
paper 25%
Movie/book reviews (each) 10%
exams (each) 20%
Books
Alcuin Blamires, Woman Defamed and Woman Defended
Catalina De Erauso, Memoir of a Basque Lieutenant Nun Transvestite in the
New World
Margaret King, Albert Rabil, Her Immaculate Hand
John Stuart Mill, The Subjection of Women
Marguerite de Navarre, The Heptameron
Willard Trask, trans., Joan of Arc: In Her Own Words
Merry Wiesner, Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe
Topics and Class Schedule
Week I
5 Sept
Constructing Gender in Medieval and Early Modern Europe: Introduction
Weeks II & III
10 Sept
Negotiating Human Relationships
Read: Woman Defamed: Introduction
Read: Wiesner: chapter I
12 Sept
Medieval Marriage
Read: Woman Defamed, pg. 63-74; 103-114; 125-129.
Read: Peter Blois: Letter to Queen Eleanor;
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/eleanor.html
The Goodman of Paris http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/goodman.html
Movie: Lion in Winter
17 Sept
Refuting the Medieval Model
Read: Woman Defamed: 224-232; 270-277
19 Sept
Women on their own
Read: Women on the Margins: Arguing With God
Weeks IV & V
Religion(s)
24 Sept
Gender equality through salvation?
Read: Wiesner: chapter 6
Read: Woman Defamed: pg. 31-37; 177-197; 244-248; 250-260
26 Sept
Bringing Ruin to Great Men
Read: Woman Defamed: pg. 50-62; 83-98
1 Oct
Sinful Sex, Chaste Sex: The Whore/Virgin paradox
Read: Woman Defamed: pg. 63-76
Martin Luther's letter to several nuns http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/luther/nuns.txt
Read: "Prostitution" (handout)
3 Oct
God's message in the New World
Read: Women on the Margins: New Worlds
Sor Juana (handout)
Movie: Yo, La peor de Todas, (I, The Worst of All)
Weeks VI & VII
Bodies and Minds
8 Oct
Medieval Science and its dependence on ancient ideas
Read: Wiesner, chapter 2
Read: Woman Defamed: pg. 38-49
10 Oct
Early Modern Science: Did anything Change?
Read: The Discourse of Medicine and Science (handout)
15 Oct
Bringing Science Home
Read: Women on the Margins: Metamorphoses
17 Oct
Midterm exam
Weeks VIII & IX
Culture
22 Oct
Cultured Bodies, Embodied Cultures
Read: Wiesner, chapter 5
Read: Woman Defamed: pg. 166-176
24 Oct
Constructing Reformation Women
Read: Heptameron
29 Oct
Shakespeare on Gender: men/women acting as women/men
Read: As You Like It http://the-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/asyoulikeit/index.html
31 Oct
Women acting as men
Read: Memoir of a Basque Lieutenant Nun Transvestite in the New World
Movie: Orlando
Weeks X & XI
Witchcraft
5 Nov
Read: Wiesner, chapter 7
7 Nov
Read: William of Malmesbury: The Witch of Berkeley
The Inquisition of Toulouse; The Trial of Suzanne Gaudry (Handout)
12 Nov
Read: Joan of Arc: In Her Own Words
14 Nov
Read: Joan of Arc: In Her Own Words
Weeks XII & XIII
Education and Power
19 Nov
Read: Wiesner, chapter 4
Read: Woman Defamed: pg. 278-302
21 Nov
Renaissance Women Humanists: The First Feminists?
Read: Her Immaculate Hand
26 Nov
Read: Speeches and letters from Elizabeth I http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/elizabeth1.html
Movie: Elizabeth
28 Nov
Thanksgiving, no class
Weeks XIV & XV
Gender and Power: Looking ahead
3 Dec
Read: Wiesner, chapter 8
Paper due
5 Dec
Read: The Subjection of Women
Movie: The Contender
10 Dec
Review
Web Resources
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook1.html
Medieval Sourcebook
http://library.byu.edu/~rdh/eurodocs/medren.html Medieval and Early Modern primary documents
http://mw.mcmaster.ca/interactive/ Medieval Women interactive site
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/med/hildegarde.html Hildegard of Bingen web page
http://www.georgetown.edu/labyrinth/subjects/women/women.html Medieval Women