Prof.
Lisa Wolverton Spring
2014
325
McKenzie Hall
lwolvert@uoregon.edu
Office
Hours: Mon 10-noon
HIST 407
This course
explores the intersection of gender and spirituality in Western Europe from,
roughly, 1200 to 1450. We will focus in particular on women living
in two distinct geographic regions: Northern Europe and Italy. In
the Rhineland, Netherlands, and Northeastern France we will consider the goals
of lay women living in religious community (called beguines) and the place of
these women in the so-called mystical tradition of Christian spirituality. Turning to Italy, we will devote
particular attention to the ascetic practices and charitable activities of
women like Catherine of Siena and Angela of Foligno, their interactions with
clerical authorities, and their relationships to the men who would become their
hagiographers.
Our
discussions will revolve mostly around five key issues:
á
whether
medieval women developed a distinctively feminine spirituality;
á
the
relationship between radical asceticism and spiritual authority;
á
how
spiritual expression and practice acted as a means of self- or social
empowerment;
á
the
special, often contested, relationship between holy women and their male
confessors; and
á
the
rhetorical techniques male biographers used to shape the meaning of womenÕs
lives and reputations, for themselves and for posterity.
To
ground our exploration in its social context, we begin with a discussion of
holiness and sanctity in the late Middle Ages per se, reading Aviad KleinbergÕs
Living Saints and the Making of Sainthood. In the
fourth week we will focus closely on the writing and spiritual teaching of just
one of these exceptional women, Angela of Foligno.
These
two are the only books required for undergraduates; they are available for
purchase at the UO Bookstore. The
books for Week 5, by Kieckhefer and Bynum, are on reserve at Knight Library. All other required reading is available
electronically via Blackboard.
Course
Objectives
Learn to
read and evaluate primary source texts in light both of contemporary norms and
expectations, and of modern scholarly insights.
Analyze
primary sources and write an historical research paper.
Assignments
and Evaluation
This
course is a research seminar for senior history, medieval studies, and womenÕs
studies majors. The main requirement for the course is a research paper
of approximately 15 pages, based on primary sources, preferably writings by or
about a particular religious woman. (To begin identifying a woman to
study, the following list might be useful: Holy Women.)
Students
will also be required to give an in-class presentation: Each student will choose a section of
the primary source upon which his or her paper will be based, circulate it to
other students before class, and lead class discussion. Together we will talk about
interpretation, and compare.
The grade
distribution for undergraduates is as follows:
20% participation
in class discussions
30% class
presentation
50% final
paper
This course
is simultaneously a graduate-level seminar (Hist 507). Graduate students
will not be expected to present final in-class presentations, and may choose
research paper topics more freely. Graduate research papers should still,
however, reflect close work with primary sources, in the original languages when
possible. Papers should be 25-30 pages long (and no longer).
Additional reading will also be assigned to be discussed at extra class
meetings (usually four monographs in their entirety).
The
grade distribution for graduate students is as follows:
30%
participation in regular and separate class discussions
70%
final paper
In-class
reading: Hadewijch,
poems and visions of Love
Jacques
de Vitry on the beguines
Aviad M. Kleinberg, Prophets in their Own Country: Living Saints and the Making of
Sainthood in the Later Middle Ages (Chicago, 1992).
Apr 15 Visionary
Experience
Barbara Newman,
ÒWhat Did It Mean to Say ÔI SawÕ?
The Clash Between Theory and Practice in Medieval Visionary Culture,Ó Speculum 80 (2005):
1-43.
Sara Lipton, ÒÕThe Sweet Lean of His HeadÕ: Writing about Looking at the Crucifix
in the High Middle Ages,Ó Speculum 80 (2005):
1172-1208.
Jeffrey Hamburger, ÒThe Visual and the Visionary: The Image in Late Medieval Monastic
Devotion,Ó in The Visual and the Visionary: Art and Female Spirituality in Late Medieval Germany (New York, 1998), pp. 111-48.
Angela of Foligno,
Memorial, ed. Cristina Mazzoni,
trans. John Cirignano (Rochester, NY, 1999), pp. 23-78. QUESTIONS
Plus, choose one
of the following:
a) Mechthild of
Magdeburg, The Flowing Light of the Godhead, trans. Frank Tobin (New York, 1998), pp. 84-98.
b) Marguerite
Porette, The Mirror of Simple Souls,
trans. E. Colledge, J.C. Marler, and Judith Grant (Notre Dame, 1999), pp. 9-21.
c) The Letters
of Catherine of Siena, trans.
Suzanne Noffke (Tempe, 2000 & 2001), vol. I, pp. 57-8; vol. II, pp. 5-12.
d) Julian of
Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love,
trans. Elizabeth Spearing (Penguin Classics, 1998), pp. 3-13.
submit
tentative paper topics and bibliography
Richard
Kieckhefer, Unquiet Souls:
Fourteenth-century Saints and Their Religious Milieu (Chicago, 1984),
pp. 21-49 (all); and Chapter 3, 4, or 5 (subgroups, with class presentations).
Caroline Walker Bynum, Holy Feast, Holy Fast (Berkeley/Los
Angeles, 1987), Chapters 3 or 4 (all); and Chapter 6, 7, 8, or 9 (subgroups,
with class presentations)
May
6 Women
Visionaries/Male Confessors; Women Saints/Male Hagiographers
Raymond of Capua, Life of Catherine of Siena, trans. Conleth Kearns (Wilmington,
Del.: Glazier, 1980), pp. 113-57.
John
Coakley, ÒGender and the Authority of Friars: The Significance of Holy Women for Thirteenth-Century
Franciscans and Dominicans,Ó Church History 60 (1991): 445-60.
Catherine
M. Mooney, ÒThe Authorial Role of Brother A. in the Composition of Angela of
FolignoÕs Revelations,Ó in Creative Women in Medieval and Early Modern Italy,
ed. E. Ann Matter and John Coakley (Philadephia, 1994), pp. 34-63.
Dyan
Elliott, ÒAuthorizing a Life: The
Collaboration of Dorothea of Montau and John Marienwerder,Ó in Gendered Voices,
ed. Catherine M. Mooney (Philadelphia, 1999), pp. 168-91.
submit revised paper topics, bibliography, and primary
text selection for presentations
May 27 no
class – writing time
June 3 exchange
of rough drafts
Unexcused
late papers will be penalized.