Prof. Lisa Wolverton Spring 2011
325 McKenzie Hall
Office Hours: Tu 10-11:30 am
This course, rather than
being a survey of the centuries between 1000 and 1500 CE, focuses specifically
on two related aspects of medieval Iberian history: Spain as a “frontier society” and Spain as a multicultural,
multireligious society. Nearly
unique in medieval Europe, the kingdoms of Spain were home to large numbers of
Jews, autonomous and then subject communities of Muslims, in addition to the
increasingly dominant Christians.
First across a defensible border, then in a shared society, adherents of
the three religions lived together (convivencia). Their
interactions over the centuries, and the persistent characteristics of a
frontier, gave a distinctive shape to medieval Spanish society.
Undergraduate Course Requirements:
This is a reading intensive course! It is the chief requirement of this course that you do all the assigned readings before class and come prepared to discuss them in class. Students will sometimes be asked to lead discussion, to bring notes on specific questions, or to write a short in-class response. I will occasionally collect these informal assignments, just to verify that students are reading attentively. On those days when subgroups are assigned material not read by the rest of the class, it is particularly important that all students be prepared to succinctly provide both information and interpretation to their colleagues. Active participation constitutes a significant portion of your final grade. I will not take attendance, but since you cannot participate if you are not present, regular attendance in class is expected.
There will also be two writing assignments to allow you to synthesize the course readings. (No outside research is expected.) The first analyzes the material read and discussed in the first part of the course (4-5 pages long). The second interpretive essay (6-7 pages) covers the second half of the course, and is due on the day assigned to the final exam.
The grade break-down is as follows:
Class Participation 30%
Midterm paper 30%
Final paper 40%
Graduate Course Requirements:
Graduate students will be expected to do additional readings, to meet separately to discuss them, and to write a substantive research paper. Accordingly, the grade distribution is: 35% participation, 65% research paper. More detailed arrangements will be decided amongst the graduate students and instructor at the first class meeting.
Readings:
Three books are available at the bookstore: The Poem of the Cid (Hamilton & Perry, trans.), Bernard Reilly’s The Medieval Spains, and Gardens, Landcape, and Vision by D. Fairchild Ruggles.
There is also a coursepack available at the UO Bookstore; coursepack contents are indicated by an * on the syllabus.
All other reading is available either on Reserve in Knight Library or on-line, or both. Items marked ® below are available on reserve; underlining indicates a web-link on the syllabus.
Mar 29 Introduction
Mar 31 Al-Andalus MAPS
Reilly, pp. 51-89
Apr 5 Al-Andalus (cont.)
® Ruggles, pp. 1-35, 110-62
Apr 7 The “Reconquista”
Reilly, pp. 90-128
Apr 12 Frontier Life I: “A Society Organized for War”
® Powers, Ch. 4 (all) and Ch. 5, 6, 7, or 8 (groups)
Apr 14 Frontier Life II: Women on the frontier
® Dillard, Ch. 6 & 7 (all) and Ch. 3, 4, 5, or 8 (groups)
Apr 19 Romanticizing the Frontier: El Cid
Poem of the Cid
Apr 21 Reconquest in Castile and Aragon
Reilly, pp. 129-39
® Constable, pp. 217-222
*Burns, “Surrender constitutions,” pp. 52-79
Apr 26 A Frontier Society
Reilly, pp. 139-72
Convivencia?
Apr 28 “Convivencia”
® Constable, pp. 269-75
James F. Powers, "Frontier Municipal Baths and Social Interaction in 13th-Century Spain", American Historical Review 84 (1979): 649-667.
May 3 Jewish aljamas
*Klein, “The Widow’s Portion,” pp. 147-63
*Meyerson, Jews in an Iberian Frontier Kingdom, pp. 57-97
May 5 Mudejars
*Harvey, pp. 55-63
® Boswell, Ch. 1 & 2
May 10 Piracy, Slavery, and Trade
® Brodman, Ch. 1
*Abulafia, pp. 56-74
*Ruiz, “Trading with the ‘Other’,” pp. 63-78
May 12 No Class
May 17 Iberia in the Late Middle Ages
Reilly, pp. 172-209
Ruggles, pp. 163-208
May 19 Missionary Disputation
*Chazan, Barcelona and Beyond, pp. 55-79
® Talmage, “Trauma at Tortosa”
or ® Chazan, “Undermining the Jewish Sense of the Future”
May 24 Sex and Violence
*Nirenberg, Communities of Violence, pp. 127-65
Philippe Wolff, “The 1391 Pogrom in Spain: Social Crisis or Not?” Past and Present 50 (1971): 4-18.
May 26 After 1391
*Meyerson, “Jewish Community in Murviedro (1391-1492),” pp. 129-47
Angus MacKay, “Popular Movements and Pogroms in Fifteenth-Century Castile,” Past and Present 55 (1972): 33-67.
May 31 Conversos and the Inquisition
*Netanyahu, “Primary Cause,” pp. 183-200
*Melammed, Heretics or Daughters of Israel?, pp. 73-93
® Constable, pp. 332-337
June 2 1492
® Constable, pp. 352-63
Stephen Haliczer, “The Castilian Urban Patriciate and the Jewish Expulsions of 1480-92,” American Historical Review 78 (1973): 35-58.
*Coleman, pp. 32-49
Final Papers due: Wednesday, June 8, 9-10 am