Reading Schedule for Travel Study Tour
Each day we will discuss issues and ideas based on your reading of The Cathars (called Cathars) and several assigned selections from the anthology of medieval literature, Women and Writing in Medieval Europe (called anthology). As you travel and study, you will be thinking about a topic for your research paper, whether historical or literary, which will be due at the end of Spring Semester.
Obviously, it’s difficult the first and last day to do any reading on the plane, so I suggest you read ahead before the trip starts. Students are required to attend each class meeting if they are taking the course for credit. Class hours will vary, depending on the trip schedule each day.
Day 1/2 in transit
Day 3: ch 1-2 Cathars and Ch 1 in anthology: Intro, Good wives, Forward Young Woman, Duties of Bourgeois Housewife; Ch 3 Old English pregnancy charms, Trobairitz on child rearing, Horrors of motherhood, Mothers in Montaillou, Division of Labor
Discussion: The Midi in Middle Ages; real medieval women as maids, wives and mothers; French lit before 11th c.; chansons de geste
Day 4: ch 3 Cathars; and in anthology: Ch 2 Intro, Sexual Passion recalled, Two Later love lyrics, About Love, The Trobaritz, About Love, Love Between Women, Il Dolce Stile Nuovo, An Alba
Discussion: Revival of Europe 11th c: trade, towns, and trade; rise of heresy; “revolution of sensibility” in literature; theories of courtly love
Day 5: ch 4 Cathars; and selected trobadour poems: http://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/G/GuilhemIXofP/Joyousinlove.htm , http://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/B/BernartdeVen/WhenIseelark.htm, http://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/G/GirautdeBorn/ReisgloriosG.htm, http://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/A/ArnautDaniel/firmdesireth.htm
Discussion: Growth of Catharism; ethos of courtly love-elements and contemporary criticism; the troubadours I
Day 6: ch 5 Cathars and selected poems by two troubadours: http://www.trobar.org/troubadours/jaufre_rudel/, http://www.trobar.org/troubadours/cercamon/
Discussion: Catharist beliefs and practices; the troubadours II
Day 7: ch 6 Cathars and pp. 55-58 in anthology and Countess of Die: http://www.languedoc-france.info/190401_troubadoursong.htm
Discussion: Church’s first responses to Catharism; trouveres in Northern France and minnesangers in Germany; the trobairitz
Day 8: ch 7 Cathars and and in anthology: Ch 4 Intro, Hildegards’s Vision of the Ecclesia and pp. 238-42 and Clare of Assisi Letters
Discussion: The Albigensian Crusade; monastic women
Day 9: ch 8 Cathars and in anthology” pp.23-25
Discussion: Destruction of Albigensians; courtly “novels” and “matter of Brittany”; Tristan and Isolde
Day 10: ch 9 Cathars and http://www.yorku.ca/inpar/eliduc_rickert.pdf and in anthology pp. 20-22
Discussion: The Inquisition arrives in the South; the lais of Marie de France
Day 11: ch 10 Cathars and pp. 20-22 and in anthology: pp. 41-48
Discussion: The Inquisition and its process; women’s religious love poetry I
Day 12: ch 11 Cathars and pp. 242-48 in anthology
Discussion: The last Cathars and their legacy; women’s religious love poetry II
Day 13: ch 12 Cathars and http://www.languedoc-france.info/060600_mistral.htm
Discussion: Heresy and the Church after the Cathars; the position of women by Late Middle Ages; modern poets of troubadour/courtly love tradition. Review the “revolution of sensibility” of the High Middle Ages
Day 14 in transit
Please bring along a journal (or a laptop) and do an entry each day we have class (11) reflecting your reading and learning on the trip.
There are 4 quizzes and a final. You may take these upon return to LA if you wish
The research paper will be due the end of the Spring semester. 10 pages for undergrads; at least 15 pages for grads. Instructor will help choose a topic.
Are we supposed to download the poems from the link above or are these also found in the anthology.
ReplyDeleteAlso, do you recommend bringing a laptop on the trip? Not having to worry about keeping track of a laptop would be good, but if it's necessary for research, that's another issue.
hi chris, sorry for the "black swan insights bye line-it's my son's blog.
ReplyDeleteYou don't need to bring one...I will have a laptop, and we can read some of them together in class. You might read through them and make copies of a few for discussion purposes. That's about all. Troubadour poems are lovely but rather similar in theme unless we read ithem in Provencal:)