John S. Ott
Portland State University
Fall 2011
All material on this and attached pages (c) John S. Ott
HST 454/554: TOPICS IN MEDIEVAL HISTORY
The Holy and the Damned: Sanctity and Deviance in the European Middle Ages
(T,R 2:00-3:50, CH 447)
Instructor: Dr. John S. Ott
Office hours: By appt. only; e-mail to set up
Office: 441M Cramer Hall
Phone: 503.725.3013 / E-mail: ott@pdx.edu
Course description and objectives
This course examines the spectrum of medieval belief in the relationship between the natural and supernatural worlds by focusing on two of their extreme, though commonly occurring, points of conjuncture: the bodies and persons of “saints” and “deviants.” Proceeding from the assumption that a society’s deeply held beliefs, aspirations, values and anxieties may be revealed in those individuals and groups it seeks to celebrate or demonize, we will strive to understand the necessary place and roles of sanctity and deviance within the medieval world, and the inter-relation of the two. Topics to be examined: the construction of sanctity and the historical evolution of its models; gender and the construction of authority; the body (of women, Jews, homosexuals, heretics, witches) as source of anxiety; the formation of Europe as a “persecuting society”; differing and overlapping discourses about deviance and deviants (heretics, Jews, prostitutes, witches), and more.Simultaneously, and no less significantly, this course will pursue a number of overarching objectives relating to the professional practice of historians and the writing of History. For example:
- We will examine the role of historians as commentators on social issues;
- We will consider the role of religious belief in the writing of History;
- We will assess how historians' religious beliefs--and assumptions derived from those beliefs--directly and indirectly affect how they write and think about History;
- We will examine different sociological and anthropological models of religion and society, and examine how historians have used them, as a guide to formulating our own ideas about medieval culture’s relation to the holy and unholy.
EvaluationAll students will be assessed through the following assignments, guidelines for which will be posted in advance on the course web page. Please note that Incompletes will not be given except in extreme situations of documented need, and only with the advanced consent of the instructor.Graduate students, will complete the reflective essay, three (3) reading responses, and an historiographical essay on a subject of their choosing, in consultation with the instructor, due in my office Tuesday, December 6 (Finals Weeks) by 5:00.
- Active, engaged participation in class discussion, group work, and all other public components of the class. Since this is a discussion-based colloquium, simple attendance without active participation will yiled no higher than a final grade of "C." Full attendance is presumed (and will be taken daily) and expected – 30%
- Reflective short essay (approx. 3-4 pp.) on religious identity – 30%. Due October 11, in class. | Assignment Guidelines |
- Four response essays (on major monograph and article readings only, e.g., Kleinberg, Douglas, Ginzberg, Langmuir, Nirenberg, Moore, Pegg, Schulenberg, etc., or on the collected readings for any single class day – 40% (10% each). Essays are due on the day for assigned discussion of the material. Please do not leave these until the final 2 weeks! | Assignment Guidelines |
Required materialsBooks may be purchased at the university bookstore, although some texts should be readily available from independent booksellers. A copy of each will be put on 2-hour reserve at Millar Library. A substantial number of assigned readings are available on E-reserve. Students are responsible for preparing all the assigned readings in advance of class.
- Aviad Kleinberg, Flesh Made Word. Saints' Stories and the Western Imagination, trans. Jane Marie Todd (Harvard, 2008)
- Gavin I. Langmuir, History, Religion, and Antisemitism (California, 1990)
- David Nirenberg, Communities of Violence. Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages (Princeton, 1996)
- Mark Gregory Pegg, The Corruption of Angels: The Great Inquisition of 1245-1246 (Princeton, 2001)
- Mary-Ann Stouck, trans., A Short Reader of Medieval Saints (Toronto, 2009)
Plagiarism policy
Given in syllabus handed out in class.
Students with disabilities policy
Given in syllabus handed out in class.E-mail policy
Noted in syllabus handed out in class.
Syllabus
Part I. Thinking about religion and history
T (9/27) Introduction to course themes
Exercise: Articulating our assumptions about religion, and historyTH (9/29) Religion and History: Approaches and Problems
Reading:
- Gavin Langmuir, History, Religion, and Antisemitism, chs. 1-4 (pp. 3-87)
T (10/4) Understanding Religion and Religious Experience: Two Models
Readings:
- William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience. A Study in Human Nature (New York, 1902, rpt. 1922), chap. 2, pp. 26-52 (E-reserve);
- Rodney Stark and William Sims Bainbridge, A Theory of Religion (New York, 1987), chap. 2, pp. 25-53 (E-reserve);
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II. The Holy: Conceptions of Saints and Sanctity from Antiquirty to the Later Middle Ages
TH (10/6) The early Christian cult of martyrs
Readings:
- The Martyrdom of Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna (On-line at http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/martyrdom-polycarp-lightfoot.html);
- 'The Passion of Saints Perpetua and Felicitas', in A Short Reader of Medieval Saints, ed. Stouck, pp. 9-20
- Hippolyte Delehaye, Sanctus: Essay on the Cult of Saints in Antiquity, trans. J. S. Ott (Brussels: Societe des Bollandistes, 1927), pp. 233-236, 259-261 (E-reserve)
- Kleinberg, Flesh Made Word, 1-80
T (10/11) The call of the desert
Readings:
- Athanasius of Alexandria, The Life of St. Antony, in A Short Reader of Medieval Saints, ed. Stouch, pp. 21-39;
- Kleinberg, Flesh Made Word, 81-150;
REFLECTIVE ESSAY DUE, IN CLASS
TH (10/13) Early medieval models of sanctity
Readings:T (10/18) High medieval (male) models of sanctity
- Gregory the Great, The Life and Miracles of St. Benedict, in A Short Reader of Medieval Saints, ed. Stouck, pp. 40-72;
- Venantius Fortunatus, Life of St. Radegund of Poitiers, in A Short Reader of Medieval Saints, ed. Stouck, pp. 73-85;
- Kleinberg, Flesh Made Word, 181-205;
- Thomas Heffernan, Sacred Biography. Saints and their Biographers in the Middle Ages (Oxford, 1988), chap.1, pp. 3-37 (E-reserve)
Readings:TH (10/20) Rewriting authority: gender and (feminine) sanctity
- Thomas of Celano, Life of St. Francis of Assisi, in A Short Reader of Medieval Saints, ed. Stouck, pp. 120-141;
- Kleinberg, Flesh Made Word, 206-238
Readings:
- Thomas of Cantimpré, “The Life of Christina [of Saint-Trond] the Astonishing,” in Medieval Saints: A Reader, ed. Mary-Ann Stouck, pp. 436-469 (E-reserve);
- Raymond of Capua, Life of St. Catherine of Siena, in A Short Reader of Medieval Saints, ed. Stouck, pp. 156-173;
- Jane Tibbetts Schulenberg, Forgetful of Their Sex. Female Sanctity and Society, ca. 500-1100 (Chicago, 1998), chap. 2, pp. 59-125 (E-reserve)
T (10/25) Rationalizing and verifying the holy and miracles in medieval society
Readings:
- Guibert of Nogent, On Saints and their Relics, trans. T. Head (E-reserve);
- Thomas Head, "Saints, Heretics, and Fire: Finding Meaning through the Ordeal," in Monks & Nuns, Saints & Outcasts: Religion in Medieval Society. Essays in Honor of Lester K. Little, ed. Sharon Farmer and Barbara H. Rosenwein (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2000), pp. 220-238 (E-reserve);
- André Vauchez, “The Holy See and the Critique of Miracles,” in Sainthood in the Later Middle Ages (Cambridge, 1997), chap. 16, pp. 481-498 (E-reserve)
TH (10/27) Universal Saints in the Middle Ages
Readings:
- "Four 'Lives' from the Golden Legend," in A Short Reader of Medieval Saints, ed. Stouck, pp. 142-155
- Kleinberg, Flesh Made Word, pp. 239-277
BEGIN THINKING ABOUT READINGS FOR CLASS ON 11/9 AND ACQUIRE MATERIALS
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III. The Damned: Definitions and Meanings of Deviance
T (11/1 - All Saints' Day) Tolerance and intolerance: theory and background
Reading:
- Mary Douglas, Purity and Danger, An Analysis of the Concepts of Pollution and Taboo (London: Routledge, 1996), pp. 1-6, 130-167 (E-reserve)
TH (11/3) Religion and History II: religion and religiosity
Reading:
- Langmuir, History, Religion, and Antisemitism, chs. 7-10 (pp. 133-200)
T (11/8) Attitudes toward minorities: sampling of sources
Reading:
- Students today will pick from a selection of primary source readings on medieval religious or social minorities (Jews, heretics, Templars, sex workers, homosexuals, lepers)
- Langmuir, History, Religion, and Antisemitism, chs. 12-14 (pp. 232-305)
TH (11/10) Europe as a "persecuting society"
Reading:
- R. I. Moore, The Formation of a Persecuting Society (Blackwell, 1987, 2007), chaps. 3-4 (E-reserve)
T (11/15) Querying the "Cathar"
Reading:
- Mark Gregory Pegg, The Corruption of Angels (read all)
TH (11/17) Witchcraft and its discourses
Readings:
- Carlo Ginzburg, Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches’ Sabbath (Penguin, 1992), pp. 1-30, 89-152 (E-reserve);
- Michael D. Bailey, “From Sorcery to Witchcraft: Clerical Conceptions of Magic in the Later Middle Ages,” Speculum 76 (2001), 960-990 (J-Stor/E-reserve)
T (11/22) Mediation of social conflict in a pluralistic society I
Reading:
- David Nirenberg, Communities of Violence (Part One)
TH (11/24) - No class, Thanksgiving observed
T (11/29) Mediation of social conflict in a pluralistic society II
Reading:
- David Nirenberg, Communities of Violence (Part Two)
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IV. IntersectionsT (12/1) Religion, sanctity, and deviance
Reading:
- Langmuir, History, Religion and Antisemitism, chap. 17, pp. 347-368
- Richard Kieckhefer, “The Holy and the Unholy: Sainthood, Witchcraft and Magic in Late Medieval Europe,” in Christendom and Its Discontents, ed. S. Waugh and P. Diehl (Cambridge, 1996), 310-337 (E-reserve)