Medieval and Renaissance Studies
Interdisciplinary Concentration in Medieval and Renaissance Studies for English Majors
This concentration was created for English majors interested in deepening their knowledge of the cultures of the Middle Ages and Renaissance through interdisciplinary study. It thus requires that in addition to taking upper-level courses in Medieval and Renaissance English literature, majors also explore these periods from the perspective of other academic disciplines including, but not limited to, the history of art and architecture, literatures, philosophy, religious studies, and history. It is hoped that the breadth of knowledge and intellectual flexibility that interdisciplinary study fosters will enable students in this concentration to undertake more complex kinds of research projects and achieve more sophisticated levels of critical thinking and writing than might otherwise have been possible.
Seven units, including:
/ Interdisciplinary Studies in the Middle Ages and Renaissance
One 300- or 400-level course in Medieval literature and one 300- or 400-level course in Renaissance literature, chosen from:
ENGL 301 Literature of the Middle Ages
Literature of the English Renaissance
Shakespeare
Desire and Identity in the Renaissance: The Lyric Tradition
Selected Topics in Literature Before the Early to Mid-19th Century
Junior/Senior Seminar (depending on topic)
Three units from at least two different departments outside of English, chosen from below. Special topics courses in medieval and renaissance may be substituted with prior approval from the departmental coordinator.
Image and Icon in Medieval Art
ARTH 310 Late Antinque and Early Christian Art
Medieval Art in Western Europe 8th-15th Centuries
ARTH 314 Northern Renaissance Art
Art of the Italian Renaissance
Art in the Age of Reform
The Classical Tradition
Medieval and Early Modern Society
FREN 411 The French Middle Ages
Renaissance
Medieval Italy
High Middle Ages The Renaissance
Reformation Europe
Le Tre Corone: Dante, Petrarca and Boccaccio
Christians, Jews and Muslims from Frontier to Empire: Medieval Spain
Imperial Spain: The Age of Conflict
True Lies: Fiction and Truth in Don Quijote
Desire and Identity in the Renaissance: Self, History and Knowledge
Classical Political Thought
Religion & the Medieval Imagination
Witchcraft and Its Interpreters
A final critical paper examining one or more works relevant to the major shall be completed in the junior or senior year preferably as the final project in
/ or in another appropriate upper-division English course with prior approval from the concentration coordinators.Students also will be encouraged to consider enrolling in any number of the following courses (these courses will not, however, count toward the six courses in Medieval and Renaissance Studies required of English major concentrators):
Survey I: Prehistory through the Middle Ages
Survey II: Renaissance to the Present
Greek Art and Archeology
Roman Art and Archeology
Shakespeare
FREN 431 Le Siècle Classique
Greek Epic
Greek Drama
The Roman Empire
Philosophy of Religion
Introduction to Early Christian Era
Whores, Dragons, and the Anti-Christ: Revelation and the Apocalyptic Imagination