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:

ENGL 308 / IDST 390 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

ENGL 302 Literature of the English Renaissance

ENGL 304 Shakespeare

ENGL 309 Desire and Identity in the Renaissance: The Lyric Tradition

ENGL 330 Selected Topics in Literature Before the Early to Mid-19th Century

ENGL 400 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.

ARTH 309 Image and Icon in Medieval Art

ARTH 310 Late Antinque and Early Christian Art

ARTH 312 Medieval Art in Western Europe 8th-15th Centuries

ARTH 314 Northern Renaissance Art

ARTH 315 Art of the Italian Renaissance

ARTH 316 Art in the Age of Reform

CLSC 306 The Classical Tradition

FREN 325 Medieval and Early Modern Society

FREN 411 The French Middle Ages

FREN 421 Renaissance

HIST 225 Medieval Italy

HIST 227 High Middle Ages

HIST 230 The Renaissance

HIST 233 Reformation Europe

ITAL 423 Le Tre Corone: Dante, Petrarca and Boccaccio

LAIS 421 Christians, Jews and Muslims from Frontier to Empire:  Medieval Spain

LAIS 431 Imperial Spain: The Age of Conflict

LAIS 432 True Lies: Fiction and Truth in Don Quijote

LLC 358 Desire and Identity in the Renaissance: Self, History and Knowledge

PLSC 311 Classical Political Thought

RELG 258 Religion & the Medieval Imagination

RELG 273 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 ENGL 308/IDST 390 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):

ARTH 121 Survey I: Prehistory through the Middle Ages

ARTH 122 Survey II: Renaissance to the Present

CLSC 301 Greek Art and Archeology

CLSC 302 Roman Art and Archeology

ENGL 234 Shakespeare

FREN 431 Le Siècle Classique

GREK 301 Greek Epic

GREK 302 Greek Drama

HIST 223 The Roman Empire

PHIL 362 Philosophy of Religion

RELG 241 Introduction to Early Christian Era

RELG 342 Whores, Dragons, and the Anti-Christ: Revelation and the Apocalyptic Imagination