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Class number:
3081
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Title: Distressed Damsels |
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Department: English |
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Career: Undergraduate |
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Component: Seminar |
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Session: Regular |
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Instructor's Permission Required: No |
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Grading Basis: Regular |
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Units: 1.00 |
| Enrollment limited to 25 |
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Current enrollment: 17 |
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Available seats: 8 |
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Start date: Monday, January 22, 2024 |
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End date: Friday, May 10, 2024 |
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Mode of Instruction: In Person |
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Schedule: TR: 2:55PM-4:10PM, AAC - 231 |
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Instructor(s): Staples, James |
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Prerequisite(s): None |
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Distribution Requirement: Meets Humanities Requirement |
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Note: For English majors, this course satisfies the requirement of a 200-level elective. |
Course Description:
When we think of the Middle Ages, we often think of damsels in distress, knights in shining armor, and-through these concepts-entrenched and inflexible gender roles. The course will address the common gender stereotypes of medieval romance by looking closely at the ways medieval authors themselves sought to subvert them. We will consider texts written by academically-trained women, texts by men who express their desire to be Christ's beloved, accounts of a gender-queer sex worker, and of knights and saints whose gender identities defy categorization. Rather than seeking to "apply" modern gender theory to medieval texts, this course seeks to read the two side-by-side, to understand how medieval texts challenge our modern understanding of gender, even as modern theory enriches our reading of medieval texts. |