History 395

Conquest, Assimilation, Resistance:

Medieval Frontiers in Comparative Perspective

Syllabus

Winter Term 2000

Winter Break Readings (History 390 - 1 credit)
Robert Bartlett. The Making of Europe. Conquest, Colonization and Cultural Change, 950-1350. Princeton: Princeton University Press 1993. ISBN 0691037809 (Paperback)

Philipps, J.R.S. The Medieval Expansion of Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press 1988; 2nd ed. 1998?. ISBN 0198207409 (Paperback)

Sullivan, Richard E. "The Carolingian Missionary and the Pagan," Speculum 28 (1953): 705-40.



Course Readings and Preliminary Syllabus


Week I.  The Boundaries Within: Responses to Difference in Medieval Europe

A. Discussion of Break Readings and Preliminary Topic Ideas

B. David Nirenberg. Communities of Violence. Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages. Reprint Princeton: Princeton University Press 1998.

N.B. A timed written examination will be delivered during the first week of classes.


Week II. Domination, Collaboration, and Resistance on a Medieval Frontier: The Example of the Fourth Crusade and Frankish Greece

A. Presentation of Research Topics with Preliminary Bibliography

B. The Fourth Crusade and Frankish Greece

  • Villehardouin, Geoffrey de. Chronicles of the Crusades, trans. Margaret Shaw. NY: Penguin USA 1985.
  • Niketas Choniates. O City of Byzantium. The Annals of Niketas Choniates, trans. Harry Magoulias. Detroit: Wayne State Press 1984. Pp. 3-4, 301-362.
  • The Assizes of Romania, trans. P. Topping. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press 1949. Pp. 11-13, 22-49. (Reserve Binder)
  • Charles J. Halperin. "The Ideology of Silence: Prejudice and Pragmatism on the Medieval Religious Frontier," Comparative Studies in Society and History 26 (1984): 442-66. (Reserve Binder)
  • David Jacoby. "The Encounter of Two Societies: Western Conquerors in the Peloponnesus after the Fourth Crusade," American Historical Review 78:4 (1973): 873-906. (Reserve Binder)

Week III. Missionary Theory, Practice, and the Implications of Conversion: the Examples of Bulgaria and Saxony

A. Presentation of Formal Proposals/Abstracts and Annotated Bibliography

B. The Implications of Christianity: the example of Bulgaria

  • Pope Nicholas I, Letter to the Bulgars (Letter 66): Or Counsels for a Converting Community, trans. W. North. (Reserve Binder and Internet)
  • Markus, Robert. "Secularity," in The End of Ancient Christianity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1990. pp.1-16. (Reserve Binder)
  • Robert W. Hefner. "World Building and the Rationality of Conversion," in Conversion to Christianity. Historical and Anthropological Perspectives on a Great Transformation, ed. by Robert Hefner. Berkeley: University of California Press 1993. pp.3-46.

Week IV.  Medieval Ethnography between Description and Prescription

A. In the Mirror of Difference

  • James Clifford. "On Ethnographic Allegory," in Writing Culture. The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography, eds. James Clifford and George Marcus. Berkeley: UC Press 1986. Pp.98-122. (Reserve Binder)
  • James Clifford. "On Ethnographic Authority." Representations 1 (1983):118-46.
  • John of Pian Carpino. A History of the Mongols, in Mission to Asia, ed. Christopher Dawson. Medieval Academy Reprints for Teaching 8. Toronto: U of Toronto Press 1987.
  • Catalan Atlas of 1375

B. Power and Knowledge in Medieval Geography

  • Gerald of Wales. History and Topography of Ireland and Wales. New York: Penguin USA 1985.
  • Gerald of Wales, The Conquest of Ireland. Selections (Reserve Binder)

V. The Literature of the Frontier

A. Heroic Men of the Margins: Identity, Behavior, and Values in Zones of Cultural Conflict

  • •The Poem of the Cid. A Bilingual Translation, trans. Ian Michael. NY: Viking Pr 1985.
  • Mirrer, Louise. "Representing "Other" Men: Muslims, Jews and Masculine Ideals in Medieval Castilian Epic and Ballad," in Medieval Masculinities. Regarding Men in the Middle Ages, ed. Clare Lees. Minneapolis: University of Minneapolis 1994. Pp. 169-186. (Reserve Binder)

B. Imagination between Reason, Fear, and Hope: The Literature of the Voyage and Pilgrimage

  • Travels of Sir John Mandeville. NY: Viking Press 1984. ISBN 014044435
  • Stephen Greenblatt. "From the Dome of the Rock to the Rim of the World," in ibid., Marvelous Possessions. The Wonder of the New World. Chicago: U of Chicago 1991. Pp. 26-51. (Reserve Binder)

Week VI. No Class. Individual Meetings


Weeks VII-VIII. Class Discussion of Near Final Drafts


Weeks XI-X. Revisions