History 393
Constructions of Gender in the Middle Ages
Prof. Cotts cottsjd@whitman.edu
Office: Maxey 211 526-4789
Required Texts:
- John Boswell, Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality (Chicago)
- Christine de Pisan, The Book of the City of Ladies (Penguin)
- The Book of Margery Kempe (Penguin)
- Emilie Amt, ed. Women’s Lives in Medieval Europe (Routledge)
- Hildegard of Bingen, Selected Writings (Penguin)
- Chretien de Troyes, Erec and Enide (Yale)
Schedule of Class Meetings
WEEK ONE: Introduction
September 2 Introduction to the course
4 Gender, culture and biology
- Thomas Laqueur, Making Sex: Body and Gender from the Greeks to Freud, 1-24 (e-reserve)
WEEK TWO: The Ancient Background
September 8 Ancient medicine and the problem of sexuality
9 Women in the ancient world
- Nicole Loraux, “What is a Goddess?” in A History of Women, Volume I: From Ancient Goddesses to Christian Saints, ed. Pauline Schmitt Pantel, 11-44.
11 Women and sexuality in ancient thought
- Giulia Sissa, “The Sexual Philosophies of Plato and Aristotle,” in A History of Women, Volume I, 46-81 (e-reserve)
- Selections from Plato and Aristotle (handout)
WEEK THREE: The Early Christian Background
September 15 Scriptural and patristic witnesses to the status of women
16 Women in Early Christianity
- Monique Alexandre, “Early Christian Women,” in A History of Women, Volume I, 409-444 (e-reserve)
18 Perpetua and models of sanctity
- The Passion of SS Perpetua and Felicity, online at:
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/perpetua.html
Week Four: Women in the Early and Central Middle Ages
September 22 Merovingian female saints
- The Lives of Clothild and Balthild, in Sainted Women of the Dark Ages, ed., trans., JoAnn McNamara et. al. (Durham, NC and London: Duke University Press, 1992), 38-50, 264-79 (e-reserve)
23 Documents on the place of women in early medieval culture
- Amt, 36-48, 121-29, 179-80, 219-31
25 Hroswita of Gandersheim and female authorship
- Hroswita of Gandersheim, Dulcitius (handout)
WEEK FIVE: Homosexuality and Sexual “Deviance”
September 29 Writing the history of gay people
- Boswell, Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality, 3-60, 137-66
30 A “gay subculture” in the Middle Ages?
October 2 The framework for a persecuting mentality
WEEK SIX: Hildegard of Bingen and the Religious Life
October 6 Introduction to female monasticism
7 Hildegard of Bingen’s life and times
- Hildegard of Bingen, Selected Writings, ix-xxv, xl-xliii, 3-32, 51-52
9 Hildegard of Bingen as theologian and physician
WEEK SEVEN: (Short Week)
October 13 No Class
14 No class
16 Issues in Male Sexuality
- Dyan Elliott, “Pollution, Illusion and Masculine Disarray: Nocturnal Emissions and the Sexuality of the Clergy,” in Fallen Bodies: Pollution, Sexuality and Demonology in the Middle Ages (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999), 14-34 (e-reserve)
- Abelard and Heloise, selections from the “personal letters” (e-reserve)
WEEK EIGHT: Gender roles and Vernacular Culture
October 20 Chivalry and “courtly love”
- Constance Brittain Bouchard, “Nobility and Chivalry,” in Strong of Body, Brave and Noble: Chivalry and Society in Medieval France (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998), 103-44 (e-reserve)
- Chrétien de Troyes, Erec and Enide, 1-57
21 What does a woman do while the man fights?
- Erec and Enide, 58-124 (to line 3914)
23 The joy of the court
WEEK NINE: Mysticism and Women’s Religious Experience
October 27 Mysticism and authority
- Caroline Walker Bynum, “Women Mystics in the Thirteenth Century: The Case of the Nuns of Helfta,” in Jesus as Mother, 170-262 (e-reserve)
- Mechtild of Magdeberg, selections (e-reserve)
28 The body and perceptions of female piety
- The Life of Christina the Astonishing (e-reserve)
30 The theology of Julian of Norwich
- Julian of Norwich, the “short text” of Revelations of Divine Love (e-reserve)
WEEK TEN: Gender Symbolism in the High Middle Ages
November 3 Jesus as mother
- Caroline Walker Bynum, “Jesus as Mother and Abbot as Mother” in Jesus as Mother: Studies in the Spirituality of the High Middle Ages (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1982), 110-69 (e-reserve)
4 Food, women, and gendered religious symbols
- Caroline Walker Bynum, Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1987), 245-76
6 No class (Cotts at a conference)
WEEK ELEVEN: Women on the Margins
November 10 No class
11 Love and sex in a peasant village
- Emmanuel LeRoy Ladurie, Montaillou: The Promised Land of Error, trans. Barbara Bray (New York: Vintage Books, 1979), 139-68, 192-203 (e-reserve)
13 An unfortunately short look at women outside the Christian tradition
WEEK TWELVE: Margery Kempe and Female Piety
November 17 Piety and pilgrimage in the early fifteenth century
- The Book of Margery Kempe, 33-102
18 Margery Kempe and the rising middle class
- The Book of Margery Kempe, 102-30
20 Margery Kempe: discussion
- The Book of Margery Kempe, 145-75, 265-97
***NOVEMBER 21-30: THANKSGIVING BREAK***
WEEK THIRTEEN: Was Christine de Pisan a Feminist?
December 1 The humanism of Christine de Pisan
- Christine de Pisan, Book of the City of Ladies, 5-54, 63-71, 78-80
2 Christine and feminine virtue
- Book of the City of Ladies, 91-104, 122-131, 138-39, 144-145
4 Christine’s models for sanctity
- Book of the City of Ladies, 195-240
WEEK FOURTEEN
December 8 Let’s see how we do with this article!
- Nancy Partner, “No Sex, No Gender,” Speculum 68 (1993): 419-443 (online through J-STOR)
9 Women and the Problem of the Renaissance
- Joan Kelly, “Did Women Have a Renaissance?” (e-reserve)
11 Summary and Review