***PRELIMARY SYLLABUS: SUBJECT TO CHANGE*** HL4015: ADVANCED MEDIEVAL LITERATURE MAGIC, SCIENCE, AND MEDICINE IN MEDIEVAL LITERATURE Katherine Hindley khindley@ntu.edu.sg HSS 03-59 Seminar: Thursdays, 1430-1730, S3-SR4 It’s the year 1300, and you have leprosy. What do you do? Do you go to the doctor and eat the herbs he gives you? Do you go to a church and pray for a miracle? What if the doctor told you to pick the herbs by the light of the waning moon and sing charms over them? Would it be medicine or magic? Does it matter? In this course we will explore medieval literary texts that deal with the themes of magic, science, and medicine. In order to contextualise what we read, we will also examine historical sources and digital facsimiles of medieval manuscripts. We will think about topics including the rationality of magic, the role of healing miracles, the fine line between magic and the university sciences, and the persecution of witches. This course aims to teach you to analyse medieval literature in its historical context, by examining primary and secondary source material. You will also engage critically with literary debates. You will be able to pursue your own research questions, adding your voices to scholarly debates. This course will use of a number of digitised manuscripts: in order to view them, please bring a laptop or similar device to class. Middle English texts will be read in the original language. Course Texts: Kieckhefer, Richard. Magic in the Middle Ages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014. Other readings will be available on NTULearn or online.
***PRELIMARY SYLLABUS: SUBJECT TO CHANGE*** HL4015: ADVANCED MEDIEVAL LITERATURE MAGIC, SCIENCE, AND MEDICINE IN MEDIEVAL LITERATURE Katherine Hindley khindley@ntu.edu.sg HSS 03-59 Seminar: Thursdays, 1430-1730, S3-SR4 It’s the year 1300, and you have leprosy. What do you do? Do you go to the doctor and eat the herbs he gives you? Do you go to a church and pray for a miracle? What if the doctor told you to pick the herbs by the light of the waning moon and sing charms over them? Would it be medicine or magic? Does it matter? In this course we will explore medieval literary texts that deal with the themes of magic, science, and medicine. In order to contextualise what we read, we will also examine historical sources and digital facsimiles of medieval manuscripts. We will think about topics including the rationality of magic, the role of healing miracles, the fine line between magic and the university sciences, and the persecution of witches. This course aims to teach you to analyse medieval literature in its historical context, by examining primary and secondary source material. You will also engage critically with literary debates. You will be able to pursue your own research questions, adding your voices to scholarly debates. This course will use of a number of digitised manuscripts: in order to view them, please bring a laptop or similar device to class. Middle English texts will be read in the original language. Course Texts: Kieckhefer, Richard. Magic in the Middle Ages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014. Other readings will be available on NTULearn or online.
HL4015%20Katherine%20Hindley.docx