Welcome to the Medieval Language, Literature and Culture (M.Phil.)
How to apply - Applications for this course are made online through www.pac.ie
Information will be uploaded shortly
COURSE CONTENT
I. CORE COURSES
II. OPTIONS
III. RESEARCH PROJECT
I. CORE COURSES
All students will follow the course in Research methodology. They will also choose 2 out of 3 other courses offered under the heading Core Courses. The core courses are as follows:
I. Core Courses
All students will follow four core courses in Michaelmas Term:
Research Methodology (27 hours)
Taught by: Helen Conrad-O’Briain (co-ordinator), Alice Jorgensen, John Scattergood.
This element will cover palaeography (notably bookhands from Early Insular to Anglicana and Secretary), codicology, bibliography, and textual criticism. If students require a particular training for historical texts, they may, at the discretion of the Department of Medieval History, be allowed to follow the palaeography and codicology elements of the M. Phil. in Medieval History.
Before they start the course students should acquire:
Brown, M. P., A Guide to Western Historical Scripts from Antiquity to 1600 (London, 1990);
Roberts , J., Guide to Scripts used in English Writings up to 1500 (London, 2005).
If they are intending to take Latin they should acquire:
George Sharpley, Teach Yourself Beginner’s Latin.
Medieval Thought (18 hours)
Taught by: Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin (co-ordinator), Ciaran McGlynn, Corinna Salvadori Lonergan, Cormac Ó Cuilleanáin, Tim Jackson.
Areas/Texts:
• Order, harmony and hierarchy (TJ) 2 hours
But by measure and number and weight thou didst order all things (Sapientia/Wisdom 11,20). Human beings have the ability, indeed they seem to have a need to arrange their experiences into a system that represents the truth of the reality that surrounds them. This session examines the extent to which concepts like order, harmony and hierarchy permeate the attempts of medieval thinkers to represent such components of their reality as the cosmos, the world around them and its creatures, geography, music or society. Consideration will also be given to those elements of disorder that came into the world through the Fall, the proud disobedience of Adam and Eve in their failure to conform to God’s will.
• Dante, ‘Convivio’ (CSL) 3 hours
Dante’s Convivio, founded on the Aristotelian principle that ‘knowledge is the highest perfection of our soul, in which our supreme happiness is found’ (Conv. I,1), is an affirmation of the author’s faith in reason and human intelligence. The driving force is the reconciliation of philosophy and theology, but as the former seems to yield to the latter, the work was abandoned when only four of the projected fifteen treatises had been written by one who discovered himself to be more a poet than a philosopher, and more concerned with a blessedness that lay beyond the beatitudo huius vitae. These three lectures will involve some close readings from the text, which is a masterpiece of early Italian prose.
• Dante, ‘Purgatorio’ (CÓC) 3 hours
The Purgatorio is the central canticle of Dante’s Comedy, and presents a number of ideas and explanations, in addition to a dramatic series of encounters and discoveries, that bring the protagonist and the reader closer to true understanding and ultimate redemption. The three lectures on the Purgatorio will look at themes such as free will and desire, love and sin, body and soul, but these will not be considered as independent philosophical questions; rather, we will see how they are imaginatively and emotionally incorporated into Dante’s poetry.
• Allegory (ENíCh) 2 hours
Allegory is found in the literature of all ages, but in medieval Europe it is erected into a system, both of reading and of writing, of remarkable depth and complexity. The session will include some reference to classical and late antique approaches to allegory, but will concentrate on the religious and literary theories of grammarians and theologians, from Donatus and Augustine onwards; these will be illustrated by allegorical readings of the Bible and of the poems of Vergil and Ovid. We will end by considering the creation of allegorical fictions in the poems of Dante and Chaucer, and in works of visual art.
• Medieval Philosophy (CMcG) 6 hours
This introduction will consider some of the main metaphysical topics in the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas. It will begin with an overview of the development of medieval philosophy and go on to outline some of the central concepts of Aristotelian philosophy. Within the context of this Aristotelian framework we will then study the philosophical views of Aquinas. The focus will be on Aquinas’s views on essence and existence and on the nature and immortality of the soul. Time permitting we may also look at Aquinas’s arguments for the existence of God.
• The rise of the universities (CMcG) 2 hours
This session will consider some of the major factors leading to the rise of the universities in the early thirteenth century. It will start by considering the nature of the Carolingian revival and the effect that it had on subsequent medieval education. It will then look at the monastic and cathedral school systems before going on to discuss the characteristic features of the early universities.
Medieval Culture and Society (18 hours)
Taught by: Tim Jackson (co-ordinator), Corinna Salvadori Lonergan, Susan Foran, Cormac Ó Cuilleanáin, Brendan O’Connell, Ann Buckley
Topics/Texts:
Through an analysis of a range of topics, this course aims to provide an insight into the nature of medieval European society and the varieties of its culture. It looks at the relationship between an expanding western Europe and Eastern regions, including some study of the colonization of the Baltic regions. It explores the medieval understanding of constitutional entities such as the state, the nation, and the monarchy. It considers the beginnings of linguistic reflection on the vernacular, the evolving relationship between orality and literacy in the vernacular, the encouragements and constraints in literary production. There is an introduction to the nature and social function of performance arts in European court societies, with an analysis of patronage, leisure activities (music, dance, drama), and the courtly ideal, the role of professional poets (Trobadors, Trouvères, Minnesänger) and musicians. The course concludes with an overview of music and musicians at the Gaelic courts, and of liturgical music sung in Irish monasteries and cathedrals up to the time of the Reformation. The course is structured as follows:
• East and West in Medieval Europe (TJ) 2 hours
• Dante, ‘Monarchia’ (CSL) 2 hours
• Ideas of Nation (SF) 2 hours
• Dante, ‘De vulgari eloquentia’ (COC) 2 hours
• Orality and Literacy (SF) 2 hours
• Trusting Writing: Fraud, Error and Authority in Late Medieval Literature (BOC) 2 hours
• The Courtly Ideal (TJ) 2 hours
• Courtly Love Song (AB) 2 hours
• Music in Medieval Irish Society (AB) 2 hours
Language The number of hours varies according to the particular course.
• Latin (Helen Conrad-O’Briain) – no prerequisite
• Italian (staff of the Italian Dept. using existing courses) – no prerequisite: ab initio and higher
• Old English (Helen Conrad-O’Briain) – no prerequisite
• Middle English – no prerequisite
• Medieval German (Tim Jackson) – prerequisite: a good knowledge of modern German
• Old Irish (offered every other year, and not in the same year as the medieval Irish options)
II. Options (18 hours each unless otherwise specified; Hilary and Trinity Terms)
Although every effort will be made to accommodate student choice, the decision as to whether a particular option is offered will be subject to student demand and the availability of teaching. Normally, an option will not run unless at least two students wish to take it; in principle, all options are available to students of other taught M. Phil. courses. Most options are taught in Hilary term and consist of nine two-hour sessions, but those offered by staff from outside the College may be organised differently. Students are requested to list four options in order of preference when making their choices.
See Appendix 3 for summary of course availability 2007-8.
• Old English Prose – the Assimilation and Exaltation of the Vernacular (Helen Conrad-O’Briain)
Prerequisite: a knowledge of medieval Latin
This course charts the development of the use of the English vernacular in high status intellectual contexts from the earliest interlinear glosses through the Alfredian translation/adaptation of patristic texts to the politically and socially advanced use of the vernacular at the end of the period. It will concentrate on the mutually transforming assimilation of the English language and its embedded world view to Graeco-Roman/Judeo-Christian literary culture. Texts covered will include the Epinal-Erfurt and Corpus Glossaries, interlinear biblical translations and Aelfric’s observations on translation, Alfred’s version of Boethius’s Consolations of Philosophy, and Wulfstan’s Institutes of Polity and Gerefa. It will end with a consideration of the career of Aethelweard, patron of Aelfric and translator of Old English into Latin.
• Old English Heroic Poetry (Francis Leneghan)
Prerequisite: a basic knowledge of Old English
Anglo-Saxon England provides the earliest substantial record of vernacular heroic poetry in Europe. This course will focus mainly on the long Old English poem Beowulf, the first masterpiece in the English language. Close reading of the text will be combined with discussion of the heroic and mythic background to the poem, as well as consideration of the poem’s composition and manuscript context. We will also look at shorter poems such as The Battle of Maldon, an account of a skirmish with the Vikings, and The Dream of the Rood, a unique retelling of Christ’s passion.
• Women in Medieval Drama (Amanda Piesse)
Prerequisite: none
This option examines the voices of women characters in the medieval drama, and their representation on stage. The relationship between biblical source and dramatic development will be examined, as will the relationship between social representation and dramatic representation of women. There will be a chance to look at plays from the four major mystery cycles and the Digby Mary Magdalen, to see how different kinds of drama writing in different social environments treat women characters. The mystery plays are easily accessible through Peter Happé’s anthology, while the text for the Digby play will be provided.
• Arthurian Heroes and the Making of History (Raluca Radulescu, University of Bangor, et al.)
Prerequisite: none
This option will explore the origin and function of the Arthurian myth from Nennius and Gildas to late medieval romances, including Malory, and early Tudor representations of King Arthur. The aim of this option is to explore the propaganda potential of the Arthurian myth throughout the medieval period in England and to examine the narrative changes and techniques used in the process.
• Chivalry in Life and Literature in Late Medieval Europe (Susan Foran)
Prerequisite: none
This option discusses the concept of chivalry through contemporary literature, including romance, historical writing and manuals of chivalry. An introductory class traces the history of the notion of chivalry from a medieval perspective to modern scholarly discussion. Each of the following seven classes considers a component crucial to understanding chivalry as a societal and literary phenomenon: war; piety; love; vassalage; jousts; courts; nation. The course concludes with an evaluation of the interplay between chivalric discourse and practice. The primary focus of the option will be on the late medieval court in England, Scotland and France (c.1300- c.1400) but the origins of chivalry will be addressed together with its wider geographical impact.
NB One or other of the next two options may run in a given year, but not both.
• Chaucer (Helen Cooney)
Prerequisite: a basic knowledge of Medieval English
This option will examine Chaucer’s work in three chronological sections. The first, influenced by French courtly poets, gave rise to a series of amazing dream-visions, the most interesting being The House of Fame. It is in effect Chaucer’s Art of Poetry, as it engages with medieval literary theory, but only to show how it is fraught with inconsistencies and evasions. Indeed it can be seen as an act of poetic deconstruction – several hundred years before the term was ‘invented’. – Chaucer’s middle period is dominated by the grand romance epic Troilus and Criseyde. Although he had a precise narrative source for this work (Boccaccio's Il Filostrato), we shall see that he had no philosophical/interpretative model whatever and that in its scope it is radically new in the literature of ‘fyn amor’ (‘courtly love’). We shall also examine the relationship between Troilus and the work which immediately followed it – the Legend of Good Women. – The final period of Chaucer’s work saw the composition of The Canterbury Tales, with their astonishing variety of genre, theme and view of his fellow-men. We shall focus on a small number of pivotal tales, which demonstrate the sea-change in his philosophy of life – and death – which Chaucer underwent in the course of writing the Tales.
• The “Englisshyng” of Courtly Love (Helen Cooney)
Prerequisite: a basic knowledge of Medieval English
Where many scholars oppose the idea that the influence of Provençal “fyn amor” extended to writing in English, this course seeks to make the case that the concept was well known to English writers and moreover that they developed it in a highly distinctive way. Thus in his alliterative Pearl the Gawain-poet articulates all the essential elements of the ethos, setting it tantalizingly in the context of the Book of Revelation. In the prologue to the Legend of Good Women Chaucer too creates a quintessential allegory of courtly love – “fyn lovynge”. However, the concept is significantly and unequivocally qualified (in Chaucer’s mind at least), with reference to the Fall of Man, which, though never mentioned, is the “absent presence” in this text. And while his Franklin’s Tale begins with and celebrates the marriage-bond, Chaucer, in an extraordinary virtuoso performance, systematically transforms “fyn amor” into something utterly distinct from the continental model: a story of love with a happy ending.
• Medieval Outlaws (John Scattergood)
Prerequisite: none
The historical basis for this course will be provided by a consideration of the make-up and activities of a number of fourteenth-century outlaw gangs – the Folvilles, the Coterels, the Fitzwalters. Legal records, particularly King's Bench documents, provide an official perspective on these organized unlawful activities. And within this historical framework, a number of texts in which outlaws appear as heroes will be considered: two Anglo-Norman romances, The Tale of Gamelyn, and a number of ballads on Robin Hood. The course will explore some of the ways in which, through these texts, a serious criticism is offered of the mores of late medieval society and its systems of authority.
• Varieties of Comedy: Dante, Boccaccio, et alia (Corinna Salvadori Lonergan, Cormac Ó Cuilleanáin)
Prerequisite: a knowledge of Italian
The comic themes examined in relation to Dante, Boccaccio and other late medieval writers will include concepts such as high and low comedy, the use of comedy to underpin social divisions, the place of blasphemy and obscenity, gender-relations, contrasts between physical and verbal comedy, and ironic self-presentation by authors and narrators.
• Dantean Echoes (Cormac Ó Cuilleanáin in the Comparative Literature M.Phil)
Prerequisite: none. NB the course is taught in MT.
This course examines the influence of Dante on subsequent writers, but also, in part, some aspects of Dante's own debt to predecessors. Intertextual, semiotic, and broadly cultural approaches are offered, allowing wide scope for a variety of comparative approaches. Various lecturers present authors from different national cultures and historical periods - drawn from writers such as Spenser, Milton, Pound, Pasolini, Beckett, Heaney, Carson and Ross Macdonald.
• The Old French ‘récit bref’ (Adrian Tudor, University of Hull)
Prerequisite: a knowledge of Old French
This course will explore the world of the Old French ‘récit bref’, focusing in particular on comic, parodic and satirical works, moralizing and pious texts, miracles, fables and lais. Among the key texts to be studied are the fabliaux, La Vie de pères, Gautier de Coinci’s Les Miracles de Nostre Dame.
• Late Medieval French Poetry (Sarah Alyn Stacey)
Prerequisite: a knowledge of Middle French
This option will analyse the poetry of four prominent late-medieval French poets: Christine de Pizan, Alain Chartier, Charles d’Orléans, and François Villon. Through close textual analysis, the course will examine the way in which these poets use fashionable forms, such as the virelai, rondeau, and ballade, to articulate a whole range of ideas, from the very personal love lyrics of Christine de Pizan and Charles d’Orléans, to the challenge Chartier presents to the concept of courtly love with his Belle dame sans merci, to the vivid often humorous depiction of fifteenth-century Parisian life in Villon’s poetry.
• Vergil in the Middle Ages (Helen Conrad-O’Briain, Corinna Salvadori Lonergan)
Prerequisite: a knowledge of Latin.
This option explores the importance of Vergil as arguably the most important non-Christian author of the Middle Ages. It begins with a survey of the manuscript tradition and an overview of Vergil’s position as the poet of Romanitas. It moves on to consider the importance of his text for the formation of attitude and vocabulary in Christian discourse, particularly, but not exclusively, in poetry, as well as the importance of the commentary tradition to the development of the aesthetics and expectations of literature. In the central part of the course we will look at the importance of Vergil to the development of vernacular literature, the changing treatment of Dido, and the multiple Vergils of the Central Middle Ages. It ends with a discussion of Vergil incunabulas (a number of which we shall examine) and the rediscovery of the so-called Servius Auctus (Servius Danielis).
• Language and Genre (Tim Jackson, co-ordinator, Sarah Alyn Stacey, Nicola McLelland, Cormac Ó Cuilleanáin, Alice Jorgensen)
Prerequisite: none
This option focuses on a number of practical issues relating to the production of medieval texts: the choice between Latin and the vernacular as linguistic medium – with the possibility of polyglot texts; translation – what gets translated, from which language(s) into which language(s), and why; the relative status of prose and verse – with the possibility of texts employing both modes. Such matters can have both an aesthetic and a social perspective, e.g. differences of taste, differences of function, changes of audience. They will be examined in relation to the literary traditions of Italy (Dante), Germany (Otfrid von Weißenburg, Hartmann von Aue), England (MS F of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle) and France (Charles d’Orléans). The course concludes with an intertextual analysis of the French, German, Latin and English versions that constitute the tradition of the Gregorius legend. A knowledge of these languages is not required.
• Text and Image (Tim Jackson, co-ordinator, Catherine Yvard, Roger Stalley, Helen Conrad-O’Briain, Jennifer O’Reilly, Helen Cooney)
Prerequisite: none
An introductory session on ‘Scribe and artist’ will discuss technical matters – everything from inks and pigments via the employment of scribes and illustrators to the assembly of manuscripts. After that the option will concentrate on the practical and theoretical aspects of the functions of illustration within texts and the differing relationships of the one to the other on the pages of medieval manuscripts. The issues will be examined in a series of sessions on individual problems/manuscripts/traditions such as The Book of Kells, French books of hours, Vergil manuscripts, Scribe and illustrator in Vienna Codex 2841, the iconography of the Annunciation and the Crucifixion, The Assembly of Ladies.
• ‘Wild’ Women in Medieval Literature (Cordula Politis, co-ordinator, Martine Cuypers, Anna Chahoud, Catherine Swift, Tim Jackson, Cormac Ó Cuilleanáin, Juliet O’Brien, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, John Scattergood, Helen Conrad-O'Briain)
Prerequisite: none
Considering a wide range of texts in multiple literatures, this option examines representations of women that run counter to the stereotype of the subservient female and focuses on gender rebels, women who are ‘wild’ in terms of their emotions, actions or appearance. We will look at transgressive females in neo-classical, Irish, English, French, Italian and German literature, covering both medieval appropriations of classical figures and personae that originate in the vernacular tradition. Examples include women as diverse as Medea, Dido, Devorgilla, Phyllis, Penthesilea, Judith and The Wife of Bath. Their depiction may imply perversion of as well as liberation from established gender roles, and the course concludes with an assessment of whether they ultimately subvert conventional femininity or submit to it after all.
• Medieval Christian Perceptions of Islam (Anthony Lappin, University of Manchester)
Prerequisite: none
This course will trace the Christian perceptions of Islam from its very beginnings under Muhammad until the crusades of the thirteenth century. It will concentrate on the attempts made by Christians to understand Islam, with, of course, a polemical intent, as well as the political and military means by which Christian states combated an ideological foe.
• Lovesong in Medieval Europe (Ann Buckley, NUIM)
Prerequisite: it is not necessary for students to be able to read notation or to be proficient in performance.
With particular reference to Occitania, France, Germany, Spain, and England, the course is focused on the topic of love in the sung poetry of troubadours, trouvères, Minnesinger and similar poet-composers in other parts of Europe. It also explores the relationship between vernacular and Latin love lyric.
• Music in Medieval Ireland (Ann Buckley, NUIM)
Prerequisite: it is not necessary for students to be able to read notation or to be proficient in performance.
This option provides an introduction to the history of music in medieval Ireland to c.1500. It includes a survey of liturgical manuscripts, and of literary, iconographic and archaeological sources; and also addresses the role of music in Irish monasteries and cathedrals, and in the Gaelic courts.
• Medieval Philosophy (Ciaran McGlynn)
Prerequisite: none
This course will consider some key aspects of medieval philosophy by reading and discussing a number of primary texts in translation, texts that characterize the development of medieval philosophy. The main focus will be on Anselm’s and Aquinas’s arguments for the existence of God and Augustine’s and Aquinas’s discussions of the relation between faith and reason, Aquinas’s views on the nature and immortality of the soul, and the mystical philosophy of Meister Eckhart. The various readings will be provided in the lectures.
• Introduction to Early Medieval Ireland (Catherine Swift, MIC Limerick)
Prerequisite: none
This option will examine such topics as:
The controversial nature of the term ‘Celt’; St Patrick and his cult; the pagan Otherworld: the concept of the síd; the establishment of the church; the Irish vernacular legal system; Irish ecclesiastical law; the powers of a local king; early kingdoms or ‘tribes’ and their relationship to each other; the Irish royal sites; the high-kingship of Ireland and the provincial kingdoms; patronage of arts and crafts.
NB The remaining options are not available in 2007-8
• Old Irish Poetry (24 hours; Liam Breatnach)
Prerequisite
This course will consist on the one hand of reading a wide variety of secular and ecclesiastical verse texts, with due attention being paid to metrics and the language of poetry, and, on the other, of discussion of the status and organisation of the poets of the Old Irish period.
• Comparative Linguistics from the Celtic Point of View (24 hours; Jürgen Uhlich)
Prerequisite
An introduction to comparative Indo-European linguistics from the Celtic point of view. The main emphasis will be on historical phonology.
• Early Irish Law (24 hours; Liam Breatnach)
Prerequisite
The legal system often referred to as ‘The Brehon laws’, which survived down to the 16th century, is known to us from a vast corpus of legal writings, many of the manuscripts of which are in the Library of Trinity College. The texts are of various dates, but many of the most important belong to the Old Irish period, the earliest dated text being from the 7th century, and are an invaluable source of information on the social structure and material culture of early medieval Ireland. Selected readings of texts will be combined with study of the nature of the sources as a whole.
• Middle Irish (24 hours; Damian McManus)
Discussion of the major developments in this period of intense change in the Irish language.
III. Research Project Leading to Dissertation (Thesis)
Between April and August students will work on a research project. This aspect of the course will test the ability of the student to undertake original research on a strictly defined topic and to organize and communicate the findings in an appropriately scholarly form. Topics may be chosen from any area covered by the course, but students will be encouraged to make use of the rich manuscript and printed resources of Trinity’s Library. Each project will be supervised by a specialist in the relevant field.
back to top