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Let's Get Medieval

Module description

This module will challenge your preconceptions about the Middle Ages and give you the skills to explore the period through primary sources and current academic research. The primary sources - textual, material, visual - that we will examine in the module will not only bring you face-to-face with medieval witnesses and voices but will equip you to be able to listen to and interrogate them, enriching your understanding of this fascinating period and allowing you to approach it independently in greater depth.

Through a short series of seminars and a field-trip, you will encounter a range of themes related to the medieval past informed by staff research interests. These themes will be presented through a broad selection of written, archaeological and/or artistic material and you will learn some of the methodologies that can be deployed to tackle them. Particular emphasis will be placed on the unique resources and heritage of Exeter and the Southwest.

The module is team-taught and draws on the expertise of a wide range of specialist tutors in the various disciplines and topics studied within the Centre for Medieval Studies.

Module aims - intentions of the module

• To explore and understand the Middle Ages through engagement with textual, material, and/or visual primary evidence
• To acquire broad and effective knowledge of the sources available in the field of Medieval Studies.

• To develop a deep understanding of the problems of interpretation posed by a variety of genres of evidence.
• To build the ability and confidence to examine the Middle Ages as an independent researcher

• To acquire advanced critical skills and analytical methods.

• To practice and improve written and oral communication skills
• To produce an extended piece of written work that can convincingly examine and critically analyse multiple types of primary evidence

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Demonstrate a detailed knowledge and understanding of a range of different kinds of sources from the Middle Ages
• 2. Demonstrate a critical awareness of past and current scholarly debates relating to the Middle Ages

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 3. Engage critically with a broad range of cultural phenomena, including texts, material artefacts (including manuscripts), institutions, and public discourses
• 4. Demonstrate understanding of the assumptions on which approaches to cultural analysis are based
• 5. Argue at length and in detail about aspects of the cultures studied, supporting the argument with textual evidence and engaging with opinions from secondary literature
• 6. Access, and use critically, printed and electronic learning resources identified as useful by the course tutors; and find independently and evaluate critically other relevant resources

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 7. Present information and arguments on a designated or negotiated topic to a group of listeners and respond to questions and responses from the group
• 8. Adopt a critical approach to the selection and organisation of a large body of material in order to produce, to a deadline, a written or oral argument of some complexity
• 9. Combine a variety of IT skills in researching and reporting on a topic

Syllabus plan

The syllabus is structured around seminars that examine particular categories of source material tied to themes drawn from the research expertise of the staff. While the exact content of the module will vary from year to year, the following topics are representative of the types of sources that will be covered:

• Historical narrative sources, including saints’ lives and chronicles.
• Medieval literature, such as romances and poems.
• Archaeological evidence, such as objects, sites, buildings and landscapes.
• Visual and iconographic sources.
• A field-trip to a medieval site/s in Exeter and/or the south-west region.

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 50%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of referral will be capped at 50%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• John Arnold, What is Medieval History? (London: Arnold, 2007)
• M.T. Clanchy, From Memory to Written Record, 3^rd (Oxford: Blackwell, 2012)
• Christopher Gerrard and Alejandra Gutierrez (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Later Medieval Archaeology in Britain (Oxford: OUP, 2018)
• Richard Hoppin, Medieval Music (New York, Norton, 1978)
• Hans Robert Jauss, Towards an Aesthetic of Reception (Brighton: Harvester, 1982)
• Alistair J. Minnis and A.B. Scott, Medieval Literary Theory and Criticism, c. 1100–c. 1375: The Commentary Tradition (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991)
• Walter J. Ong, Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the World (London: Methuen, 1982)
• Brian Stock, Listening for the Text: On the Uses of the Past (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990)

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• Archaeology Data Service (https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/)

Key words search

Medieval, Medieval Studies