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Dedman College

DEDMAN COLLEGE
MEDIEVAL STUDIES

Associate Professor Bonnie Wheeler, Director

Ranging from the 4th century A.D. to 1485, from Celtic Britain to Visigothic and Islamic Spain, Byzantium to Persia and the Caliphate, from script to print, from feast to fast, from ne arts to liberal arts, from Augustine to Saladin and beyond; this program offers an intense and condensed liberal education. Studies reveal how the historical shapes, institutional structures, literary visions, and artistic forms that emerged from the Middle Ages have colored our concepts of God, society, self, love, individualism, and success.

The Medieval Studies Program affords the student an opportunity for a "classically" liberal education within a broad subset of "Western" (Celtic, Franconic, Italic, Germanic, Visigothic) and "non-Western" (Byzantine, Islamic, Persian) contexts. It is appropriate for preprofessional training in multiple elds, ranging from business to religious studies and from biology to music theory and foreign languages and literatures. It can also lead to graduate work in medieval studies or (more usually) in such disciplines as literature, history, and art/music history.

The Dallas Medieval Consortium makes it possible for students at SMU, the University of Dallas, and the University of Texas-Dallas to enroll in selected medieval studies courses on the other campuses. Through the Consortium, SMU students can elect no more than a total of 15 hours in medieval subject courses at any other Consortium university.

Requirements for the B.A. Degree. Medieval Studies is an interdisciplinary major of 30 hours in medieval subjects, and Latin language and literature, distributed over at least three broad subject areas in medieval studies: 1) history, 2) literature, and 3) music and visual arts (art/music history), with no less than six hours in each area. Latin language and literature courses after the second year may, with the approval of the director, count toward hours for the Medieval Studies major. Students are encouraged to take courses in philosophy, religious studies, and church history as they are available. Individual student programs are approved by the Director of Medieval Studies and a committee of two other members of the SMU Medieval Studies faculty.

Requirements for the Minor. A student must complete 15 hours from the courses listed, including at least three interdisciplinary and nine advanced hours. No more than six hours at the introductory (1000 or 2000) level may be counted; some of the MDVL and CF (Cultural Formations) courses listed below are also interdisciplinary. Other courses may satisfy the interdisciplinary component. Individual student programs are approved by the Director of Medieval Studies.

As a model, the following is a typical Medieval Studies major sequence for SMU students:

Sophomore year

Fall term:

Spring term:

Junior year

Fall term:

Spring term:

Senior year

Fall term:

Spring term:

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Many courses are offered each year; with few exceptions, the remainder are available at least every other year. Consult with the director about offerings and frequency.

Medieval Studies

ARHS 3320 Medieval Art

ARHS 3321 Age of the Crusades

ARHS 3322 Art and the Italian Commune

ARHS 3323 Romanesque Art and Architecture

ARHS 3324 Art and Cultures of Medieval Spain

ARHS 3325 The Gothic Cathedral

ARHS 3328 Byzantine Art

ARHS 3329 Paris Art and Architecture I (SMU-in-Paris)

ARHS 3392 (CFA 3313) Islamic Art and Architecture: The Creation of a New Art

ARHS 3399 Medieval Jewish-Christian Dialogue in Art & Text

ARHS 4321 World and Image in the Early Middle Ages

ARHS 5320 Seminar in Medieval Art

ARHS 5321 Seminar in Early Christian Art

ARHS 5322 Seminar on "Convivencia"

ARHS 5323 Seminar in Byzantine Art

ENGL 1325 Chivalry

ENGL 3321 Medieval English Literature

ENGL 3323 Tales of Wales from Arthur to the Present Day

ENGL 3357 (HIST 3357, CF 3363) Joan of Arc in History, Literature, and Film

ENGL 3361 Literature and Society (When applicable)

ENGL 3362 Literature and Belief (When applicable)

ENGL 3399 Directed Studies

ENGL 4319 Power and Patronage, Manuscript and Milieu

ENGL 4320 Allegory and Romance

ENGL 4323 Chaucer's Earlier Work

ENGL 4324 Chaucer's Canterbury Tales

FL 3365 French Literature in Translation (When applicable)

FL 3366 French Literature in Translation (When applicable)

FL 3393 Dante's Poetic Vision

FL 3391 Italian Literature in Translation (When applicable)

FL 3392 Italian Literature in Translation (When applicable)

FREN 5320 Literary Periods (When applicable)

FREN 5321 Literary Periods (When applicable)

FREN 5334 Genre Studies (When applicable)

FREN 5335 Genre Studies (When applicable)

HIST 2321 Philosophical and Religious Thought in the Medieval West

HIST 3332 Ancient and Medieval France

HIST 3344 (CF 3394) The Oxford Landscape: From the Stone Age to the Tudors (SMU-in-Oxford)

HIST 3345 England in Medieval and Early Modern Times (SMU-in-Oxford)

HIST 3350 Life in the Medieval World, A.D. 306-1095

HIST 3351 Life in the Medieval World, A.D. 1095-1350

HIST 3352 Age of the Crusades

HIST 4320 Medieval Europe I

HIST 4321 Medieval Europe II

HIST 4322 Constitutional and Legal History of Medieval England

HIST 4323 History of Ireland

HIST 4324 Medieval Spirituality

HIST 4325 Islam to A.D. 1453

HIST 4326 Anglo-Saxon England to A.D. 1160

HIST 4380 History of Spain to 1492

HIST 4384 Early and Medieval England from the Beginning to 1485

HIST 5364 City of God: Utopias in the Christian Tradition

HIST 5378 Medieval Renaissances

HIST 5392 Seminar in European History: The Confessions and the Western

Autobiographical Tradition

LATN 3324 Advanced Latin Grammar and Composition

LATN 3325 Roman Philosophy

LATN 3335 Medieval Latin

MDVL 3321 (CF 3321) The Birth of the Individual

MDVL 3327 The Unicorn: Understanding Varieties of Truth in the Middle Ages

MDVL 3329 (ENGL 3329, CF 3302) The World of King Arthur

MDVL 3351 (CF 3351) The Pilgrimage: Images of Medieval Culture

MDVL 3352 (CF 3352) Ideas and Ideals of Gender in the Middle Ages

MDVL 3353 (CF 3353) Medieval Thought

MDVL 3398 Directed Studies

MDVL 3399 Directed Studies

MDVL 4371 Special Topics

MDVL 5301 Independent Studies

MDVL 5302 Independent Studies

MDVL 5398 Independent Studies

MDVL 5399 Independent Studies

MUHI 3253 Survey of Medieval and Renaissance Music

MUHI 4392 Directed Studies in Music History: The Middle Ages

MUHI 5339 Seminar in Medieval Music

MUHI 6309 Seminar in Medieval and Renaissance Sources and Styles

PERE 3075 Collegium Musicum

PERE 3175 Collegium Musicum

PHIL 3355 History of Western Philosophy: Medieval

PHIL 3390 Topics in Medieval Philosophy

PLSC 4361 Political Regimes: Understandings of Rome

PLSC 4362 Medieval Political Philosophy

RELI 3326 Introduction to the New Testament

RELI 3328 Medieval Judaism

RELI 3349 Early Christianity

SPAN 5310 Spanish Literature Before 1700

The Courses (MDVL)

3321. The Birth of the Individual. Examines several basic notions pertaining to selfhood, including consciousness, cognition, motivation, personal identity and decision, as found in medieval texts.

3327. The Unicorn: Understanding Varieties of the Truth in the Middle Ages. Investigates the question of how history and fiction were perceived in the Middle Ages.

3329. The World of King Arthur. Investigates Britain's greatest native hero and one of the world's most compelling story stocks: the legend of King Arthur and the Round Table, and the early Arthurian materials and the later romance, epic, and artistic traditions.

3351. The Pilgrimage: Images of Medieval Culture. An exploration of the medieval world through one of its own literal and metaphorical images, moving from Jerusalem to the empire of New Rome, to Rome itself and across Europe on the pilgrimage roads of the Middle Ages.

3352. Ideas and Ideals of Gender in the Middle Ages. Focuses on the status of women in the Middle Ages and the impact of ideas regarding the feminine on the development of (mostly) Western thought.

3353. Medieval Ideas. Presents some of the classic achievements of the medieval mind. While the main focus will be on Medieval Europe and the adjacent Muslim works, wherever possible, students' attention will be drawn to developments in other culture areas.