Universität Wien

070280 UE Guided Reading Political History - History of Political Cultures and Thoughts (2020S)

13th -16th centuries

5.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 7 - Geschichte
Continuous assessment of course work
Moodle

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 25 participants
Language: English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

First session will provide additional information on the course
Second session will be focussed on an introduction to the topic
First essay will have to be produced for the third session

  • Monday 02.03. 12:15 - 13:45 Seminarraum Geschichte 3 Hauptgebäude, 2.Stock, Stiege 9
  • Monday 09.03. 12:15 - 13:45 Seminarraum Geschichte 3 Hauptgebäude, 2.Stock, Stiege 9
  • Monday 16.03. 12:15 - 13:45 Seminarraum Geschichte 3 Hauptgebäude, 2.Stock, Stiege 9
  • Monday 23.03. 12:15 - 13:45 Seminarraum Geschichte 3 Hauptgebäude, 2.Stock, Stiege 9
  • Monday 30.03. 12:15 - 13:45 Seminarraum Geschichte 3 Hauptgebäude, 2.Stock, Stiege 9
  • Monday 20.04. 12:15 - 13:45 Seminarraum Geschichte 3 Hauptgebäude, 2.Stock, Stiege 9
  • Monday 27.04. 12:15 - 13:45 Seminarraum Geschichte 3 Hauptgebäude, 2.Stock, Stiege 9
  • Monday 04.05. 12:15 - 13:45 Seminarraum Geschichte 3 Hauptgebäude, 2.Stock, Stiege 9
  • Monday 11.05. 12:15 - 13:45 Seminarraum Geschichte 3 Hauptgebäude, 2.Stock, Stiege 9
  • Monday 18.05. 12:15 - 13:45 Seminarraum Geschichte 3 Hauptgebäude, 2.Stock, Stiege 9
  • Monday 25.05. 12:15 - 13:45 Seminarraum Geschichte 3 Hauptgebäude, 2.Stock, Stiege 9
  • Monday 08.06. 12:15 - 13:45 Seminarraum Geschichte 3 Hauptgebäude, 2.Stock, Stiege 9
  • Monday 15.06. 12:15 - 13:45 Seminarraum Geschichte 3 Hauptgebäude, 2.Stock, Stiege 9
  • Monday 22.06. 12:15 - 13:45 Seminarraum Geschichte 3 Hauptgebäude, 2.Stock, Stiege 9
  • Monday 29.06. 12:15 - 13:45 Seminarraum Geschichte 3 Hauptgebäude, 2.Stock, Stiege 9

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

The purpose of this guided-reading lecture is to propose an overview of the European political cultures and thoughts of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Throughout a selection of source materials, methodological texts and case studies (articles, book chapters), we will examine different fundamental phenomenon that characterised the shaping of political communities. The introduction (chap. I) will focus on critical theories of cultural phenomena such as, among others, the concepts ‘Civilisation’ (Elias), ‘Distinction’, ‘Habitus’ and ‘Field’ (Bourdieu) or (cultural) ‘Hegemony’ (Gramsci) and their potential application to the historical periods considered. Thereafter, the lecture will be structured around five main chapters. A substantial part of the course will be dedicated to the legitimate forms of socio-political organisation that represented the dominant cultural configurations of the time: Empire, Monarchy, and patrician Republic. Other parts will consider the various forms taken by the critics and oppositions of these dominant norms, from an institutionalised critic of monarchic power in the theories of conciliarism to more radical forms of oppositions such as the physical elimination of the ruler or some early theories of revolution. A constant return to the source material will be made during the lectures. Each unit of the course will have to be prepared by reading a selection of sources and secondary literature.

Assessment and permitted materials

-Attendance to the course and participation (oral intervention): 25% of the final note.
-Writing of regular essays (2-3 pages maximum): 50% of the final note.
-Synthetizing and reworking the best 3 essays (8-10 pages maximum): 25% of the final note.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

It is required to attend to each session as well as taking an active in the discussions.
Every week one text will have to be read and synthetized in an original essay of 2-3 pages (in English).
By the end of June, a final essay (8-10 pages maximum) will be written. It will consist of a selection of the best 3 essays produced throughout the year reworked and synthetized around an original research question.

Examination topics

Presence and participation
Weekly essays
Final essay

Reading list

Chapters of monographs and articles will be provided either on moodle or distributed during the sessions. Here is an informative selection:
J.M. BLYTHE, Ideal Government and the Mixed Constitution in the Middle Ages, Princeton, 1992.
P. BOURDIEU, Über den Staat. Vorlesungen am Collège de France 1989-1992, trans. H. BRÜHMANN, P. WILLIM, Berlin, 2014.
Th. M. BUCK und H. KRAUME, Das Konstanzer Konzil, Ostfildern, 2013.
N. COHN, The Pursuit of the Millennium. Revolutionary Messianism in Medieval and Reformation Europe and its bearing on Modern Totalitarian Movements, London, 1962.
G. DUBY, Die drei Ordnungen. Sonderausgabe. Das Weltbild des Feudalismus, Frankfurt am Main, 1986.
N ELIAS, Über den Prozeß der Zivilisation. Soziogenetische und psychogenetische Untersuchungen. Erster Band. Wandlungen des Verhaltens in den weltlichen Oberschichten des Abendlandes and Zweiter Band. Wandlungen der Gesellschaft. Entwurf einer Theorie der Zivilisation, Basel, 1939.
F. GILBERT, Machiavelli and Guicciardini: Politics and History in Sixteenth Century Florence, Princeton, 1965.
R. LAMBERTINI, ‘Nature and the Origins of Power. An Examination of selected Commentaries on the Sentences (Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries),’ in La nature comme source de la morale au Moyen Âge, ed. M. VAN DER LUGT, Florence, 2014, p. 95-111.

Association in the course directory

Vertiefung zu: VO Politikgeschichte

BA Geschichte (2012): Mittelalter (4 ECTS)
BA Geschichte (2019): Politikgeschichte (5 ECTS)
BEd UF Geschichte: Globalgeschichte, Hist-kulturwiss. Europaforschung (4 ECTS)

Last modified: Mo 07.09.2020 15:20