420003 SE Late Antique and Medieval (primarily Latin) Hagiography (2018W)
Continuous assessment of course work
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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).
- Registration is open from Mo 17.09.2018 09:00 to Mo 15.10.2018 08:00
- Deregistration possible until Mo 22.10.2018 08:00
Details
max. 15 participants
Language: German
Lecturers
Classes
Beginn 03.10.2018, Ende 30.01.2019; wtl. Mittwoch von 09:45 bis 11:15 Uhr; Ort: Bibliotheksraum II des Inst. für Klassische Philologie
Information
Aims, contents and method of the course
No scholar of Late Antiquity or the Middle Ages can afford to ignore hagiography. By 'hagiography' is intended not a genre, but a type of writing (about saints and their cults) with many subtypes that can be instantiated in many different literary forms and genres (biographies, epics, epigrams, acta, miracle-collections, plays, hymns, etc).Hagiography comes with special problems of documentation entangled with belief, forgery, historicity, and theology and a special historical methodology developed by the Bollandists (Jesuit Société des Bollandistes in Belgium), who are still directing the world’s longest-running humanities project: the Acta Sanctorum (AASS), for which see Knowles, D. Great Historical Enterprises. Problems in Monastic History. London, Edinburgh, etc., 1963.Hagiography is an ideal general topic for a multi- or interdisciplinary seminar. It is both unified enough (we know what we are talking about) and baggy enough to incorporate pretty much all comers or topics. Historians, classicists, and theologians are obvious interested parties, but likewise art historians and students of the medieval vernaculars, musicologists and folklorists."Two-track model"This seminar is intended to be accessible both to classicists and medievalists.
Assessment and permitted materials
In the seminar I propose an introduction to hagiography through primarily Latin texts. We will begin with central texts that relate to martyrdom, persecution, asceticism and the rise of the bishop. These will be the heavy-duty "must-read" hagiographical classics. I plan to include two interesting and famous short books that concern hagiographical problems from the central and later Middle Ages: Schmitt, J.-C. Le Saint lévrier: Guinefort, guérisseur d'enfants depuis le XIIIe siècle. Paris: Flammarion, 1979 (The Holy Greyhound: Guinefort, Healer of Children Since the Thirteenth Century, Cambridge Studies in Oral and Literate Culture. Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press, 1983). and Bartlett, R. The Hanged Man: a Story of Miracle, Memory, and Colonialism in the Middle Ages. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2004. After the opening sequence I would like us to read at least one "epic passion" and one set of shrine-miracles. During the remaining weeks members of the seminar will take turns leading us through authors and texts of their choice.If possible, we may end with a public mini-conference during which members of the seminar present 20-minute papers.
Minimum requirements and assessment criteria
Language of instruction will be German. English is of course possible too, if desired. Or bilingual, where papers can be written in any German or English and members of the seminar may speak whichever language they like.Languages: members of the seminar need to have some Latin. The occasional Greek text can be read in translation, likewise longer Latin texts. English and French are both important modern languages, though there may be some work-arounds for those with no reading-knowledge of French. Medievalists are welcome to work on topics that involve "their" vernaculars, provided their supervisors agree to help with the evaluation of the paper, should it fall in an area and language in which the instructor has no competence.
Examination topics
There will be no exam.
Reading list
TBA
Association in the course directory
Last modified: Fr 21.09.2018 09:49