E 891 dl: Medieval Latin Authors

Schedule

 

This syllabus is subject to change. The latest version on this website is the binding syllabus.

Office: Bartlett 259
Office Hours: Wed and by appointment.
545-6598 | sharris at english.umass.edu

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15

W 4:00 pm - 6:30 pm

WEEK 2: Orientation
28 January

In this class, we will review the historical and cultural background of Latin literature in late Antiquity.

If you are not familiar with the basic tenets of Christianity or with the history of the Catholic Church, please browse the Catechism of the Catholic Church, espcially section 2, the creeds. (For comparison, here are the Anglican creed and evangelical Protestant creeds). You may also want to read one of the gospels, perhaps Luke.

In preparation for Augustine, browse the first chapter of Stock (at right); and read this article on Manichaeism, this handout and this article on Neoplatonism, Athanasius against the Arians and Jerome against the Pelagians (book 1 only).

Resources:

You Tube video from History Channel on the Dark Ages.

Brian Stock, Augustine the Reader (Harvard, 1996), via UMass.

Late Antiquity: historical sources such as Marcellinus on Hadrianople, for example.

Handout on liturgical style of creed.

 

READ

1) Curtius, ch. 2, "Latin Middle Ages; ch 3. "Literature and Education, pp. 17-61.

2) Raby, finish chapter 1, pp. 1-43.