HIST 3005A: Medieval Aristocratic Culture: Heroes and Villains of the Middle Ages
Summer 2024
Instructor: Sarah Keeshan
Introduction: Were the Vikings as universally bad as medieval monks say they were, or they deserve the 21st-century glow up they’re currently experiencing? How can you have a medieval bromance with your enemy? Can a cadaver stand trial? This course will shed some light on these and similar questions as we interrogate historical narratives of medieval heroes and villains.
This course explores the mechanisms of heroization and villainization of historical figures in medieval aristocratic culture. Drawing on several large case studies from across the medieval world, we will examine a wide variety of primary sources (from chronicles to mosaics) in order to learn how medieval peoples constructed and curated their heroes and their villains and ask several questions of them. How did these characterizations support or challenge larger worldbuilding projects? In what ways were these characterizations a product of their specific time and place, and in what ways did they transcend their particular contexts? How do we continue to be shaped by – or react against – them today? What can we learn from this study about our own culture’s mechanisms of heroization and villainization?
We will engage with several methodological and conceptual issues regarding reading medieval sources and narratives in a critical and nuanced way in order to discuss the ways in which medieval historians have engaged in this work.
Class Format: This course will be offered in an online asynchronous format, consisting of recorded lectures, filmic representations, and asynchronous opportunities for engagement and reflection.
Aims and Goals: This course encourages students to think critically about the creation and curation of historical narratives over time, and to be able to contextualize historical places and peoples very different than our own time in a nuanced way, seeking greater understanding of the past on its own terms. We will explore medieval expressions of both otherness and affinity, and students will be encouraged to use these skills to further an ability to critically engage with contemporary mechanics of difference and affinity, heroization and villainization.
Assessment: Students will complete their choice of two short reflections, a project proposal, and a final project that places them in the role of the medieval historian and asks them to create two historical representations (one heroic, and one villainous) of the same historical figure.
Text: A variety of texts/readings, focusing primarily on primary sources with supporting secondary sources, will be provided on Brightspace, as will links to recommended or required films.
Happy to answer any questions: sarah.keeshan@carleton.ca