EUH 4930.3596 Barbarian Historians in an Age of Saints (Spring 2013) Instructor: Dr. Bonnie Effros Course: Wednesdays 12:50-3:50 PM Office: Walker Hall 200 Classroom: FLI 0109 Telephone: (352) 392-1096 Office Hours: Wednesdays 10:00 AM 12:00 PM Email: beffros@ufl.edu and by appt. In this course we will focus on the composition of historical texts and saints lives in the early Middle Ages and identify some of the objectives of the rare medieval authors who took on the task of studying and recording the events in their own time and the centuries preceding. Some of the primary questions that will concern us include: Why was there a concern with describing the past, especially the Christian past? How did the attitudes of clerics who wrote history shape the identity of literate and illiterate Christian populations in Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages? How did their perceived audiences affect the way in which they composed such texts? How did the content and propaganda of such texts vary when written about women or for female audiences? Moreover, how are modern historians to use such records of the past which by our standards are far from "objective"? Should miracles and dreams, which form a part of the historical evidence used in these texts, be applied to our interpretation of early medieval society? Finally, these texts may be applied to asking larger questions regarding the early Middle Ages, particularly with respect to the meaning of Christian conversion. Readings for the course are mandatory and should be completed prior to class sessions; on the whole, there will be roughly 80-250 pages of reading for each meeting. The purpose of these readings is to acquaint students with the themes of particular period, and the contents of these texts are to be read critically for broad content (rather than for every detail). As it is a seminar, the course will consist of a mixture of introductory lectures as well as group discussions; reading assignments will aid participation in the discussions, and will thus contribute both directly (participation grade) and indirectly (ability to assess the information provided in class) to the grade for the course. 9 January Introduction: Historiographical Dilemmas in Describing the Transformation of the Roman West READING: # Patrick J. Geary, Before France and Germany: The Creation and Transformation of the Merovingian World (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), pp. 3-75. Jonathan Conant, Private Documentation and Literacy in Vandal North Africa: The Case of the Albertini Tablets, in Vandals, Romans and Berbers: New Perspectives on Late Antique Africa, edited by A. H. Merrills (Aldershot: Ashgate Press, 2004), pp. 199-224. 1
16 January ** DISTRIBUTION OF FIRST ESSAY ASSIGNMENTS ** Hagiographical Accounts of Christian Communities in the Late Antique West READING: # F.R. Hoare, trans., "Sulpicius Severus, The Life of St. Martin of Tours," and Possidius, the Life of Saint Augustine, in Soldiers of Christ: Saints and Saints' Lives from Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, edited by Thomas F.X. Noble and Thomas Head (University Park: Pennsylvania State Press, 1995), pp. 1-73. # Peter Brown, The Cult of the Saints: Its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981), pp. 1-127. (e-book on ereserve) 23 January Manuscripts and Missionary Work: Christian Conversion of the Barbarian West READING: # Hoare, trans., "Constantius of Lyon, The Life of Saint Germanus of Auxerre," in Soldiers of Christ, pp. 75-106. # Eugippius, The Life of St. Severin, translated by Ludwig Bieler, The Fathers of the Church: A New Translation (Patristic Series 55) (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1965). Raymond Van Dam, The Many Conversions of the Emperor Constantine, in Conversion in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages: Seeing and Believing, edited by Kenneth Mills and Anthony Grafton (New York: University of Rochester Press, 2003), pp.127-151. # Geary, Before France and Germany, pp. 77-149. 30 January Writing Universal History in a Time of Barbarians READING: Orosius, Seven Books of History Against the Pagans, translated by A. T. Fear (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2010), pp. 31-72. Augustine of Hippo, City of God, Book III (Google Books). A. H. Merrills, History and Geography in Late Antiquity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), pp. 35-64. Michael I. Allen, Universal History 300-1000: Origins and Western Developments, in Historiography in the Middle Ages, edited by Deborah Mauskopf Deliyannis (Leiden: Brill, 2003), pp. 17-42. (e-book on ereserve) 6 February ** FIRST ESSAY ASSIGNMENT DUE ** ** DISTRIBUTION OF RESEARCH ESSAY ASSIGNMENT ** Writing Barbarian Histories READING: # Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks, translated by Lewis 2
Thorpe (London: Penguin Books, 1974), pp.7-158. (e-book on ereserve) Paul Fouracre, "Merovingian History and Merovingian Hagiography," Past and Present 127(1990): 3-38. (electronic reserve) # Geary, Before France and Germany, pp. 150-178. 13 February Writing about Women as Christian Leaders and Saints READING: # Jo Ann McNamara and John E. Halborg, ed. and trans., Genovefa (423-502) and "Clothild, Queen of the Franks (d.544)," in Sainted Women of the Dark Ages (Durham: Duke University Press, 1992), pp.17-50. (e-book on ereserve) Lisa Bitel, Landscape with Two Saints: How Genovefa of Paris and Brigit of Kildare Built Christianity in Barbarian Europe (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), pp. 51-72. Isabel Moreira, No Ordinary Visionary: St. Aldegund of Maubeuge, in her Dreams, Visions, and Spiritual Authority in Merovingian Gaul (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2000), pp. 198-227. 20 February ** RESEARCH ESSAY PROPOSAL DUE ** Building Myths of the Anglo-Saxon Past READING: Bede, A History of the English Church and People, edited by Leo Sherley-Price (London: Penguin Books, 1955), Book I,22-34, pp.65-93. Bede, The Life and Miracles of St. Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindesfarne (721) available at: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/bede-cuthbert.html Ian Wood, The Mission of Augustine of Canterbury to the English, Speculum 69 (1994): 1-17. 27 February ** RESEARCH ESSAY BIBLIOGRAPHY DUE ** Monastic Rules and Penitentials as Historical Sources READING: John T. McNeill and Helena M. Gamer, eds., Medieval Handbooks of Penance: A Translation of the Principal Libri Poenitentiales, reprint edition (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990), pp.179-215; 249-270. (library reserve) The Rule of St Benedict prologue, chaps. 1-8; 20-60. http://www.osb.org/rb/text/toc.html#toc Isabel Moreira, Heaven s Purge: Purgatory in Late Antiquity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), pp. 147-176. (electronic reserve) 6 March Spring Break (No Class) 3
13 March ** RESEARCH ESSAY OUTLINE DUE ** Literacy as Power READING: # Jo Ann McNamara and John E. Halborg, ed. and trans., Radegund, Queen of the Franks and Abbess of Poitiers (ca. 525-587) and Balthild, Queen of Neustria (d. ca. 680), in Sainted Women of the Dark Ages, pp. 60-105; 264-278. C. P. Wormald, "The Uses of Literacy in Anglo-Saxon England and Its Neighbours," Transactions of the Royal Historical Society fifth Series 27(1977): 95-114. Paul Fouracre, The Use of the Term beneficium in Frankish Sources: A Society Based on Favours? in The Languages of Gift in the Early Middle Ages, edited by Wendy Davies and Paul Fouracre (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), pp. 62-88. Alice Rio, Legal Practice and the Written Word in the Early Middle Ages: Frankish Formulae, c. 500-1000 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), pp. 9-26. Janet Nelson, "Women and the Word in the Earlier Middle Ages," in The Frankish World, 750-900 (London: The Hambledon Press, 1996), pp. 199-221. 20 March Revising the Merovingian Past READING: The Dying Art of Poetry and Epigraphy David R. Slavitt, Hymns of Prudentius. The Cathemerinon; or, the Daily Round III (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996), pp. 8-13. Judith George, trans., Venantius Fortunatus: Personal and Political Poems (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1995), pp. 25-56. Avitus of Vienne: Letters and Selected Prose, translated by Danuta Shanzer and Ian Wood (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2002), pp. 163-207. Michael Roberts, The Humblest Sparrow: The Poetry of Venantius Fortunatus (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2009), pp. 5-37. 27 March ** FIRST DRAFT OF RESEARCH ESSAY DUE ** Revising History # Jo Ann McNamara and John E. Halborg, ed. and trans., Gertrude, Abbess of Nivelles (628-658), in Sainted Women of the Dark Ages, pp. 220-234. # Geary, Before France and Germany, pp. 179-231. Felice Lifshitz, The Norman Conquest of Pious Neustria: 4
Historiographic Discourse and Saintly Relics 684-1090 (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1995), pp.56-99. Helmut Reimitz, Social Networks and Identities in Frankish Historiography. New Aspects of the Textual History of Gregory of Tours' Historiae, in The Construction of Communities in the Early Middle Ages: Texts, Resources and Artefacts, edited by Richard Corradini, Max Diesenberger, and Helmut Reimitz, The Transformation of the Roman World 12 (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2003), pp. 229-268. 3 April No Class (Meet with Peer Critique Partner and Begin Revisions) 10 April ** RETURN OF FIRST DRAFT AND PEER REVIEWS ** The Heroic Past and Oral Culture READING: # Michael Alexander, trans., Beowulf: A Verse Translation (London: Penguin Books, 1973), pp. 9-151. (e-book on ereserve) Michael Richter, The Formation of the Medieval West: Studies in The Oral Culture of the Barbarians (Portland: Four Courts Press, 1994), pp. 125-145. 17 April Anglo-Saxon Missionaries and Manuscript Production READING: # C.H. Talbot, trans., "Willibald, The Life of Saint Boniface," and "Rudolf, the Life of Saint Leoba," in Soldiers of Christ, pp. 107-140; 255-277. Rosamond McKitterick, The Carolingians and the Written Word (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), pp.135-164. 24 April ** SECOND DRAFT OF RESEARCH PAPER DUE ** New Ways of Thinking about Early Medieval History READING: # Robin Fleming, Bones for Historians: Putting the Body Back into Biography, in Writing Medieval Biography: Essays in Honour of Frank Barlow, edited by David Bates, Julia Crick, and Sarah Hamilton (Woodbridge, Suffolk: The Boydell Press, 2006), pp. 29-48. Paolo Squatriti, The Floods of 589 and Climate Change at the Beginning of the Middle Ages: An Italian Microhistory, Speculum 85 (2010): 799-826. Peter Brown, Through the Eye of a Needle: Wealth, the Fall of Rome, and the Making of Christianity in the West, 350-550 AD (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012), pp. 503-526. 5
COURSE REQUIREMENTS FIRST ESSAY On 16 January, an assignment for a short essay (five pages) will be distributed; the essay will involve the assessment and analysis of a primary document. This assignment will be due on 6 February, and is worth 20% of the course grade. Any essay found to contain plagiarized material will receive an automatic 0 and will be dealt with in accordance with university policy. Late essays will only be accepted without penalty with prior permission of the instructor; otherwise, 1/3 of a letter grade will be deducted each day (including weekends) that the essay is late. RESEARCH ESSAY Each student will select a topic in early medieval history reflective of his or her own interest; the paper will assess a primary source (or sources) from the period 300-1000 CE. S/he will implement the core concepts discussed in class in an original research paper of 15-20 pages (two drafts required). This essay will constitute the main requirement of this course, and will count for 60% of the final grade. Each student will need to seek instructor approval after 6 February, when the assignment is distributed. The topic proposal (due 20 February), bibliography (due 27 February), and outline (due 13 March), although not graded, will be considered mandatory requirements for the research essay and no grade will be given until they are complete. The first draft of the essay, due 27 March, will be worth 20% of final grade, written critiques of a fellow student s rough draft will be due 10 April (5% of grade), and the second draft, due 24 April, will be worth 35% of the grade. A formal note from a physician will be necessary for late essays; otherwise, 1/3 of a lettergrade will be subtracted for each day that the paper is late. Papers which demonstrate evidence of cheating or plagiarism from other sources (including your colleagues in the course) will not be tolerated, and will be handled in accordance with university policy. PARTICIPATION Class participation (20%) will be judged on the basis of consistent attendance and active contribution to the ongoing discussion of the material read for the course. Students will provide a response on a specified session of class during the semester. They will also be asked to give a brief presentation on their research paper as it progresses: this will consist of a synopsis and identification of the central problems they addressed in their research. Both of these assignments along with weekly participation in discussions will factor into the class participation grade. More than three absences in this course will constitute grounds for an automatic failure in this seminar. GRADING SCALE It is policy of the Department of History that students have only one opportunity to complete the History Research Seminar successfully (grade of C or better). Those who withdraw from or fail the course cannot register for another seminar. 6
Letter Grade Grade Values for Conversion May 11, 2009 and After A A- B+ B B- C+ C C- D+ D D- E, I, NG, S-U, WF Grade 4.0 3.67 3.33 3.00 2.67 2.33 2.00 1.67 1.33 1.00.67 0.00 Points COMMENTS I look forward to stimulating discussions, and encourage you to come to office hours with any questions or issues which come up during lecture, discussion or in the course of your readings. 7