Medieval Visions and Creations
This course examines a tradition extending from Plato's Timaeus and Cicero's Somnium Scipionis, through early medieval commentaries and Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy, eventually flourishing in France in the twelfth century, and finally issuing, over a century later, in Dante's imagining of the afterlife in the Divina Commedia. Taking as points of departure Plato's creation myth and Cicero's dream-vision, we will study the interrelations of cosmogony, cosmology, theology, natural philosophy and ethics in the medieval imagination. Throughout the semester we will inform our discussion of the medieval Platonic tradition by drawing on seminal secondary works. Many of these books and essays, placed on reserve in the PCL, will prove essential for your research paper of substantial proportions (15-20 pp. with full documentation). In the final weeks of the semester, as you work on the paper, we will discuss theoretical and aesthetic intersections of medievalism and postmodernism in The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco's popular murder mystery set in the early fourteenth century. We will use the Danteworlds Web site (created here at UT) not only as a tool for studying Dante's Commedia but also as a model for bringing technology to bear on other aspects of research and teaching in medieval and literary studies.
The research paper will account for 60% of your grade, with the remaining 40% evenly divided between class participation and several short response essays. The response essays, treating primary and / or secondary readings, must be both descriptive and analytical. They will be used as points of departure for class discussion.
Primary Texts: Although the texts are available in translation, you are encouraged to consult and read one or more of the works in the original Latin, French, or Italian.
Plato. Timaeus and Critias.
Macrobius. Commentary on the Dream of Scipio.
Boethius. The Consolation of Philosophy.
Bernardus Silvestris. The Cosmographia.
Alan of Lille. Anticlaudianus.
Eileen Gardiner, ed. Visions of Heaven and Hell before Dante.
Dante. Vita Nuova; The Divine Comedy.
Umberto Eco. The Name of the Rose.
Secondary Readings (on reserve in the PCL):
Barolini (Undivine "Comedy"), Coletti (Naming the Rose: Eco, Medieval Signs, and Modern Theory), Cornford (Plato's Cosmology), De Bruyne (The Esthetics of the Middle Ages), Doob (The Idea of the Labyrinth from Classical Antiquity through the Middle Ages), Eco (Art and Beauty in the Middle Ages), Ferrante (Woman as Image in Medieval Literature), Gersh (Middle Platonism and Neoplatonism), Harrison (The Body of Beatrice), Klibansky (The Continuity of the Platonic Tradition during the Middle Ages), Mazzotta (Dante's Vision and the Circle of Knowledge), Raffa (Divine Dialectic), Stock (Myth and Science in the Twelfth Century), Wetherbee (Platonism and Poetry in the Twelfth Century).
Danteworlds web site: http://danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu
Medieval Visions and Creations: Course Syllabus (Spring 2009)
1/20: Introductions
Classical Beginnings and Ends: Creation and the Afterlife
1/22: Plato, Timaeus; (Reserve: Cornford)
1/27: Cicero, Somnium Scipionis
Platonic Commentary and Consolation
1/29: Macrobius, Commentary on the "Dream of Scipio" (Reserve: Gersh)
2/3: Boethius, Consolation of Philosophy 1-2 (Reserve: Gersh, Klibansky)
2/5: Boethius, Consolation of Philosophy 3-5 (Reserve: Doob)
Medieval Creations: Perfect Man, Perfect Woman
2/10: Bernardus Silvestris, Cosmographia (Reserve: Stock, De Bruyne, Eco)
2/12: Alan of Lille, Anticlaudianus (Reserve: Wetherbee)
2/17: Dante, Vita Nuova (Reserve: Ferrante, Harrison)
Prophecy and Allegory: Life and Afterlife
2/19: Gardiner, ed., Visions of Heaven and Hell before Dante
2/24: Dante, Inferno 1-7 (Reserve: Barolini, chap. 2)
2/26: Inferno 8-17
3/3: Inferno 18-25
3/5: Inferno 26-34 (Reserve: Barolini 3-4, Mazzotta 3-4)
3/10: Purgatorio 1-6
3/12: (Tentative) Research Proposal Due
(SPRING BREAK)
3/24: Purgatorio 7-24 (Reserve: Barolini 6, Mazzotta 6)
3/26: Purgatorio 25-33 (Reserve: Mazzotta 7)
3/31: Paradiso 1-7 (Reserve: Mazzotta 2)
4/2: Paradiso 8-17 (Reserve: Barolini 9)
4/7: Paradiso 18-25 (Reserve: Mazzotta 8-9); Proposal and Bibliography
4/9: Paradiso 26-33 (Reserve: Barolini 10)
Postmodern Middle Ages
4/14: Eco, The Name of the Rose, Day 1 (Reserve: Coletti)
4/16: The Name of the Rose, Days 2-3
4/21: The Name of the Rose, Days 4-5
4/23: The Name of the Rose, Days 6-7, Postscript
4/28: Film version of The Name of the Rose
4/30: Film (part 2)
5/5: Imagining Creation and the Afterlife after the Middle Ages
5/7: Final Paper Due
Department of French and Italian, College of Liberal Arts, UT Austin