The Monstrous in the Middle Ages

M/W 2-3:20

242 Mary Gates Hall

Instructor Contact Info: 

Professor Urbanski

Office: 106 Smith (in the stairwell by the elevator, between the first and second floors)

Office Hours: 

Email: urbanski@uw.edu   

Course Description

This course introduces undergraduate students to the transition from being consumers of history to producers of history by focusing on historiography, the scholarship produced about a particular topic. It will emphasize critical reading and analysis of primary and secondary literature, the theoretical and methodological problems of historical research, and prepare students for conducting original primary research.

The seminar is organized around the theme of monsters and the concept of monstrosity in the Middle Ages. We will explore ancient, medieval, and modern monster theory, how the concept of monstrosity was used to define “humanity”, how the rhetoric of monstrosity was applied to various out-groups in the Middle Ages, and the social functions of some medieval monsters, such as dragons, revenants, and werewolves. Because I am a medieval historian, our readings will come from medieval Europe; however, the issues and possible areas of research for the historiographical essay component of the course are not limited to any particular time period. Students will be encouraged to select topics for the historiographical essay that reflect their own interests and experience.

Learning Objectives 

• Introduce students to the similarities and differences between primary and secondary sources, and help them develop close reading techniques to discern the particular contexts that shape each source, the author’s stated intentions, and the implicit assumptions and (sometimes unintended) ramifications of the text.
• Introduce students to strategies for reading and evaluating secondary sources by identifying the main question, argument, approach, method, and evidence; develop an ability to see connections and distinctions among different authors and varied approaches to the study of history.
• Prepare students for conducting original research by introducing them to research techniques, databases, and other resources.
• Help students hone their skills with regard to various styles of reading, diverse forms of writing, oral presentation, time management, and collaboration.

Required Books

There are no required books for this course. All of our readings are PDFs linked to the syllabus below.

Recommended Books

Mary Lynn Rampolla, A Pocket Guide to Writing in History

Martha Howell and Walter Prevenier, From Reliable Sources: An Introduction to Historical Methods

These are both available new and used on Amazon. 

Assignments

Assignments: This is a reading, writing, and discussion intensive course. It requires weekly reading of 75-100 pages; regular participation in discussion; weekly 1 page reactions to our reading; a 5-10 minute presentation on one of our readings; a 3-4 page primary source analysis; a 2-3 page annotated bibliography; a 2-3 page outline of the historiographical essay; and a 7-8 page historiographical essay.

Instructions for the assignments will be posted separately on the course website.

Grading

10% – Active class participation (including peer reviews of outlines and drafts)

10% - Weekly Reaction Papers (due on Wednesdays by 2 pm)

10% - Presentation

10% - Primary Source Analysis (3-4 pages, due 1/26)

10% - Annotated bibliography (2-3 pages, due 2/9)

10% - Outline of Historiographical Essay (2-3 pages, in due 2/23)

15% - Rough Draft of Historiographical Essay (7-8 pages. due 3/10)

25% - Historiographical Essay (7-8 pages, due 3/18)

You must complete all graded assignments in order to pass the course. 

Extensions and Late Penalties: Because so much of the work we do in this seminar relies on the timely submission of assignments, extensions will only be grated in exceptional cases. If you have a pressing reason to request an extension (such as a personal accident, family emergency, or illness), you must email me before an assignment is due to request an extension on it. 

Any assignments that are submitted late (i.e., after the original due date/time if you have not received an extension, or after your extension expires if you have received one) will be docked 10% per day (including weekends and holidays).

Grades will be assigned as percentages on individual assignments and exams and converted to the 4.0 scale for the final course grade.

4.0 95-100%

3.5 90%

2.5 80%

1.5 70%

0.7 62% (lowest passing grade)

Seminar Rules

The structure of this class assumes that everyone will attend our weekly meetings and turn their assignments in on time. Some features of the course, such as the peer reviewing and presentations, really depend on your presence, participation, and timeliness in submitting assignments. I expect everyone to come to class and submit assignments on time. If you need to miss a class, let me know (urbanski@uw.edu) as soon as possible.  

Reading

You should complete the reading before class each week and bring it with you to class in some form. 

Reaction Papers

Each week students will submit a brief (1.5-2 page; double-spaced, 12 point font) critical reaction to one of the secondary readings for this week. These should summarize the main argument of the article, briefly discuss its strengths and weaknesses, and explain why you found it persuasive or unpersuasive. Reaction papers are due Wednesdays by 2 pm.

Reaction papers will be graded as follows:

0 = no assignment submitted or an assignment that demonstrates no familiarity with the reading

70% = paper discusses one of our primary sources, but does not engage with a secondary source

80% = paper summarizes the argument of one of our secondary sources, but does not address its strengths or weaknesses

90% = paper discusses the strengths and/or weaknesses of the argument in one of our secondary sources, and shows a very good understanding of the argument and the issues at stake

100% = paper discusses the strengths and/or weaknesses of the argument in one of our secondary sources, and shows an excellent understanding of the argument and the issues at stake

*Every student will be allowed to miss one reaction paper without penalty during the quarter. You do not need to submit a reaction paper the week you give your presentation.

Participation

Because this seminar is driven by in-class student discussion, participation represents a vital portion of your grade. Your participation grade will be based on your active contribution to in class discussion and participation in peer-reviewing sessions.

*Everyone will be allowed to miss one class without penalty, as long as it isn’t a peer-reviewing day.

Presentations

Every class meeting one or more students will be in charge of presenting on one of the assigned readings and starting discussion. Everyone will present once during the quarter, and I will circulate a sign up sheet during the first week of class. Students will be responsible for:

• Giving a 5-10 minute presentation that coherently articulates the main point(s) discussed in the selected reading; and addresses the following questions: Who is the author? What is the argument(s)? What evidence does the author use to support their argument(s)? Do you find the argument(s) convincing? Feel free to point out passages that you found to be particularly important, compelling, or problematic.
• Posing one or two questions to the class to stimulate further in-class discussion.
• You do not have to submit a response paper during the week you deliver your presentation.

Peer reviewing

You will be responsible for peer-reviewing the outlines and drafts of two of your fellow students. I will assign groups in Canvas and issue instructions for the peer-reviewing with the instructions for the outline and the historiographical essay. 

Academic Standards and Conduct

Honesty, ethical conduct, and academic integrity are expected in this course. Academic integrity includes a commitment to not engage in or tolerate acts of falsification, misrepresentation, or deception. Acts of dishonesty include cheating or copying, plagiarizing, submitting another persons’ work as one’s own, using Internet sources without citation, having another student take your exam or working together with other students on your exam, tampering with the work of another student, facilitating other students’ acts of academic dishonesty, etc.

Unless I specify otherwise, all assignments and exams are to be completed by the student alone, without inappropriate assistance of any kind, including the use of AI programs such as ChatGPT.

Artificial Intelligence (AI):

Two of the main goals of this course are to hone your critical thinking skills and your argumentative writing skills. These skills are incredibly important for getting through life. In fact, they're far more important than your ability to recall things like what year the Norman Conquest happened. Relying on AI to produce assignments for you not only deprives you of valuable opportunities to practice these skills, the technology tends to turn out papers that are lacking in specific detail and slightly off-topic. In other words, using AI deprives you of the chance to think for yourself, and it doesn't even do a good job. It is also important to remember that text generators like ChatGPT are sometimes wrong. If an AI tool gives you incorrect information and you use it on an assignment, you will be held accountable for it.

You should never use AI as a substitute for your own thought or your own writing, but there are two circumstances in which you are allowed to use AI in this class (your other professors will likely have very different policies, so do not assume that my policies will apply in your other classes).

The use of AI is allowed in this class under the following circumstances only (any other use is prohibited):

1. You may use AI to provide you with explanations of concepts or to organize your notes. I would much prefer that you ask me for clarification if you are having trouble with any of the material in this course, and I am happy to answer questions after class or during my office hours, but I recognize that some of you will want to use AI for this. However, if the AI gives you incorrect information and you use that information on an assignment or exam, you will be held accountable for it.

2. You are allowed to use tools like Grammarly or Quillbot to proofread or edit writing that you have produced yourself. Just be aware that using these tools to edit your work comes with the risk that it may change your original writing so much that it no longer reflects your original thought, so make sure you are using it for simple grammar and spelling checks, not to substantially rewrite your work.

The unauthorized use of artificial intelligence (AI) can be a form of academic misconduct at UW. Tools that use AI and large language models to generate text or images, such as ChatGPT, GPT4, Bing Chat, and "Write with AI" in Google Docs (the "help me write" feature now in beta testing in Workspace Labs), are usually prohibited by instructors in Department of History courses. Unless your instructor has expressly permitted the use of such tools, check with your instructor before using them. The unauthorized use of such tools may constitute academic misconduct and could result in serious disciplinary action.

• All assignments containing suspected plagiarism or AI use will be sent to the Office of Community Standards and Student Conduct for investigation and the enforcement of appropriate sanctions. If the Office of Student Conduct determines that plagiarism or AI use took place, the student will receive a 0 on that assignment.
• Any student found to have committed a second instance of plagiarism or AI use by the Office of Community Standards and Student Conduct will fail the course.

I will not use AI to grade your work or provide you with feedback. I will personally grade your work and provide feedback, so please do me the courtesy of writing your own papers.

Accommodations

Please let me know as early as possible if you require religious accommodations or DRS accommodations, or if there is anything I can do to support your learning style.

Information on UW policies regarding Religious Accommodations, Student Conduct, Disability Resources, Academic Integrity, and Campus Safety can be found at https://registrar.washington.edu/curriculum/syllabus-guidelines/

Schedule of Classes

The syllabus is subject to change at the instructor’s discretion

Week 1

M 1/5            Introduction

Reading:

Handouts on “How to Read a Primary Source” and “How to Read a Secondary Source”

W 1/7           Modern Monster Theory

Submit your reaction paper before class on Wednesday

Reading:

Secondary Sources:

Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, “Monster Culture (Seven Theses),” in Monster Theory, Reading Culture, ed. Jeffrey Jerome Cohen (University of Minnesota Press, 1996), pp. 3-25

(This reading is especially challenging, so don’t feel defeated if you struggle to understand it and have to look up a lot of the words. The most important thing to take away from it are the seven theses that Cohen presents about how monsters are constructed and how they reflect the cultures that produce them.)

Bettina Bildhauer and Robert Mills, “Introduction: Conceptualizing the Monstrous,” in The Monstrous Middle Ages, eds. Bettina Bildhauer and Robert Mills (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2003), pp. 1-27

Week 2

M 1/12              Ancient and Medieval Monster Theory

Reading:

Primary Sources:

Augustine, City of God, XVI.8 and XXI.8 (early 5^th century) 

Isidore of Seville, Etymologies, XI.iii and iv (early 7^th century)

Secondary Sources:

Lynn Ramey, “Mapping the Monstrous,” in Black Legacies: Race and the European Middle Ages (University Press of Florida, 2014), pp. 89-110

Presenter:

Karl Steele, “Centaurs, Satyrs, and Cynocephali: Medieval Scholarly Teratology and the Question of the Human,” in The Ashgate Research Companion to Monsters and the Monstrous, eds. Asa Mittman and Peter Dendle (Ashgate, 2012), pp. 257-274

Presenter:

W 1/14            The Monsters of Beowulf

Submit your reaction paper before class on Wednesday

Reading:

Primary Source:

Beowulf, trans. Stephen Mitchell (Yale University Press, 2017), pp. 2-207 (this seems very long, but it's a verse facing page translation, so it's really only 100 short pages)

Secondary Source:

J.R.R. Tolkien, “The Monsters and the Critics” in The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays, ed. Christopher Tolkien (London, 1983), pp. 5-48

Presenter:

Week 3

M 1/19          NO CLASS - MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. HOLIDAY

W 1/21          More Medieval Dragons

Submit your reaction paper before class on Wednesday

Reading:

Secondary Sources:

Samantha Riches, “Encountering the Monstrous: Saints and Dragons in Medieval Thought,” in The Monstrous Middle Ages, eds. Bettina Bildhauer and Robert Mills (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2003), pp. 196-218

Presenter:

Thomas Keller, “The Dragon in Beowulf Revisited,” Aevum, 55/2 (1981), pp. 218-228

Presenter:

TASK: Work on the Primary Source Analysis due 1/26 and choose a topic to research for the historiographical essay

Week 4

M 1/26            NO CLASS - Primary Source Analysis Due by 2 pm

W 1/28          Workshop on Using Library Resources for Research

We will meet in 102 Suzzallo with Aubrey Williams for a workshop on using Library resources for research.

Submit your topic for the historiographical essay before class (these are ungraded, but required)

TASK: Begin collecting and assessing sources for the Annotated Bibliography due 2/9

Week 5

M 2/2            The Monstrous Races

Reading:

Primary Source:

Pliny the Elder, Natural History, Book VII, ch. I-XXV

Secondary Sources:

Naomi Kline, “The World of the Strange Races,” in Monsters, Marvels, and Miracles: Imaginary Journeys and Landscapes in the Middle Ages, eds. Lief Sondergaard and Rasmus Thorning Hansen (Odense: University Press of Southern Denmark, 2005), pp. 27-40

Presenter:

Marina Münkler, “Experiencing Strangeness: monstrous peoples on the edge of the Earth as depicted on medieval mappae mundi,” Medieval History Journal 5:2 (2002), pp. 195-222

Presenter:

W 2/4          Race and Monstrosity

Submit your reaction paper before class on Wednesday

Reading:

Secondary Sources:

Debra Higgs Strickland, “Demons, Darkness, and Ethiopians,” in Saracens, Demons, and Jews: Making Monsters in Medieval Art (Princeton University Press, 2003), pp. 61-94

Presenter:

Debra Higgs Strickland, “Monstrosity and Race in the Late Middle Ages,” in The Ashgate Research Companion to Monsters and the Monstrous, eds. Asa Mittman and Peter Dendle (Ashgate, 2012), pp. 365-386

Presenter:

TASK: Work on the Annotated Bibliography due 2/9

Week 6

M 2/9            NO CLASS - Annotated Bibliography due by 2 pm

W 2/11          Religion and Monstrosity (Non-Christians as Monsters)

Submit your reaction paper before class on Wednesday

Reading:

Secondary Sources:

Bettina Bildhauer, “Blood, Jews, and Monsters in Medieval Culture,” in The Monstrous Middle Ages, eds. Bettina Bildhauer and Robert Mills (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2003), pp. 75-96

Presenter:

Debra Hassing, “The Iconography of Rejection: Jews and Other Monstrous Races,” in Image and Belief, ed. Colum Hourihane (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1999), pp. 25-46

Presenter:

Debra Higgs Strickland, “Saracens, Tartars, and Other Crusader Fantasies,” in Saracens, Demons, and Jews: Making Monsters in Medieval Art (Princeton University Press, 2003), pp. 156-209

Presenter:

Geraldine Heng, The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages (Cambridge University Press, 2018), Ch. 2

Presenter:

TASK: Think about how you want to organize your historiographical essay in preparation for the outline due on 2/23

Week 7

M 2/16           NO CLASS - PRESIDENTS' DAY

W 2/18          Gender and Monstrosity

Submit your reaction paper before class on Wednesday

Reading:

Secondary Sources:

Sarah Allison Miller, “Gynecological Secrets: Blood, Seed, and Monstrous Births in De Secretis Mulierum,” in Medieval Monstrosity and the Female Body (New York: Routledge, 2010), pp. 55-89

Presenter:

Dana Oswald, “Monstrous Gender: Geographies of Ambiguity,” in The Ashgate Research Companion to Monsters and the Monstrous, eds. Asa Mittman and Peter Dendle (Ashgate, 2012), pp. 343-363 

Presenter:

TASK: Work on the outline due on 2/23

Week 8

M 2/23          Outline of Historiographical Essay due by 2 pm (we will be peer-reviewing outlines in class)

W 2/25          Werewolves

Submit your reaction paper before class on Wednesday

Reading:

Primary Source:

Marie de France, “Bisclavret,” in The Lais of Marie de France, trans. Robert Hanning and Joan Ferrante (Baker Books: Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1995), pp. 92-104 

Secondary Sources:

David Leshock, “The Knight of the Werewolf: Bisclavret and the Shape-shifting Metaphor,” Romance Quarterly 46:3 (1999), pp. 155-165

Presenter:

Lucas Wood, "Of Werewolves and Wicked Women,"Medium AEvum 84/1 (2015): 60-88

Presenter:

Week 9

M 3/2            The Icelandic Draugr

Reading:

Primary Source:

“Grettir’s Fight with Glam” in The Viking Age: A Reader, eds. Angus Somerville and R. Andrew McDonald (University of Toronto Press, 2010), pp. 115-124

Secondary Sources:

William Sayers, “The Alien and Alienated as Unquiet Dead in the Sagas of the Icelanders,” in Monster Theory: Reading Culture, ed. Jeffrey Jerome Cohen (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996), pp. 242-263

Presenter:

Janice Hawes, “The Monstrosity of Heroism: Grettir Asmundarson as an Outsider,” Scandinavian Studies 80:1 (2008), pp. 19-50

Presenter:

W 3/4          Anglo-Norman Revenants

Submit your reaction paper before class on Wednesday

Reading:

Primary Sources:

Walter Map, De nugis curialum, Distinction II, Ch. 27, 28, and 30 

William of Newburgh, Historia rerum Anglicarum, Book V, Ch. 22-24

Secondary Sources:

Stephen Gordon, “Monstrous Words, Monstrous Bodies: Irony and the Walking Dead in Walter Map’s De nugis curialium,” English Studies 96 (2015), pp. 379–402

Presenter:

Stephen Gordon, “Social monsters and the walking dead in William of Newburgh’s Historia rerum Anglicarum,” Journal of Medieval History 41/4 (2015), pp. 446-465

Presenter:

TASK: Work on the Draft of the Historiographical Essay due 3/10 by 5 pm

Week 10

M 3/9              NO CLASS (work on your historiographical essays)

T 3/10             Drafts of historiographical essays due by 5 pm

W 3/11           Peer reviewing drafts of historiographical essays in class

Final versions of historiographical essays are due Wednesday, March 18, by 11:59 pm.