Interdisciplinary Concentration in Medieval and Renaissance Studies

This concentration was created for English majors interested in deepening their knowledge of the cultures of the Middle Ages and Renaissance through interdisciplinary study. It thus requires that in addition to taking upper level courses in Medieval and Renaissance English literature, majors also explore these periods from the perspective of other academic disciplines including, but not limited to, the history of art and architecture, foreign literatures, philosophy, religious studies, and history. It is hoped that the breadth of knowledge and intellectual flexibility that interdisciplinary study fosters will enable students in this concentration to undertake more complex kinds of research projects and achieve more sophisticated levels of critical thinking and writing than might otherwise have been possible. Majors who complete all the requirements for this course of study will be granted a B.A. in English with an Interdisciplinary Concentration in Medieval and Renaissance Studies.

Concentration Requirements:

6 units, including

A. English 308 / ID 390: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Middle Ages and Renaissance

B. Two courses

One 300- or 400-level course in Medieval literature

One 300- or 400-level course in Renaissance literature

These courses may be chosen from among the following:

English 301: Literature of the Middle Ages

English 302: Literature of the English Renaissance

English 304: Shakespeare

English 309: Desire and Identity in the Renaissance: The Lyric Tradition

English 330: Selected Topics in Literature Before the Early to Mid-19^th Century

(when the topic is in Medieval or Renaissance literature)

English 400: Junior/Senior Seminar (when the topic is in Medieval or Renaissance

literature, such as single author seminars on Milton or Chaucer)

C. Three courses from at least two different departments outside the English department.

These courses may be chosen from among the following:

Art 309 Image and Icon in Medieval Art

Art 310 Late Antique and Early Christian Art

Art 311 Medieval Byzantine Art, 600-1453

Art 312 Medieval Art in Western Europe, 8th-15th Centuries

Art 314: Northern Renaissance Art

Art 315: Art of the Italian Renaissance

Art 316: Art in the Age of Reform

French 325: Medieval and Early Modern Society

French 411: The French Middle Ages

French 421: Renaissance

History 225: Medieval Italy

History 226: The Early Middle Ages

History 227: The High Middle Ages

History 228 The Medieval Economy: Pre-Industrial Europe, 500-1500

History 229: Medieval England

History 230: The Renaissance

History 233 Reformation Europe

Italian 423: Le Tre Corone: Dante, Petrarca and Boccaccio

LAIS 421: Arabs, Jews and Christians from Frontier to Empire: Medieval Spanish

Literature

LAIS 431: Imperial Spain: The Age of Conflict

LAIS 432: True Lies: Fiction and Truth in Don Quijote

MLC 357: The Idea of the Renaissance: Self, History and Knowledge

MLC 358: Desire and Identity in the Renaissance: The Lyric Tradition

(crosslisted as English 309)

Music 343: The Mass from Plainchant to Pärt

Political Science 311: Political Theory: Plato to Locke

Religion: 247 Women and Christianity: Origins through Middle Ages

Religion 356: Religious Thought of the Renaissance and Reformation

Religion 258: Medieval Religious Thought

Religion 273: Witchcraft and Its Interpreters

Rhetoric and Communications 325: Medieval to Modern Rhetorics

Special courses in Medieval and Renaissance topics which are offered only infrequently may be substituted with prior approval from the Concentration Coordinator.

D. A final critical paper examining one or more works relevant to the major will be completed in the junior or senior year, preferably as the final project in E308/ID390 or in another appropriate upper-division English course with prior approval from the concentration coordinator.

Students will also be encouraged to consider enrolling in any number of the following courses. These courses will not, however, count toward the concentration

Art 221: Survey I: Prehistory through the Middle Ages

Art 222: Survey II: Renaissance to the Present

Classics 301: Greek Art and Archeology

Classics 302: Roman Art and Archeology

Classics 306: The Classical Tradition

English 234: Shakespeare

French 431: Le Siècle Classique

Greek 301: Greek Epic

Greek 302: Greek Drama

History 110: Ideas and Institutions of Western Civilization I

History 223: The Roman Empire

Philosophy 281: Philosophy of Art