Complete
Course Descriptions
How to use this Listing: Unless otherwise noted, all course listings are SMU course designations. This list is organized by discipline and then by subject.
Art History-Architecture-Romanesque
French Romanesque Architecture (ARHS
3330)
Campus: SMU.
Description: Information available upon request.
Seminar in Medieval Art: the Romanesque
Cloister in Spain and France (ARHS 5320)
Campus: SMU.
Description: This seminar examines the many questions that surround the rise, development, function and design of the historiated cloister, perhaps the most characteristic of all European Romanesque monuments. Readings and discussion will consider both well-known French and Spanish examples, such as the cloisters of Silos and Moissac, and equally intriguing monuments which still await serious study. Problems to be explored include the origins of the cloister form, the development and role of the historiated cloister capital, the questions presented by iconography and program, and the varying function and meaning of the cloister itself within the medieval world.
Art History—Architecture—Gothic
French Gothic Architecture
of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries. (ARHS 4327)
Campus: SMU.
Description: Traces the development of Gothic Architecture from its origins in the Paris region in the second quarter of the twelfth century, through the High Gothic period, to the European diffusion of the Court Style in the mid-thirteenth century.
Studies in Medieval Art:
Aspects of Late Gothic Architecture, a Survey.
(ARHS 5321)
Campus: SMU.
Description: Information available upon request.
Art History—Byzantine & Early Christian.
Byzantine Art.
(ARHS 3328)
Campus: SMU.
Description: The art of the Byzantine Empire from the end of Iconoclasm through the fourteenth century, examining both major media—gold mosaics, mural painting, manuscript illumination, ivory carving, and enamel—and the role that this art played in the lives, thoughts, and writings of its contemporaries.
Early
Christian Art. (ARHS 4329 / HX 4329)
Campus: SMU.
Description: The move from “metamorphoses of the gods” to Incarnation was fundamentally important for the role of the image in Western culture. This seminar will engage students of art history, theology, and medieval studies in exploring the image in early Christianity. It will examine the emergence of a distinctively Christian visual culture, the functions and communicative strategies of its images, and the role they played in both the religious and the cultural development of early Christianity. It will also explore the theories developed by Christians to define the powers of images, to defend or decry their specifically religious import, and to determine images’ proper place in Christian worship and theology. Team-taught by professors from art history and the Perkins School of Theology, the seminar will include lecture and group discussion sessions and require each student to present a significant research paper.
Art History—The Crusades.
Age of the Crusades.
(ARHS 3325)
Campus: SMU.
Description: This course looks at the art of the various Christian cultures that were swept into the Crusades—especially the northern European, Italian, Byzantine, and Armenian—and examines both the changes and the interchanges that characterize the period between 1096 and 1291.
Art History—The East.
Islamic Art &
Architecture: the Creation of a New Art. (ARHS 3322 /
CF 2313)
Campus: SMU.
Description: This course will treat issues significant to the creation and expansion of Islamic art from the seventh to the fifteenth century. Topics to be discussed include the cultural and political exchange and conflict between Muslims and Christians; religious concerns and the artistic forms created to meet them; the importance of the book in Muslim culture; the distinctions between religious and secular art and the appropriation of sacred space in Muslim architecture.
Art History—The Franks.
Carolingian and Ottonian Art. (ARHS
3324)
Campus: SMU.
Description: This course studies the emergence of medieval art in the hands of the great patrons and their artists from Charlemagne through Henry IV of Germany.
Art History—General / Survey.
Medieval Art. (ARHS
3321)
Campus: SMU.
Description: This introduction to the medieval millennium—ce 300 to 1300—examines five functional categories for which western Europe, Byzantium, and Islam all created major artistic forms: the congregational worship space, the sacred image, the court, the site of pilgrimage, and the urban religious center. The course lays a basis for further, more specialized courses in western medieval, Byzantine, or Islamic art.
Medieval Art. (UD designation: ART 5365/no
SMU designation)
Campus: UD.
Description: A history of art and architecture of the Romanesque and/or Gothic periods. The instructor may choose to emphasize a particular aspect of medieval art.
Art History—Italy
Art and the Italian Commune, 1250–1348.
(ARHS 3326)
Campus: SMU.
Description: The interplay of artistic styles, workshop practice, religious change and political controversy in the century between St. Francis and the Black Death, emphasizing the art of the Pisani, Cimabue, Cavallini, Giotto, Duccio, and the Lorenzetti.
The City of Florence:
1300–1450. (ARHS 4345)
Campus: SMU.
Description: This course examines the artistic and historical development of the city of Florence between 1300 and 1450. The course will begin with a survey of the great building campaigns which began around 1300 and follow the growth and development of the city into the early Renaissance. Within the architectural contest of these monuments, major developments in sculpture and painting will also be examined.
Art History—Spain
Spanish Art I: Altamira
to Alhambra. (ARHS 3341)
Campus: SMU.
Description: This course surveys the astonishing variety of Ancient and Medieval art in Spain, from the earliest cave paintings to the court art of Ferdinand and Isabella. The course will examine works produced by the many peoples and culture that inhabited the Iberian Peninsula until 1492, including Bronze Age, Iberian, Roman, Visigothic, Romanesque, Gothic, Jewish, Islamic architecture, sculpture, painting, and sumptuary objects. Special attention will be given to issues of cultural interaction, especially that of Muslims, Jews, and Christians during the Middle Ages. As the course progresses, we will strive to answer this question: “Exactly what is ‘Spanish’ about Spanish art?”
Convivencia:
Jewish, Muslim, and Christian Art in Spain. (ARHS 5340)
Campus: SMU.
Description: This seminar examines the art and architecture produced in Iberia between the tenth and the fourteenth centuries in order to illuminate the contacts, conflicts, and compromises that affected each culture’s artistic traditions and to explore the diverse heritage of “Spanish” art.
Cultural Formations:
(An SMU Interdisciplinary Designation).
Islamic Art & Architecture: the Creation of a New Art.
(CF 2313 / ARHS 3322)
Campus: SMU.
see above under: Art History—the East.
The World of King Arthur. (CF 3302 / ENGL
3329 / MDVL 3329)
Campus: SMU.
see below under: [English]—Romance & Arthurian Studies.
The Birth of the Individual. (CF 3321
/ MDVL 3321)
Campus: SMU.
see below under: Medieval Studies—the Medieval World-view.
The Unicorn: Understanding Varieties of Truth in the Middle
Ages. (CF 3340 / MDVL 3327)
Campus: SMU.
see below under: Medieval Studies—the Medieval Imagination.
The Pilgrimage: Images of Medieval Culture.
(CF 3351 / MDVL 3351)
Campus: SMU.
see below under: Medieval Studies—the Medieval World-view.
Ideas and Ideals of Gender in the Middle Ages.
(CF 3352 / MDVL 3352)
Campus: SMU.
see below under: Medieval Studies—the Medieval World-view.
Medieval Ideas. (CF 3353 / MDVL 3353)
Campus: SMU.
see below under: Medieval Studies—the Medieval World-view.
Joan of Arc in History, Literature, and Film.
(CF 3363 / ENGL 3357 / HIST 3357)
Campus: SMU.
see below under: History—Personalities.
Drama—General / Survey.
Theater Literature I. (UD designation: DRA 3335 / no
SMU designation).
Campus: UD.
Description: A study of major works of dramatic literature from Æschylus to Congreve.
Divinity (SMU).
Early Christian Art. (HX 4329 / ARHS 4329)
Campus: SMU.
see above under: Art History—Byzantine & Early Christian.
[note: some courses listed under “english” do not deal exclusively with english-language literature, all however are taught in english].
[English]—Characters.
Joan of Arc in History, Literature, and Film.
(ENGL 3357 / CF 3363 / HIST
3357)
Campus: SMU.
see below under: History—Personalities.
[English]—Chaucer.
Chaucer’s Earlier
Work. (ENGL 4323/6323)
Campus: SMU.
Description: Introduction to the early poetry of Geoffrey Chaucer, to medieval poetics, and to reading skills in Middle English.
Chaucer’s
Canterbury Tales. (ENGL 4324/6324)
Campus: SMU.
Description: Readings of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales through a double-perspective lens of sorts: medieval thought and contemporary criticism. The secondary objective is to introduce, and in some cases to extend, the learner’s knowledge of medieval poetics and her reading skills in Middle English.
[English]—Dante.
Dante: the Divine Comedy. (UD designation: ENG 4370 / SMU designation: FL 3381) Campus: UD.
Description: A study of the works of Dante with emphasis upon The Divine Comedy and Dante as the greatest poetic exponent of medieval Christendom’s understanding of the analogical character of being.
[English]—Desire in Medieval Literature & Life.
Seminar: Desire in Medieval Literature. (ENGL
6392)
Campus: SMU.
Subject: Seminar subjects vary. Texts examined are not exclusively of English origin.
[English]—General / Survey.
Medieval English Literature. (ENGL
3321)
Campus: SMU.
Description: Survey of a thousand years of English literature, from the Anglo-Saxon period, through the high Middle Ages and the works of Chaucer’s contemporaries, to the late Middle Ages and the dawn of the Renaissance.
Medieval Poetry. (UD designation: ENG 3323 / SMU designation: FL 3382) Campus: UD.
Description: A study of Anglo-Saxon and Medieval poetry, narrative, and drama, with special emphasis on the importance of the Bible and biblical typology in the determination of medieval themes and patterns. Authors treated include Chaucer, the Pearl Poet, Malory, and others.
[English]—Language.
The History of the English Language.
(ENGL 5376)
Campus: SMU.
Description: An intensive study of the development of the English language from its isolated Anglo-Saxon progenitor to its present global and multiple form.
[English]—Readings.
Readings in Medieval
Literature. (ENGL 6321 & ENGL 6322)
Campus: SMU.
Description: By arrangement. Texts examined need not be exclusively of English origin. Prerequisite: candidacy for the m.a. degree in medieval studies and permission of that program’s director.
[English]—Romance & Arthurian Studies.
Chivalry. (ENGL
1325)
Campus: SMU.
Description: The development of the ideal of chivalry from its origins in the medieval legends of King Arthur to its manifestations in modern literature.
The
World of King Arthur. (ENGL 3329 / CF 3302 / MDVL 3329)
Campus: SMU.
Description: This course studies Britain’s greatest native hero and one of the world’s most compelling story stocks: the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.
Allegory and Romance.
(ENGL 4320/6320)
Campus: SMU.
Description: A study of representative masterworks of the two most important genres in Middle English; related source texts, manuscript contexts, early “theoretical” commentaries, and landmark modern critical approaches will be studied. Indispensable for the serious student of medieval literature.
Arthurian Romance. (UD designation: ENG
5320 / no SMU designation).
Campus: UD.
Description: An approach to a medieval genre—romance—and a medieval theme—fin’ amors—through the study of the major literary manifestations of the medieval Arthurian legend. Authors and texts studied may vary, but as a rule special emphasis will be given to the twelfth-century verse romances of Chrétien de Troyes and Sir Thomas Malory’s fifteenth-century “reduction” of the legend into English prose.
[English]—Welsh Language & Literature.
Tales of Wales from the Time of King
Arthur. (ENGL 3323)
Campus: SMU.
Description: Survey of native Welsh literature (in translation) from the sixth to the twentieth century. The primary focus of this course will be medieval and Arthurian texts and their influence on the British and European literary imagination.
French—Language: Old French.
Introduction to Old French. (UD designations:
MFR 5357 / HUM 6377 / no SMU designation)
Campus: UD.
Description: This course introduces the learner to the Old French language (9th century to 1400) and some of the great authors, titles, and genres of medieval French literature (ca. 1100 to 1500). By its completion, the student will be armed with the tools necessary for reading in the original language texts such as the Chanson de Roland, the Roman de la Rose, and the Quête du Saint-Graal, and authors such as Chrétien de Troyes, Marie de France, Thomas d’Angleterre, Rutebeuf, Joinville, Froissart, Christine de Pisan, François Villon…. Prerequisite: good reading knowledge of modern french.
French—Literature & Culture.
Medieval and Renaissance French Literature. (UD
designation: MFR 3322 / no SMU designation)
Campus:
UD.
Description: From the poetic view of feudal society presented in the Chanson de Roland to the philosophical lessons of Montaigne, early French literature presents a wide variety of forms and embraces all manner of causes: courtly ideals, bourgeois aspirations, crusading piety, and zeal for the New Learning. The course follows the evolution and accomplishments of French literature in its first six hundred years.
.
Introduction to French Literature &
Culture I: Middle Ages to Louis XIV. (FREN 4379)
Campus: SMU.
Description: Survey of French social, cultural, and literary histories from the time of Charlemagne to the end of the reign of Louis XIV. Prerequisites: fren 3355 and 3356. meets perspectives requirement for literature at SMU.
German—Literature & Culture.
German Literary Tradition I. (UD designation: MGE 3321 / no SMU designation). Campus: UD.
Description: The first half of German Literary Tradition provides a chronological survey of German literature from around 800 to approximately 1700. Significant texts from Old High German and medieval epics to lyrical poetry, plays, early novels and dramas will be introduced and discussed. Emphasis is placed on the tools of analysis specific to German literary studies and criticism. Reading, discussing, and writing about important texts affords understanding of literature and reinforcement of advanced language skills. fall, odd numbered years.
Greek—Authors.
Greek Historians: Herodotus.
(UD designations: CLG 3325/5301 / POL 6377 / SMU designation:
GRE 3325)
Campus:
UD.
Description: Readings in Herodotus or Thucydides or both. A study of their aims, methods and distinctive styles, and a consideration of the principles in terms of which they understand historical action.
Homer. (UD designation: CLG 3327 / no
SMU designation)
Campus: UD.
Description: Extensive reading from either the Iliad or the Odyssey. Study of the Homeric world, Homeric language and poetic style. offered every other year.
Plato. (UD designations:
CLG 3328 / POL 7377 / SMU designation: GRE 3328).
Campus: UD.
Description: Reading of one or more of Plato’s dialogues with an emphasis upon their literary form and philosophic content. offered every other year.
Greek—Elementary Language.
Elementary Greek
I& II. (UD designations: CLG 1301 & CLG 1302 /
SMU designations: GRE 1301 & GRE 1302)
Campus: UD.
Description: Essentials of the grammar and syntax of ancient Greek, both classical and koine. Reading of easy passages from classical prose writers and the New Testament. Understanding of the Greek elements of Western culture. fall and sprin
Greek—Intermediate Language.
Intermediate Greek
I& II. (UD designations: CLG 2311 and CLG 2312 / SMU
designations: GRE 2311 and GRE 2312)
Campus: UD.
Description: Grammar review and study of more advanced syntactical structures. Selected readings from classical Greek prose and poetry.
Greek—Grammar & Composition.
Advanced Grammar and Composition. (UD
designation: CLG 3324 / no SMU designation)
Campus: UD.
Description: required for majors whose primary language is greek. offered every other year.
.
Greek—Literary Genres.
Greek Tragedy. (UD designation: CLG 3326
/ no SMU designation)
Campus: UD.
Description: Reading of one of the tragedies of Æschylus, Sophocles, or Euripides, focusing on drama as a means of investigating human nature and the relationship between man and the city. offered every other year.
Greek—New Testament & Patristic Studies.
New Testament Readings. (UD designation:
CLG 3334 / no SMU designation).
Campus: UD.
Description: Longer continuous passages of the Gospels and one letter of Paul are analyzed in language and literary form as well as in their historical and theological contexts. offered every other year.
Patristic Readings. (UD designation: CLG
3335 / no SMU designation)
Campus: UD.
Description: An introduction to the rich tradition of Greek patristic literature that analyzes texts of four or five major writers from the second to the fifth century, usually including Ignatius, Athanasius, one of the Cappadocians, Cyril of Jerusalem, and John Chrysostom. offered as needed.
History—Augustine.
City of God: Utopias in the Christian
Tradition. (HIST 5364).
Campus: SMU.
Description: A seminar concentrating on Augustine’s seminal masterpiece within the context of antecedents and influence: e.g., Plato’s Republic, Cicero’s Commonwealth, some Roman historians, Otto of Freising’s Tale of Two Cities, and More’s Utopia.
Seminar in European History: the Confessions
and the Western Autobiographical Tradition. (HIST 5392)
Campus: SMU.
Description: A study of the western autobiographical tradition from its origins in St. Augustine’s Confessions through its twelfth century revival by Abelard and Guibert to its pre-modern and modern emanations in Rousseau and others.
History—The Christian Church.
Church History I. (UD designations: HIS
3334 / THE 5311 / no SMU designation)
Campus: UD.
Description: The development of the Christian Church from the apostolic community to the thirteenth century.
Church History II. (UD designations: HIS
3335 / THE 5312 / no SMU designation)
Campus: UD.
Description: The development of the Christian Church from the thirteenth century to the time of Vatican II.
History—The Crusades.
The Crusades. (UTD designation: HST 3317
/ no SMU designation)
Campus: UTD.
Description: This course explores three phases in the history of the of the entrenched hostility and mutual incomprehension of Christian Europe and the Islamic world during the Middle Ages: (1) the initial Arab conquests of much of the Christian Roman Empire; (2) the beginning of the reversal of that process with the eleventh-century Spanish reconquista, the Norman conquest of Sicily, and the establishment of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, ending with the fall of Acre in 1291 during a century in which the Mongol onslaught dominated Middle Eastern history; and (3) the renewed resurgence of Islam spearheaded by the Ottoman conquests in Anatolia and the Balkans, culminating in the conquest of Constantinople in 1453. Geographically, the focus of the course will be the eastern Mediterranean world—Turkey, Syria, and Egypt—with diversions westward to Sicily and Spain, and eastward into the Mongol Empire.
The Age of the Crusades. (HIST
3352)
Campus: SMU.
Description: An exploration of the patterns of thought and behavior underlying and motivating the military, ideological, and general cultural confrontation between Christendom and Islam from the late eleventh to the fourteenth centuries.
History—Cultural Movements.
Medieval Renaissances. (HIST
5378)
Campus: SMU.
Description: A reading and discussion seminar in two bursts of medieval cultural activity, the Carolingian and Twelfth-Century Renaissances. Focus on two case studies (Alcuin and John of Salisbury).
History—The East.
The Ancient, Near and Middle East from Abraham to Muhammad. (UTD
designation: HST 3348 / no SMU designation)
Campus: UTD.
Description: A survey from the Bronze Age, through the ancient empires of Biblical times and the Hellenistic, Parthian, and Sasanid kingdoms, to the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad.
.
Ancient and Medieval India. (UTD designation:
hst 3353 / no SMU designation)
[Formerly (UTD): “India Before the Coming of the Europeans”]
Campus: UTD.
Description: A survey of the Hindu, Buddhist and Islamic civilizations of the Indian sub-continent, with emphasis upon the period of Muslim hegemony (eleventh to seventeenth centuries). The focus of the course will be the eleventh- and twelfth-century invasions of northern India by armies of Central Asian Turkish slave-soldiers, leading to the establishment of the Delhi sultanate; the spread of Islam into Bengal, Gujarat and the Deccan; and the gradual absorption of Hindu polities into an expanding Muslim state-system, culminating in the rule of the Great mughals.
.
Islam and the Middle East, AD 622 to
1500. (UTD designation: HST 3350 / SMU
designation: HIST 4325).
Campus: UTD.
Description: The time-span of this lecture-course extends from the Arab conquests of the seventh and eighth centuries, and the subsequent diffusion of Arabo-Islamic civilization from the Atlantic to the Pamirs under the aegis of the Caliphs of Damascus and Baghdad, Cordoba, and Cairo, down to the rule of the Timurids. Of particular concern will be the processes whereby diverse peoples and cultures were integrated into the Dar al-Islam, while retaining and transmitting significant elements of their pre-Islamic heritage (e.g., the case of Sasanid Iran).
History—England.
History of England I. (UD designation:
HIS 3321 / no SMU designation)
Campus: UD.
Description: A survey of English history from Celtic times to the end of the Tudor period. Topics include the Roman conquest, the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, the Norman conquest and its consequences, the development of common law and parliament, the effects of the Hundred Years War, the Tudor monarchy, the English Reformation, and the Elizabethan age.
Medieval England 1066 to 1485. (UTD designation: HST 3339 /
no SMU designation).
[Formerly (UTD): “Hist. of England to 1485”].
Campus: UTD.
Description: This course is a survey of English history from the Norman Conquest to the accession of the Tudor dynasty, concentrating upon the institutions of monarchy and nobility, Church and Parliament, the courts of Common Law and the universities. Since it was in periods of internal crisis and lackluster leadership that the governance of England most clearly displayed its resilience and capacity for innovation, emphasis will be put upon the constitutional crises associated with the Provisions of Oxford (1258), the Ordinances of 1311, the Appeal of Treason of 1387–88, and Henry VI’s failure to provide “good lordship” between 1437 and 1461.
Oxford’s England: the Early and Medieval
Experiment. The Oxford Landscape: from the Stone Age to the Tudors.
(HIST 3344)
Campus: (SMU-in-Oxford).
Description: An exploration of several approaches to the development of the distinctive human “landscape” of the Upper Thames Valley and the city that gradually became its metropolis, from the paleolithic era to the end of the Middle Ages.
England in Medieval and Early Modern
Times. (HIST 3345)
Campus: (SMU-in-Oxford).
Description: Treats selected themes in the history of England to 1688, with special attention to formative periods and developments in the evolution of the English state.
Constitutional and Legal History of England.
(UD designation: HIS 3337 / SMU designation: HIST 4322).
Campus: UD.
Description: A survey of English constitutional and legal development from the Anglo-Saxon invasions to the beginning of the Tudor period. The emphasis is on the ways in which law reflects society and how societal needs determine the law. Special attention is given to the origin and development of two fundamental institutions: the Anglo-American judicial system and representative government.
Anglo-Saxon Origins: the Formation of
England. (UTD designation: HST 3338 / SMU
designation: HIST 4326)
Campus: UTD.
Description: For nearly four centuries, the province of Britannia was a remote outpost of the Roman Empire. But around ad 410, the last legions were recalled and for the following six and a half centuries, the island was subjected to invasion by Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, by Danes and Norwegians, and finally, in 1066, by the Normans. Thus, this lecture-course will explore the extended process whereby Roman Britain became medieval England. Apart from the intrinsic interest of the subject matter, this course has an additional objective: to demonstrate to students the diverse range of source materials which the historian may employ to reconstruct the past: in this case, archaeological, epigraphic, numismatic, archival, and literary evidence, in addition to art objects, folklore, place names, and fieldwork in local history and topography.
Early and Medieval England from the Beginning
to 1485. (HIST 4384)
Campus: SMU.
Description: The early historical heritage of the English peoples, from prehistoric times through the end of the Middle Ages.
History—France.
History of France I. (UD designation:
HIS 3323 / no SMU designation)
Campus: UD.
Description: The old regime from the High Middle Ages to the eve of the French Revolution. Special consideration given to the political evolution of France and the impact of a developing absolutism on traditional society.
Ancient and Medieval France.
(HIST 3332)
Campus: SMU.
Description: An exploration of selected themes that dominate the current history, archaeology, and historiography of ancient and medieval France, from the paleolithic cave painters to Joan of Arc.
History—General / Survey.
Medieval Europe. (UTD designation: HST
3318 / no SMU designation)
Campus: UTD.
Description: The subject matter of this lecture course is the history of Europe from the fall of the Roman Empire to the fifteenth century. This was the springtime of European civilization, of Benedictine spirituality and the building of the Romanesque and Gothic cathedrals, of feudalism and chivalry, of the Twelfth-Century Renaissance and the rise of the universities, of Abelard and Aquinas, St. Francis and the mendicant orders, and of the emerging national monarchies which would become the nation-states of the future. Regional emphasis upon the Holy Roman Empire and the Iberian peninsula.
Life in the Medieval World, AD 306–1095.
(HIST 3350)
Campus: SMU.
Description: A survey of the political, religious, and cultural history of Western Europe from Constantine the Great to the First Crusade.
Life in the Medieval World, AD 1095–1350.
(HIST 3351)
Campus: SMU.
Description: A survey course sweeping from the generation of the First Crusade to the general systemic cataclysm of the Black Death, topically organized around political structures (sacred and secular monarchies and republics), social structures (the classes, the sexes, and mobility among them), and intellectual structures (from the wandering scholars to the university).
Medieval Europe I. (UD designation: HIS 3307 / SMU designation: HIST 4320) Campus: UD.
Description: Beginning with the decline of the Roman Empire and the rise of the Germanic successor states, the course surveys the development of medieval western civilization through the eleventh century. Topics include the expansion of Christianity, the Byzantine state, the Carolingian systems, the Ottonian age, the investiture controversy, and the crusading movement.
Medieval Europe II.
(UD designation: HIS 3308 / SMU designation: HIST 4321)
Campus: UD.
Description: A survey of the political, social, economic, religious, and intellectual aspects of medieval civilization from the twelfth century to the fifteenth. Topics include the Twelfth-Century Renaissance, the development of papal power, the growth of national states, and the transition from medieval to modern world.
History—Germany.
History of Germany I. (UD designation:
HIS 3325 / no SMU designation)
Campus: UD.
Description: Medieval Germany was the center of a revived Roman Empire which recovered rapidly from the disintegration of Carolingian rule and the Viking invasions. The Saxon and Salian dynasties ruled the most effective state of their time—a state which elicited and patronized the Ottonian Renaissance. The impact of the medieval reformation was devastating to the imperial constitution, and Germany became the weakest and most divided nation of the Late Middle Ages. This set the stage for the Reformation and the disintegration of the idea and reality of Empire in the Thirty Years War.
History—Ireland.
History of Ireland.
(UD designation: HIS 3327 / SMU designation: HIST 4323)
Campus: UD.
Description: Pre-historic Ireland and the contributions of the Celts to Ireland and Europe; the flourishing of Irish culture in the Early Middle Ages and the effects of the Viking, Norman, and English Invasions; the impact of the British occupations and efforts to achieve independence. Throughout the emphasis will be on the Irish search for self-identity as reflected in politics, art, literature, and religion.
.
History—Personalities.
Joan
of Arc in History, Literature, and Film. (HIST 3357 / CF 3363 / ENGL 3357)
Campus: SMU.
Description: A systematic, inter-disciplinary study of this enigmatic peasant girl who changed the world.
History—Philosophical & Religious.
Philosophical and Religious Thought in
the Medieval West. (HIST 2321)
Campus: SMU.
Description: This course explores the interaction of Hebrew and Greek conceptions of the higher wisdom, as expressed in Christian thought about God, the human, law, virtues and vices, and the nature of human discourse during the period 300–1450 ad/ce. It tracks the conflicts and agreements between these two cultural legacies as the new culture of intellectual Christianity came to maturity in Western Europe, posing new questions as well as finding new answers to old ones.
Medieval Spirituality.
(UD designations: HIS 4357 / THE 4357 / SMU designation:
HIST 4324).
Campus: UD.
Description: An examination, employing primary matter, of the modes of medieval spirituality, monastic and non-monastic, beginning with Benedict and ending with Gerard Zerbolt of Zutphen.
History—Spain.
History of Spain I. (UD designation: HIS
3328 / no SMU designation).
Campus: UD.
Description: A survey of Spanish history from antiquity through the reign of the Catholic monarchs. Topics include the Romanization of the Iberian peninsula, the development of Spain’s national characteristics and sense of purpose through the long medieval conflict—known as the Reconquest—between the Christian and Islamic kingdoms, Spain’s cultural achievements in the thirteenth century, Aragon’s expansion into the Mediterranean, and the unification of the four Spanish kingdoms by Ferdinand and Isabel.
History of Spain to 1492.
(HIST 4380)
Campus: SMU.
Description: The main social, political, and cultural topics of the history of the Iberian Peninsula before Ferdinand and Isabel, focusing on the Roman and medieval periods.
History—Topical.
Topics in Medieval History. (UD designation:
HIS 3309 / no SMU designation).
Campus: UD.
Description: A detailed study of selected aspects of western medieval civilization. Students will make presentations based on a variety of primary and secondary source materials.
Humanities:
(An Interdisciplinary Designation of the University of Dallas).
Augustinian Legacies. (UD designations:
hum 6377 / the 6377 / no SMU designation)
Campus: UD.
Description: The influence of St. Augustine of Hippo (ad 354–430) on the medieval and early modern West was profound. For the new society that would form after the collapse of the Roman Empire, Augustine provided the classic and authoritative expression of the Christian view of human nature, society, and the divine. This course seeks to understand Augustine not so much as a “classic,” but rather as a brilliant and innovative thinker who introduced important new concepts and insights into Western thought and who has continued to have a fruitful influence on similarly creative in the cenuturies since his death. Hence, after a few weeks studying Augustine himself, we will turn to a variety of authors, some medieval and some modern, some within the Augustinian theological tradition and some decidedly not, who have been creatively inspired by their acquaintance with Augustine. By this means, we hope to come to appreciate in a very concrete way the continuing fertility of Augustine’s thought.
Latin—Authors.
Virgil. (UD designation: CLL 3330
/ no SMU designation)
Campus: UD.
Description: Aeneid. A reading of selections from the poem in Latin and a study of the poem as a whole in translation. offered as needed.
Cicero. (UD designation: CLL 3332 / no
SMU designation).
Campus: UD.
Description: Translation of one of Cicero’s works and study, primarily in translation, of additional writings of his with emphasis on his understanding of the education of the statesman in oratory and philosophy. offered as needed.
Augustine. (UD designation: CLL 3334
/ no SMU designation)
Campus: UD.
Description: The course will attempt to present a complete protrait of St. Augustine and his œuvre through a study of selected passages in the original Latin. We will begin with a quick look at some of Augustine’s Christian Latin predecessors, especially in Africa (Tertullian, Cyprian, with a jaunt North to include Ambrose of Milan). Passages from the works of Augustine we will study come principally from the Confessions and the City of God, but we will also take a look at other genres Augustine excelled in (sermons, letters, biblical exegesis, theological studies, polemics). offered every other year.
Latin—Elementary Language.
Elementary Latin I& II. (UD designations:
CLL 1301 & CLL1302 / no SMU designations)
Campus: UD.
Description: Latin grammar and syntax with some emphasis on the historical background of the language and the principles of word-formation. reading of simple texts. fall and spring.
First Year Latin (First
Semester). (LATN 1301)
Campus: SMU.
Description: Knowledge of Latin facilitates the mastery of other foreign languages and of various disciplines such as history, art, medicine, biology, law, music, comparative literature, and linguistics, just to name a very few. This course presents the most essential linguistic material to build a solid foundation in Latin. The use of original Latin authors, with emphasis on Ciceronian humanism, leads the student to immediate first-hand knowledge of classical texts. student interaction is stressed; round-table format.
First Year Latin
(Second Semester). (LATN 1302)
Campus: SMU.
Description: Readings from Cicero, Livy, Ovid, and Pliny. Passages from the Vulgate, excerpts from medieval authors.
Latin—Grammar & Composition.
Grammar Review. (UD designation: CLL 1305
/ no SMU designation)
Campus: UD.
Description: Designed for students who have studied the equivalent of at least two years of Latin at the secondary school level but need an intensive review in order to study at the intermediate level. open to students with no prior training in latin by permission of the program advisor. fall only.
Advanced Latin Grammar and Composition. (UD
designation: cll 3324 / SMU designation: LATN 3324)
Campus: UD.
Description: Translation and study of Caesar and Cicero to improve the learner’s grasp of grammar and syntax and to acquire a sense of style. required for majors whose primary language is latin and for those seeking accreditation to teach latin in secondary school. offered every other year.
Latin—Historical Writings.
Roman Historians. (UD designation: CLL
3328 / no SMU designation)
Campus: UD.
Description: Reading in Sallust, Livy, and Tacitus. A study of their aims, methods, and distinctive styles, and a consideration of the analytical and didactic functions of Roman historiography. offered every other year.
Latin—Intermediate Language.
Intermediate Latin I: Roman Prose. (UD
designation: CLL 2311 / no SMU designation)
Campus: UD.
Description: Selected readings of Roman prose writers, primarily Cicero. Prerequisite: Latin 1302, Latin 1305, or equivalent. a placement exam is re-quired for those who have not completed either of these courses. fall and spring.
Intermediate Latin II: Roman Poetry. (UD
designation: CLL 2312 / no SMU designation)
Campus: UD.
Description: Selected readings from the works of Catullus, Virgil, and Ovid. Prerequisite: Latin 2311. fall and spring.
Intermediate Latin II: Ecclesiastical Tradition. (UD
designation: CLL 2314 / no SMU designation)
Campus: UD.
Description: Selections from patristic, medieval, and modern Latin texts, illustrating the history, doctrine, and piety of the Church. may be taken by permission of the program advisor. offered as needed.
Second Year Latin
I& II. (LATN 2311 & LATN 2312)
Campus: SMU.
Description: Second-year Latin is a course in translation from well known works of Roman classical authors such as Cicero, Livy, Ovid, and Pliny. Passages from the Vulgate Bible, excerpts from Bede and Cædmon will be read, along with some other medieval poetry. The historical and cultural background to the readings will be examined.
Latin—Literary Genres.
Roman Lyric. (UD designation: CLL 3326
/ no SMU designation)
Campus: UD.
Description: Selected poems of Catullus, Virgil (Eclogues), and Horace (Odes). A study of the uses, the power, and the diversity of lyric poetry in Latin. offered every other year.
Roman Drama. (UD designation: CLL 3327
/ no SMU designation)
Campus: UD.
Description: Reading of two comedies, one of Plautus and one of Terence; additional readings from a tragedy of Seneca. Emphasis on the specific character of Roman drama, as compared to that of Greece, and on the nature and function of comedy. offered every other year.
Roman Satire. (UD designation: CLL 3329
/ no SMU designation)
Campus: UD.
Description: Reading of the satires of Horace and Juvenal and of the Cena Trimalchionis of Petronius. Consideration of the question of satire as a uniquely Roman invention. offered every as needed.
Roman Elegy. (UD designation: CLL 3331
/ no SMU designation)
Campus: UD.
Description: Readings in Tibullus, Propertius, and Ovid (amores). Investigation of the nature of elegy in Rome and comparison of each elegist’s aims. offered as needed.
Latin—Medieval Language.
Medieval Latin. (UD
designation: medieval readings. CLL 3335/5301 / SMU designation:
LATN 3335).
Campus: UD.
Description: This course explores the rich heritage of medieval Latin literature from the fifth century of Leo the Great to the thirteenth century of Thomas Aquinas and Bonaventure: prose and poetry, texts of history and philosophy, theology and spiritual writings.
Latin—Philosophical Writings.
Roman philosophy.
(UD designation: CLL 3325 / SMU designation: LATN 3325)
Campus: UD.
Description: Reading and study of Lucretius and Cicero, to investigate the nature of philosophic writing and to seek understanding of the peculiarly Roman contribution to the Western philosophical tradition. offered every other year.
Medieval Studies—General / Survey.
An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Studies. (UD
designation: CCS 3100 / no SMU designation)
Campus: UD.
Description: A one-credit course—required for the Medieval and Renaissance Studies Concentration at the University of Dallas—coordinated by the Director of the Center for Contemplative Studies. offered every spring. ordinarily it should be taken in the junior year.
Medieval Studies—The Medieval Imagination.
The
Unicorn: Understanding Varieties of Truth in the
Middle Ages. (MDVL 3327 / CF 3340).
Campus: SMU.
Description: We, as moderns, make distinctions between what we see as verifiable reality (history) and what we see as created, imaginative reality (fiction). This course investigates the question of how history and fiction were perceived in the Middle Ages.
The World of King Arthur. (MDVL 3329
/ ENGL 3329 / CF 3302).
Campus: SMU.
see above under: [english]—romance & arthurian studies.
Medieval Studies—The Medieval World-View.
The Birth of the
Individual. (MDVL 3321 / CF 3321)
Campus: SMU.
Description: This course examines several basic notions pertaining to selfhood, including consciousness, cognition, motivation, personal identity, and decision, as found in medieval texts.
The
Pilgrimage: Images of Medieval Culture. (MDVL 3351 / CF 3351)
Campus: SMU.
Description: This course presents an exploration of the medieval world through one of its own literal and metaphorical images. Moving from Jerusalem, the earthly and heavenly city, students set out through time and space on a pilgrimage to Constantinople, the exotic empire of New Rome. From there they travel to Rome itself and flow across the map of Europe on the pilgrimage roads of the Middle Ages, investigating the pleasures of the way: the music, art, monuments, and literature of a thousand years of human experience called the Middle Ages.
Ideas and Ideals
of Gender in the Middle Ages. (MDVL 3352 / CF 3352)
Campus: SMU.
Description: This team-taught course will focus on the status of women in the Middle Ages, the emergence of sacred and secular law and ideology regarding women, and the impact of ideas regarding the feminine on the development of (mostly) Western thought.
Medieval Ideas.
(MDVL 3353 / CF 3353)
Campus: SMU.
Description: The goal of this course is to present some of the classic achievements of the medieval mind, focusing on those developments that are of continuing interest; where advisable, comparisons and contrasts will be drawn with methods of thinking and solving problems in use in later times. While the main focus will be on Medieval Europe and the adjacent Muslim world, wherever possible, students’ attention will be drawn to developments in other culture areas.
Music History—Directed Studies.
Directed Studies in Music History: the
Middle Ages. (MUHI 4392)
Campus: SMU.
Subject: By arrangement.
Music History—General / Survey.
Survey of Medieval and Renaissance Music.
(MUHI 3253)
Campus: SMU.
Description: A survey of the origins and evolution of musical forms, compositional procedures, performing practices, theoretical treatises, and instruments of Western music from the rise of the Christian Church through the sixteenth century. This course includes a required listening lab. fall semester. Prerequisite: muhi 1202 or instructor approval.
Seminar in Medieval Music.
(MUHI 5339)
Campus: SMU.
Subject: Seminar subjects vary.
Music History—Sources & Styles.
Seminar in Medieval and Renaissance Sources
and Styles. (MUHI 6309)
Campus: SMU.
Description: This course examines the major manuscript sources for music up to 1600 and includes an introduction to notation techniques with specific transcription exercises. Principal genres of composition are examined within their cultural contexts.
Philosophy—General / Survey.
History of Western Philosophy: Medieval.
(PHIL 3355)
Campus: SMU.
Description: A study of the major philosophical theories and movements from the fourth century to the fourteenth.
Medieval Philosophy. (UD designation: PHI 3326 / SMU designation: MDVL 3390)
Campus: UD.
Description: This course will try to provide an outline of the major trends and figures in the development of medieval thought from the time of the Church Fathers to the thirteenth century. Philosophers and philosophical movements that will be afforded special attention include Augustine, the Pseudo-Dionysius, John Scottus Eriugena, John of Salisbury, Averroes, Thomas Aquinas, radical Aristotelianism, and the condemnations of 1277. Throughout the course, we will keep in mind the place which the medieval intellectual tradition occupies in the Western history of ideas (at the confluence of, among others, the Christian, Greek, Roman, Islamic, and Jewish traditions), together with the historical tasks arising from this place. This approach, it is hoped, will enable us to see the interest of studying medieval philosophy in the contemporary, “postmodern” world. Moreover, we will approach medieval philosophy from a point of view which places it firmly in its historical and institutional setting, not neglecting even apparently marginal aspects such as the influence of reading techniques upon the shaping of the medieval mind.
Philosophy—Scholasticism.
The Scholastic Tradition. (UD designation:
PHI 5358 / no SMU designation)
Campus: UD.
Description: What makes the Scholastic tradition a tradition, i.e., a specific way, coherent and systematic, to approach and explain reality? To begin with, there is certainly the particular place which the Scholastic tradition occupies in the history of Western thought and its historical task arising from this place. In other words, there are the values which it received from other, preceding traditions, and there is the way in which it adopted and adapted them. This process of value-transformation was governed by specifically Scholastic “intellectual techniques,” which we will have to analyze. Another issue which we will need to address concerns the structure of the world-view resulting from this transformation. The problem of what the Scholastic tradition excluded by way of condemnation is also extremely important, for these exclusions defined it as much as its positive values. This course, will take a Foucauldian look at Scholastic philosophy, will cover topics as diverse as the layout of medieval manuscripts, medieval doctrines of causality and similarity, the paradox of the witch-hunt and the famous condemnation of 1277.
Political Science—Order.
Morality & Politics. (Ancients, Christians, &
the Advent of Modernity—Plutarch/Cicero, Augustine, Machiavelli). (UD
designations: pol 3312 / (no SMU designation)
Campus: UD.
Description: An examination of ancient, Christian, and modern conceptions of the human soul, morality and the political order. It will focus on the works of Plutarch or Cicero, St. Augustine, and Machiavelli. Special attention is paid to the different analyses of the Roman Republic and the Empire, and the ways of life found in each. fall and spring.
Political Science—Political Philosophy.
Medieval Political Philosophy.
(UD designations: POL 3333/6377 / SMU designation: PLSC
4362)
Campus: UD.
Description: A consideration of the leading thinkers, with particular emphasis on the possible conflict between faith and reason and the various proposed resolutions of the “theological-political problem.” Selections from Islamic, Jewish, and Christian authors.
Political Science—Roman Influences.
Political Regimes: Understandings of
Rome. (UD designations: POL 2312/5303 / SMU
designation: PLSC 4361)
Campus: UD.
Description: This course is concerned with the various understandings of “Rome” as developed in the writings of Plutarch, St. Augustine, and Machiavelli. We address three fundamentally different conceptions of the regime. We begin with the Roman Republic and Empire, consider the effects of the Christian order, and finally turn to address the new modes and orders introduced by Machiavelli.
Religious Studies—Early Christian & New Testament Studies.
Introduction to the New Testament. (RELI
3326)
Campus: SMU.
Description: An introduction to the writings of the New Testament, the formative events, and the persons who played leading roles in the origin of Christianity.
Early Christianity. (RELI
3349)
Campus: SMU.
Description: A study of the major developments in the history of Christianity from ad 100–600. Emphasis is placed on institutional and ideological developments.
Religious Studies—Judaism.
Introduction to Classical Judaism.
(RELI 3320)
Campus: SMU.
Description: An introduction to the study of religion through examination of Judaism. The course will look at central Jewish religious ideas and how they developed within the rabbinic and medieval periods. Special attention will be given to conflicts and controversies, such as Judaism’s rejection of early Christianity, heretical movements within medieval Judaism, and Jewish attitudes toward other religions.
Medieval Judaism. (RELI
3328)
Campus: SMU.
Description: A study of Judaism as it developed during the Middle Ages, with special attention to popular religion, mysticism, and philosophy.
Spanish—History-in-Spanish.
History of Medieval Spain. (UD designation:
MSP 3340 / no SMU designation)
Campus: UD.
Description: A survey of Spanish history from the establishment of the Visigothic Monarchy through the reign of the Catholic monarchs. Emphasis on the development of Spain’s national character and sense of purpose during the Reconquest. The course also concentrates on the cultural achievements of the thirteenth century; surveys Aragon’s expansion throughout the lands of the Mediterranean in the late Middle Ages; and studies the unification of the four Spanish kingdoms by Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabel I of Castile. Readings from medieval documents. this course is taught in spanish.
Spanish—Literary Genres.
The Novel of the Golden Age. (UD designation:
MSP 3328 / no SMU designation)
Campus: UD.
Description: The development of prose fiction, with emphasis on the study of Don Quijote de la Mancha.
Spanish—Literature & Culture.
Spanish Literary Tradition I. (UD designation:
msp 3320 / no SMU designation)
Campus: UD.
Description: The advanced student is provided with a historical, artistic, and musical context for the study of the Spanish literary tradition. required for majors. fall, even-numbered years.
Medieval Literature in Spain. (UD
designation: MSP 3338 / no SMU designation)
Campus: UD.
Description: A study of the life, thought, and culture of medieval Spain as revealed in the ‘jarchas,’ El Poema de mío Cid, the El libro de buen amor, El conde Lucanor, the Romancero, and La Celestina.
Spanish Literature before 1700.
(SPAN 5310)
Campus: SMU.
Description: An introduction to Spanish prose, drama, lyric, and narrative poetry through the Golden Age.
Theology—Authors.
The Theology of Thomas Aquinas. (UD designation:
the 4311 / no SMU designation)
Campus: UD.
Description: A close reading of selected texts of Thomas Aquinas on God, Christ, the sacraments, the human person, sin, and Christian morality. offered occasionally.
Theology—Byzantine & Patristic.
Patristic and Byzantine Theology. (UD
designation: the 5315 / no SMU designation)
Campus: UD.
Description: History of Christian doctrines—dogma and theology—from the Apostolic period to the twelfth century, including Byzantine theology. offered in a three-year cycle.
Theology—General / Survey.
Medieval and Modern Theology. (UD designation:
the 5316 / no SMU designation)
Campus: UD.
Description: History of Christian doctrines—dogma and theology—from the beginnings of Scholasticism to the present, including the history of Protestant theology. offered in a three-year cycle.
Courses which must meet applicability requirements:
French Literature in Translation
(FL 3365)
Campus: SMU.
when topically applicable.
French literature in translation
(FL 3366)
Campus: SMU.
when topically applicable.
Italian Literature in Translation (FL
3391)
Campus: SMU.
when topically applicable.
Italian Literature in Translation
(FL 3392)
Campus: SMU.
when topically applicable.
Literary Periods (FREN
5320)
Campus: SMU.
when topically applicable.
Gender Studies (FREN
5334)
Campus: SMU.
when topically applicable.
Gender Gtudies (FREN
5335)
Campus: SMU.
when topically applicable.
Seminar in French Literature:
the Quest. (FREN 5370)
Campus: SMU.
when topically applicable.