History 202/Women’s Studies 202
WOMEN AND GENDER IN PRE-MODERN EUROPE
History 202/Women’s Studies 202 Prof. McLaughlin
Spring, 1998 Office: 445C Gregory
E-mail: megmclau@uiuc.edu Hours: Tu 1-2, W 1-2
Texts to Be Purchased
Amt, ed., Women’s Lives in Medieval Europe
Anderson and Zinsser, A History of Their Own, Vol. 1
Dzielska, Hypatia of Alexandria
de Erauso, Catalina, Lieutenant Nun
Glückel of Hameln, Memoirs
Marie de France, Lais
Coursepack (available from Notes-n-Quotes)
Course Requirements
Class Participation (25% of final course grade)
Comprehensive Final Exam (25%)
Two 5-7 Page Essays, due Feb. 23 and March 30 (25%, 25%)
PLEASE NOTE: Essays should be turned in by 5 p.m. on the due date. In case your computer crashes or the dog eats your paper, there will be a three-day grace period following the due date, during which you may turn in your essay without explanation and without penalty. If you turn in your essay after the end of the grace period, you will lose a fraction of a grade for each day it is late. (EXAMPLE: If you turn in the essay due on Feb. 23 on Feb. 27, your grade of B+ will drop to a B; on Feb. 28, the grade will drop to a B-, and so forth. Weekend days count too.) However, no essay will be penalized more than two full grades for lateness.
Classes and Assignments
Week 1 (Jan. 21)--Introductory
Week 2 (Jan. 26-28)--Reconstructing the Lives of Pre-Modern Women
Amt, 1-9
Dzielska, Hypatia of Alexandria, 1-106
Part I: Class and Women’s Experiences
Week 3 (Feb. 2-4)--Working Women in the Countryside
Amt, 27-28, 79-90, 97-98, 179-93
A & Z, 87-161, 174-78
Week 4 (Feb. 9-11)--Working Women in the Cities
Amt, 70-78, 112-18, 194-210, 213-15, 317-30
A & Z, 353-412, 424-30
Week 5 (Feb. 16-18)--Women and the Professions
Amt, 98-112
A & Z, 412-24
Coursepack: Monica Green, “Women’s Medical Practice and Health Care in
Medieval Europe,” from Judith Bennett, et al., eds., Sisters and Workers in
the Middle Ages (Chicago, 1989), pp. 39-78
Coursepack: Merry Wiesner, “Early Modern Midwifery: A Case Study,” from
Barbara Hanawalt, ed., Women and Work in Preindustrial Europe
(Bloomington, IN, 1986), pp. 94-113
Week 6 (Feb. 23-25)--Noblewomen
Amt, 123-76
A & Z, 269-350
FIRST ESSAY DUE, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23 AT 5:00 P.M.
GRACE PERIOD TO THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 26 AT 5:OO P.M.
Part II: Religion and Women’s Experiences
Week 7 (March 2-4)--Christian Women in the Early Middle Ages
Amt, 19-26, 219-31, 233-35
A & Z, 67-84, 181-93
Coursepack: Jane Tibbetts Schulenburg, “Strict Active Enclosure and its
Effects on the Female Monastic Experience (ca. 500-1100),” from John
Nichols and Lillian Shank, eds., Medieval Religious Women, Vol. I: Distant
Echoes (Kalamazoo, MI, 1984), pp. 51-86
Week 8 (March 9-11)--Christian Women in the High Middle Ages
Amt, 90-94, 235-76, 305-13
A & Z, 193-227
Caroline Walker Bynum, “Women Mystics and Eucharistic Devotion in the
Thirteenth Century,” from her Fragmentation and Redemption: Essays on
Gender and the Human Body in Medieval Religion (New York, 1992),
pp. 119-50
Week 9 (March 16-18)--Christian Women in the Age of the Reformation
A & Z, 228-66
Coursepack: Documents, 1: Writings of Marie Dentière
Coursepack: Natalie Davis, “City Women and Religious Change,” from her
Society and Culture in Early Modern France (Stanford, CA, 1975), pp. 65-95
SPRING BREAK
Week 10 (March 30-April 1)--The Experiences of Muslim and Jewish Women
Amt, 279-304
Glückel, Memoirs, 1-26, 32-45, 84-99, 136-97, 222-58
SECOND ESSAY DUE, MONDAY, MARCH 30 AT 5:00 P.M.
GRACE PERIOD TO THURSDAY, APRIL 2 AT 5:OO P.M.
Part III: Gender and Sexuality in Pre-Modern Europe
Week 11 (April 6-8)--Gender and Power
Coursepack: Carol Clover, “Regardless of Sex: Men, Women, and Power in
Early Northern Europe,” from Nancy Partner, ed., Studying Medieval
Women: Sex, Gender, Feminism (Cambridge, MA, 1993), pp. 61-85
Coursepack: June McCash, “The Cultural Patronage of Medieval Women:
An Overview,” from McCash, ed., The Cultural Patronage of Medieval
Women (Athens, GA, 1996), pp. 1-49
Coursepack: Megan McLaughlin, “The Woman Warrior: Gender, Warfare
and Society in Medieval Europe,” Women’s Studies 17 (1990): 193-209
Week 12 (April 13-15)--Sex and Virtue: Prostitutes and Virgins
Amt, 16-19, 210-13
Coursepack: James Brundage, “Prostitution in the Medieval Canon Law,”
from Bennett, ed., Sisters and Workers, pp. 79-99
Coursepack: Leah Lydia Otis, “Prostitution and Repentance in Late Medieval
Perpignan,” from Julius Kirshner and Suzanne Wemple, eds., Women of the
Medieval World (Oxford, 1985), pp. 137-60
Coursepack: Clarissa Atkinson, The Oldest Vocation: Christian Motherhood
in the Middle Ages (Ithaca, NY, 1991), pp. 101-43
Week 13 (April 20-22)--Gender Trouble?
de Erauso, Lieutenant Nun, vii-xliv, 3-80
Week 14 (April 27-29)--The Misogynist Tradition
Amt, 13-16
A & Z, 13-16, 26-51, 161-73, 431-44
Coursepack: Documents, 2: “Scientific” and Theological Views of Women
Coursepack: Ian Maclean, The Renaissance Notion of Woman (Cambridge,
Eng., 1980), pp. 28-46
Week 15 (May 4-6)--Women’s Self-Images
Marie de France, Lais, 41-126
Coursepack: Barbara Newman, “Divine Power Made Perfect in Weakness:
St. Hildegard on the Frail Sex,” in John Nichols and Lillian Shank, eds.,
Medieval Religious Women, Vol. 2: Peace Weavers (Kalamazoo, MI, 1987),
pp. 103-22
Coursepack: Documents, 3: Writings of Christine de Pisan
FINAL EXAM, MONDAY, MAY 11, 1:30-4:30 P.M.
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
The History Department adheres to the guidelines on academic integrity contained in the Code of Campus Affairs and Handbook of Policies and Regulations Applying to All Students. Cheating and plagiarism will be penalized in accord with the penalties and procedures indicated in the Code. All students are responsible for familiarizing themselves with the definitions of these infractions. Copies of the Code may be consulted in the offices of the History Department and at the Illini Union Information Desk.
Some specific points:
Cheating includes both copying other people’s work and purposely allowing other people to copy your work. Working with another person on a written assignment, either inside or outside of class, will be considered cheating unless you have been specifically instructed to work together.
Plagiarism includes not only copying sentences or paragraphs from someone else’s work and passing it off as your own, but also paraphrasing their work, or even presenting someone else’s ideas in your own language, without acknowledgment. Please be very careful in writing your essays, because if you are found guilty of plagiarism you will be penalized EVEN IF YOU DID NOT INTEND TO PLAGIARIZE.