Module Identifier HY32920  
Module Title READING MEDIEVAL TEXTS: BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY  
Academic Year 2002/2003  
Co-ordinator Dr Bjorn K U Weiler  
Semester Semester 2  
Pre-Requisite HY12010 , HY12110  
Course delivery Seminars / Tutorials   20 Hours 10 x 2 hour seminars  
Assessment Semester Assessment   2 x 1,500 word essays   40%  
  Semester Assessment   1 x 5,000 word project   60%  

Learning outcomes

On completion of this module, students should be able to:
a) Demonstrate familiarity with a wide range of knowledge of representations of the self in medieval society, as well as various genres of biographical and autobiographical writing.
b) Demonstrate familiarity with comparative perspectives on the history of medieval biographical and autobiographical writings.
c) Demonstrate an understanding of a range of approaches to the study of historical narratives.
d) Read, analyse and reflect critically on primary texts
e) Develop the ability to evaluate strengths and weaknesses of particular historical arguments and where necessary challenge them.
f) Gather, sift and critically assess both primary and secondary source materials
g) Work both independently and collaboratively and to participate in group discussion

Brief description

This course is intended to provide an introduction to one of the most elementary skills in the study of the past, that is the critical textual analysis and reading of historical narratives. The course will explore issues and questions of genre, authorial intent, audience expectations and social stereotypes, and will do so by analyzing the themes and literary structure of a number of biographical and autobiographical writing from medieval Europe, focusing on the 9th – 13th centuries.

Reading Lists

Books
** Recommended Text
Guibert of Nogent. Self and Society in Twelfth-Century France: the Autobiography of Guibert of Nogent.
Einhard. The Life of Charlemagne.
Anonymus. Gesta Dei: The Deeds of the Franks.
Jocelin de Brakelond. The Deeds of Samson, Abbot of Bury St Edmunds.
Einhard. The Life of St Anselm of Canterbury.
** Supplementary Text
Asser. The Life of Alfred the Great.
Anonymus. The Life of Emperor Henry IV.
Wipo. The Deeds of Conrad II.
Abaelard. The History of my Calamities.
Odo of Deuil. De Profectione Ludowici Regis In Orientem.
Joinville. The Life of Louis IX.
Villehardouin. The Conquest of Constantinople.
Odo of Cluny. The Life of St Gerald of Aurilalc.
Anonymus. Historia Rodrigui.
Walter Daniel. The Life of Ailred of Rievaulx.
Anonymus. The Magna Vita St Hugonis.
Otto of Freising. The Deeds of Frederick Barbarossa.