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British Studies At Oxford

About Seminars

8:30-9:30 SEMINAR CHOICES

 

A         HISTORY OF ART AND ARCHITECTURE: Medieval Art in Britain and Northern Europe         This seminar will form a survey of architecture, sculpture, manuscript illustration, and the decorative arts in the British Isles from the Roman era to the early sixteenth century. Artistic exchanges between Britain and the continent will be especially emphasized. The seminar will make use of the many surviving examples of medieval art and architecture to be found in Oxford and elsewhere in Britain.        Gregory Clark (The University of the South)

 

B         HISTORY: Roman Britain: State-building on the Edge of the Empire  This course is a portrait of a province of the Roman Empire, beginning with Roman influence on Britain before the Claudian conquest in AD 43. A combination of archaeological, epigraphic and ancient-historical evidence will be used to reconstruct the invasion, governance and development of Britain during the three and a half centuries of Roman rule. Topics considered will include the ideology, mechanics, and unintended consequences of Imperial policy. We will examine why the Roman army stalled on the Scottish Highland fringe, resulting in one of the most heavily defended frontiers of the Empire. We shall also assess the economy, society, and culture of the province, as well as the interplay between occupier and occupied. Particular attention will be paid to the contrast between the wealthy urban and rural areas in central southern Britain, and the heavily militarized zone to the north; comparison with other imperial provinces; and the interpretation of the events of the end of the Roman province. Direct experience of the resources of London and of Oxford and its University; and of some accessible surviving Roman sites, will be central to the course. These resources include the collections of the British Museum and the Museum of London; and sites such as Fishbourne; Bignor, Cirencester, Bath; Caerwent and Caerleon; and, if possible, the astonishing remains of the frontier works on Hadrian’s Wall.           Matthew Symonds

 

 

C         HISTORY: The Hundred Years War (1337-1453)            This seminar will examine the origins of the Hundred Years War and the course of that conflict, from the high point of English successes under Edward III and Henry V to the remarkable French recovery inspired by Jeanne d’Arc. We will also consider the strategies, tactics, and weapons used by both sides and assess the wider impact of the war upon English government and society: was William Shakespeare right to depict the Hundred Years War as the first great national enterprise in the island's history?           Craig Taylor (University of York)

 

D         HISTORY OF SCIENCE: Alchemists, Physicians and Philosophers: Understanding Science and the Physical World in the Middle Ages Medieval thinkers always acknowledged their indebtedness to antiquity when explaining the natural world. Yet, by 1350, contemporary scholars had laid the foundations of modern optics, experimental science, metallurgy, and operative surgery. They had also invented spectacles, firearms, clocks, and buildings that stood up by the counterbalancing of forces: the Gothic cathedrals. Many of these scholars were British, including Roger Bacon, Geoffrey Chaucer, and William of Ockham. The course will look at the richness of medieval science and technology, giving particular emphasis to British figures, but also looking at the contributions of European and Islamic researchers. No previous scientific background will be required, and the achievements of medieval science and invention will be related to wider cultural developments in artistic and religious thought.            Allan Chapman (Wadham College, Oxford)

 

 

E         MUSIC: Music and Worship in Later Medieval England            The English choral tradition is steeped in over 800 years of history, and may still be experienced in a number of Britain's cathedrals and churches today. This seminar provides an historical survey of music in the English church from the founding of the collegiate and monastic choral foundations in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries to the Reformation under Henry VIII. What was life like for a church musician in medieval times? What kind of music was composed, and by whom? What were the circumstances under which it was performed? The daily routine of church musicians and the conditions in which they lived and worked will be explored. The course will offer a strong practical bias on the music itself, including performance practice and the interpretation of music manuscripts and early notation. No previous musical experience is necessary for this course.     David Skinner (Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge)

 

F          LITERATURE: Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales: Narrative Art and Social Questioning    This seminar will engage in a close reading of a significant portion of The Canterbury Tales in Middle English.  Our focus will be on what the tales tell us about Chaucer’s understanding of narrative— its types and its purposes—and on revised readings of the tales in the so-called marriage group.  The seminar will employ a variety of critical perspectives.   No prior knowledge of Middle English or literary theory is assumed.  Be prepared, though, take full advantage of the medieval art, architecture, and culture we find around us to inform our reading of Chaucer’s poetry.     Susan Hagen (Birmingham-Southern College)

 

G         LITERATURE: Medieval Drama  We are often told that drama before Shakespeare was stylized and dull. This course sets out to prove the contrary. We will explore the medieval Mystery Cycles and Morality Plays, and the early Tudor interludes, looking at the ways  in which humor, violence, academic debate, and human tenderness combine in discussion of theological and ethical issues in both the spiritual and material realms.  Drama before Shakespeare is in fact sophisticated and self-reflexive: before there were professional theatres, plays were performed in spaces both public and private but which were not exclusively 'theatrical', and this encouraged stagings which exploited the metatheatrical in ways which are often thought to have been 'discovered' in the twentieth century. Medieval dramaturgy, far from being naive or dull, has much in common with the most dynamic dramaturgy of the twentieth century, as this course will demonstrate.   Elisabeth Dutton (Worcester College, Oxford)  

 

H         LITERATURE: Translating the Anglo-Saxons    How is it possible to understand literature written over a thousand years ago? Looking at a wide range of Old English texts from Beowulf to the Old English riddles, we will investigate how far it is possible to “translate” Anglo-Saxon views of the world for a modern reader. We will consider historical, cultural, and literary contexts, but also look at manuscripts and the Old English language, to try to understand something of the detective work engaged in by editors and translators.        Lucinda Rumsey (Mansfield College, Oxford)

 

 

 

 

 

11:15-12:15 SEMINAR CHOICES

 

I           HISTORY OF ART AND ARCHITECTURE: Medieval Art in Britain and Northern Europe         This seminar will form a survey of architecture, sculpture, manuscript illustration, and the decorative arts in the British Isles from the Roman era to the early sixteenth century. Artistic exchanges between Britain and the continent will be especially emphasized. The seminar will make use of the many surviving examples of medieval art and architecture to be found in Oxford and elsewhere in Britain.        Gregory Clark (The University of the South)

 

J          HISTORY: Anglo-Saxon England: Politics, Economy and Society, c.400-1066 This course will consider the politics, economy and society of early medieval England between the collapse and withdrawal of Roman rule in the early fifth century and the conquest of England by the Normans in 1066. During this period a series of small ‘kingdoms’ developed into one of the wealthiest and most sophisticated polities of the time. Placing these developments in England within their wider British and continental context, we ask a wide range of questions about the forces shaping and driving this transformation. How did Anglo-Saxon kings impose their power over ever greater territories? What part was played by the conversion to Christianity? What was the effect of new settlement? Why were these kingdoms subjected to repeated attacks by Scandinavian forces in the ninth and tenth centuries, and what effect did their settlement have on Anglo-Saxon society? Answering these questions will involve consideration of written sources such as Beowulf, Bede’s Ecclesiastical History, and Asser’s Life of Alfred; archaeological sites such as the ‘princely’ burials at Sutton Hoo and Prittlewell, the ‘royal vill’ at Yeavering, the ‘emporia’ at Southampton, Ipswich, London and York, the monastic sites at Monkwearmouth, Jarrow, Lindisfarne, Hartlepool and Whitby, and the burhs at Winchester and Oxford; illuminated manuscripts and the abundant stone sculpture; and even the history and development of English place-names.        Thomas Pickles (St. Catherine’s College, Oxford)

 

K         HISTORY: The Perfect Prince: Ideals of Kingship in the Late Middle Ages

Medieval rulers were war leaders, defenders of the church and representatives of God, leaders of a numerically small but immensely powerful aristocracy, and ultimate guardians of law and order within the realm. But did different groups within medieval society have different expectations of their rulers, and how far were medieval kings and princes able to live up to such ideals, or at least construct their own image in order to maintain public support?            Craig Taylor (University of York)

 

L         HISTORY: Chivalry and Society in England, 1100-1500 We often think of medieval chivalry in terms of knights in shining armor engaged in single combat, or acting out a fantasy life of vows, Arthurian play-acting and courtly love. This seminar will examine the reality behind the romantic image. We will trace the evolution of knighthood and chivalric ideas and practices from the Norman Conquest onwards, investigate the reasons for the emergence and growth of heraldry, and ask whether there is any evidence to suggest that chivalry was in decline during the last two centuries of the Middle Ages. The social, military and cultural background will be of major concern, and the course will draw heavily upon visual sources to trace the development of arms and armor, heraldic insignia, the tournament and joust, and images of “chivalric” behavior.        Malcolm Vale (St John’s College, Oxford)

 

M        HISTORY OF SCIENCE: Alchemists, Physicians and Philosophers: Understanding Science and the Physical World in the Middle Ages Medieval thinkers always acknowledged their indebtedness to antiquity when explaining the natural world. Yet, by 1350, contemporary scholars had laid the foundations of modern optics, experimental science, metallurgy, and operative surgery. They had also invented spectacles, firearms, clocks, and buildings that stood up by the counterbalancing of forces: the Gothic cathedrals. Many of these scholars were British, including Roger Bacon, Geoffrey Chaucer, and William of Ockham. The course will look at the richness of medieval science and technology, giving particular emphasis to British figures, but also looking at the contributions of European and Islamic researchers. No previous scientific background will be required, and the achievements of medieval science and invention will be related to wider cultural developments in artistic and religious thought.            Allan Chapman (Wadham College, Oxford)

 

N         LITERATURE: Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales: Narrative Art and Social Questioning    This seminar will engage in a close reading of a significant portion of The Canterbury Tales in Middle English.  Our focus will be on what the tales tell us about Chaucer’s understanding of narrative— its types and its purposes—and on revised readings of the tales in the so-called marriage group.  The seminar will employ a variety of critical perspectives.   No prior knowledge of Middle English or literary theory is assumed.  Be prepared, though, take full advantage of the medieval art, architecture, and culture we find around us to inform our reading of Chaucer’s poetry.     Susan Hagen (Birmingham-Southern College)

 

O         LITERATURE: Women and the Medieval World           Medieval literature gives us a wide range of representations of women in a variety of genres such as romance, spiritual writing, and anti-feminist satire. Looking at a selection of texts from 1100 to 1500, we will see how writers explored contrasting and contradictory views of women (for instance, Chaucer’s disobedient Wife of Bath, patient Griselde, the romance heroine Emily, and the personified virtue of Prudence, all from The Canterbury Tales). We will investigate the position of women in the medieval world, their roles, and the representation of them, drawing on sources as diverse as Arthurian romance, instructive literature for anchoresses and nuns, biographical accounts of female mystics, and writings by medieval women themselves.     Lucinda Rumsey (Mansfield College, Oxford)

 

P          LITERATURE: Chaucer, Langland, and the Troubles of the Fourteenth Century

Langland’s Piers Plowman has frequently appeared to literary critics to be far more involved than anything Chaucer wrote in the problems of living in the fourteenth century. But The Canterbury Tales is also shot through with a sense of challenges to social hierarchy, questions concerning the reality behind such ideal figures as the chivalric knight, and the representation of the lives of those of lower status. Readings in this course will alternate between contemporary documents and histories and Langland and Chaucer’s poems, addressing such issues as famine and plague, legal processes, and the Peasants' Revolt.      Ralph Hanna (Keble College, Oxford)

 

Q         RELIGIOUS STUDIES: Medieval Mysticism       The later medieval period witnessed an explosion of mystical and spiritual writing, with female visionaries taking a leading role. While touching on a wide range of medieval mystical texts from across Europe, this course will mainly focus on four English writers: Richard Rolle, the “Cloud of Unknowing-author”, Julian of Norwich, and Margery Kempe.    Santha Bhattacharji (St. Benet’s Hall, Oxford)

 

 

ADDITIONAL SEMINAR (1:15-2:15)

 

ENGLISH      Shakespeare: Page & Stage

A study of some of Shakespeare’s plays, integrating discussion of the texts, visits to performances in Stratford-upon-Avon, Oxford, or London (the reconstructed Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre), and subsequent discussion of the relationship between text and performance. The plays to be studied will be announced when theater programs are confirmed. The additional fee for this course includes tuition, travel to, and tickets for the additional performances attended. (1:15-2:15)  Michael Leslie (Rhodes College)

 

 

Structure of the Program

Session 1

Session 2

Session 3

Session 4

Seminars