HSY3085 - Witches and depravity in the medieval and early modern world

Leader(s): Clare Monagle

Offered

Clayton Second semester 2009 (Day)

Synopsis

This unit will consider the cultural history of Western Europe from late antiquity through to the beginnings of modernity. We will focus particularly on the persecution of witches, accused sometimes of fornication with the devil or of infanticide and cannibalism, but will look also at other individuals and groups that have been considered sinful, unnatural, freakish or depraved. In so doing, we will explore the long story of the European "outsider", and ask what these harsh designations and cruel treatments of people who were marginal or different might tell us about the history of European society as a whole.

Objectives

Students who have completed the subject will:

1. be familiar with different approaches in the cultural history of the body and deviance
2. know how to critically assess these approaches
3. discuss their merit
4. formulate their own positions on key issues based on a critical engagement with the historiography and relevant primary sources
5. situate their own work within larger historiographical debates
6. In addition, at Level 3, students will develop an independent research project.

Assessment

Written work: 90%
Tutorial participation: 10%

Contact hours

One lecture and one tutorial per week for 13 weeks

Prerequisites

A first-year sequence in History or permission

Prohibitions

HSY2085