MONASH UNIVERSITY FACULTY HANDBOOKS

Arts Undergraduate Handbook 1996

Authorised by Academic Registrar, April 1996

HSY2640

The twelfth-century renaissance: culture and society

Proposed to be offered next in 1997

Constant Mews

Synopsis This subject examines the flowering of cultural activity in France, England and the Rhineland 1070-1170, known as `the twelfth-century renaissance', and its relationship to wider changes in European society at this time. It will look at the writings (available in translation) of particular individuals, notably Guibert of Nogent, Abelard and Heloise, John of Salisbury and Hildegard of Bingen, in terms of their response to changing perceptions of self and the external world which developed in the twelfth century. Their writings will be studied in the broader context of a desire for renewal within an increasingly ambitious and sophisticated society during the time of the Crusades. The subject will also examine the tensions provoked by competing visions of cultural and religious renewal.

Assessment Exercise and long essay (4000 words): 60% + Examinations (2 hours) 40%

Prescribed texts

• The letters of Abelard and Heloise Penguin

Recommended reading

• Benson R L and Constable G Renaissance and renewal in the twelfth century U Toronto P
• Duby G The knight, the lady and the priest Penguin
• Gold P S The lady and the virgin: image, attitudes and experience in twelfth-century France U Chicago P
• Haskins C H The renaissance of the twelfth century Harvard U P
• Morris C The discovery of the individual 1051-1200 U Toronto P