\nOffice: 728 Buchanan Tower
\nEmail: juliet.obrien@ubc.ca
\nOffice Hours: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday 14:30 \u2013 16:30
\nClass time & place:
\nTuesday & Thursday 13:00-14:20
\nFrederic Lasserre room 105<\/a><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"image\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mdvl301a\/files\/2016\/02\/image-241x300.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/h3>\nDESCRIPTION<\/h3>\n
\u201cThe function of freedom is to free someone else.\u201d (Toni Morrison)<\/p>\n
What is a liberal arts education? A course in the Faculty of Arts? What does it mean to be a student at a university? What\u2019s the point of reading? Or of lifelong learning? What are the personal, public, social, and cultural purposes of all these things?<\/p>\n
In this interdisciplinary course we will explore some answers to these questions\u2014as current now as they have been over the last several centuries\u2014offered by some Medieval texts written in European vernaculars and in Latin, and having an influence throughout Medieval Europe. While our principal focus will be the study of literary works, we will also explore the historical landscape in which these landmarks are situated; the cultural background against which their actions are staged; and their relationship to an integrated creative and intellectual environment\u2014including visual and plastic arts, music, ideas, and the sciences.<\/p>\n
REQUIRED READING<\/h3>\n
Course website: blogs.ubc.ca\/mdvl301a<\/a><\/p>\n\n- Martianus Capella, De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\n- Guillaume de Lorris & Jean de Meun, The Romance of the Rose
\n<\/em>Trans. Frances Horgan.
\nOxford World’s Classics, 2008.
\nISBN: 978-0199540679
\nOriginal Old French text: the Roman de la Rose <\/em>digital library <\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\nSUPPLEMENTARY READINGS<\/h3>\n\n- additional readings from references in lectures<\/li>\n
- students’ readings for their Liberal Art Week work and final project<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
SCHEDULE<\/a><\/h3>\nWEEKS 1-3<\/p>\n
The course starts with a 5th-century text: Martianus Capella, De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii<\/i><\/a>. It will introduce us to: the history of the idea of liberal arts and some of its architects, from the pre-medieval (e.gg. Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Seneca) to the medieval (e.gg. Alcuin, Charlemagne, Alain de Lille) European worlds; university, scholarly, student, and intellectual cultures; these ideas\u2019 relationship to and integration within a larger global context; and the cultural roles of reading, commentary, and satire.<\/p>\n\n- week 1: introduction + organisation of seven groups (for week 4-10 work)<\/li>\n
- week 2: A Brief History, Martianus Capella, Paris
\n+ student fieldwork<\/li>\n - week 3: Martianus Capella + the seven liberal arts + mystical marriages and an introduction to the Roman de la Rose<\/i><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
WEEKS 4-10<\/p>\n
The main body of the course centres on a 13th-century work which resonates through the 14th century and beyond, Guillaume de Lorris & Jean de Meun\u2019s Roman de la Rose<\/i><\/a>, through which \u201cportal-text\u201d we will investigate each of the seven liberal arts of the trivium<\/i> (grammar, logic\/dialectic, rhetoric) and quadrivium<\/i> (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music\/harmony) individually in turn, one per week; along with a radial network of associated material (e.gg. illuminated manuscripts, libraries, Christine de Pizan and the Romance of the Rose <\/i>debate, clerkly culture, public debates and other performances as proto-outreach, and other educations that include those excluded from or otherwise unable to attend universities).<\/p>\nDuring this “middle period” of the course:<\/p>\n
\n- Tuesday = Roman de la Rose\u00a0<\/i>lecture (interactive) and discussion<\/li>\n
- Thursday = that week’s liberal art, presented by a group of students, and class discussion
\nLiberal Arts groups will be set up at the beginning of term and will meet with the instructor the week before their performance<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nSet readings each week = around 50 pages.<\/p>\n
Some readings will be repeated, there are connections between liberal-art themed weeks, and these rereadings and intersections will accumulate over the seven weeks. You should find that you have reread several parts of the Roman<\/i> de la Rose<\/i> several times—in different ways and resulting in multiple meanings—by the end of the course.<\/p>\n\n- week 4:\u00a0grammar
\nReading: Reason and Fortune (Roman de la Rose<\/i> 46-48, 64-110)<\/li>\n- week 5:\u00a0logic \/ dialectic
\nReading: Friend, clerkly culture (Roman de la Rose<\/i> 48-49, 111-153)<\/li>\n- week 6: rhetoric
\nReading: Love & Genius, sermons (Roman de la Rose<\/i> 26-43, 158-68, 300-18)<\/li>\n- week 7: arithmetic
\nReading: False Semblance, prophesy, calculations and time (and timelessness and being out of time), apocalypse (Roman de la Rose<\/i>\u00a03-14, 21-26, 168-193, 307-308, 312-318)<\/li>\n- week 8: geometry
\nReading: psychometry \/ psychogeography \/ psychomachia, the multiplicity of impediments (ex. Wealth), Pygmalion, structure, (compositional) shape (Roman de la Rose<\/i> 5-9, 44-45, 53-59, 154-158, 229-233, 236-245, 319-326)<\/li>\n- week 9: astronomy
\nReading: Nature (Roman de la Rose<\/i> 246-299)<\/li>\n- week 10: music \/ harmony
\nReading: Fair Welcome, perfect gardens, soundscapes, dance and mapping, lyricism (Roman de la Rose<\/i> 3-26, 43-45, 50-61, 320-335)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nWEEKS 11-13<\/p>\n
The last three weeks will conclude in medievalist epilogue: looking forward to the 16th-c. studia humanitas<\/i>, the post-medieval liberal arts & humanistic education, post-humanism and ecocriticism, emancipation and social justice, utopias, rethinking the university, speculative futures \u2026 and final round-table discussions.<\/p>\n![\"Motto](\"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mdvl301a\/files\/2016\/02\/image.png\")
<\/a><\/div>\n\n- week 11:
\nthe 14th century and later… from Christine de Pizan and the\u00a0Querelle\u00a0<\/em>to Francis I and the Coll\u00e8ge de France, Rabelais, Montaigne, and a second dream vision: that of educational utopias…
\nand earlier, later, and elsewhere outside Europe…
\nReading: Old Woman, authorial retraction, other knowledge outside the liberal arts (medicine, theology, law) and academe, applied knowledge in practice \/ everyday life in the actual material temporal world \u00a0(Roman de la Rose<\/i> 193-227, 234-36)<\/li>\n- week 12: round-tables<\/li>\n
- week 13: round-table (Tuesday) & final presentations as “festival of learning” fair (Thursday)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
OBJECTIVES<\/h3>\n
![\"image\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mdvl301a\/files\/2016\/02\/image-1-300x175.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThis course aims to provide you with:<\/p>\n
\n- foundational knowledge about the world of 5th- to 14th-century Europe: its culture and literature, the broad lines of its historical background<\/li>\n
- a grasp of how those fit into broader schemes and spheres of reference: European culture before c. 1700, the “pre-modern” world, world literature, literature in English, comparative literature, translation (in the broadest sense), and contemporary global\u2014including local\u2014cultures, including but by no means limited to literature<\/li>\n
- several sorts of reading skill: from fast general-gist reading; to very slow, careful, attentive, meticulous close-reading, that includes rereading<\/li>\n
- fundamental research skills: library, catalogues, databases, reference works, online sources and resources; the collection and sorting of data, prior to its analysis and use<\/li>\n
- writing skills: from short pithy paragraphs to longer forms; constructing sound arguments; using textual evidence and good reasoning; with an emphasis on commentary, analysis, exegesis, and critique: the \u201cclose writing\u201d that parallels close reading<\/li>\n
- last but not least, the development, enhancement, and honing of thinking, presentation, and discussion skills: analogy and allegory, paralleling exegesis and analysis<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
![\"image\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mdvl301a\/files\/2016\/02\/image-1-300x300.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nREQUIREMENTS \/ ASSESSMENT<\/h3>\n
This course is on literature, reading, books about reading, and cultures of reading. It is also a course about arts (and creativity) and liberty. Assignments should reflect these preoccupations.<\/p>\n
\n- Regular short writing on the course blog<\/a> = 10%
\nDue: from week 3 onwards, at least once a week<\/li>\n- Group presentation of a liberal art<\/a> = 20%
\nDue: from week 4 onwards, groups set up at the start of term<\/li>\n- A commentary<\/a> (4-5 pages or equivalent) = 10%
\nDue: 23 October at midnight (mid-term, end of week 7)<\/li>\n- The (poster) presentation of that project (or preparation for it: your prohject doesn’t need to be finished by this point!)<\/a> = 25%
\nDue: 1 December (week 13)<\/li>\n- A research project<\/a> (7-10 page paper or equivalent) = 35%
\nindependent or in a group (then 7-10 pages per person)
\nDue: Friday 16 December<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nThere is no final examination. Work may be written in English or another language according to preference or program requirements.<\/p>\n
PREREQUISITES<\/h3>\n
There is no pre-requisite for this course.<\/p>\n
CREDITS<\/h3>\n
3<\/p>\n
SEE FURTHER<\/h3>\n\n- “THE RULES<\/a>” = syllabus part 2: aims & objectives, expectations, responsibilities, grading criteria, plagiarism, late work & extensions, quick links to UBC rules & policies & procedures<\/li>\n
- Help = advising, support, and care<\/a><\/li>\n
- Assignments<\/a><\/li>\n
- Weekly commentary<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
![\"img_2750\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mdvl301a\/files\/2016\/10\/IMG_2750-150x150.jpg\")
ADVICE & ASSISTANCE<\/h3>\n
If in doubt, if you have any questions or worries about anything, please ask!<\/p>\n
\n- this course, your class, and your instructor are a safe space and here to help<\/li>\n
- if I don\u2019t know an answer\u2014I’m merely human\u2014I’ll help you to find someone who does<\/li>\n
- this is a community of care<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Email:<\/p>\n
\n- juliet.obrien@ubc.ca<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Office hours:<\/p>\n
\n- My office is in Buchanan Tower, on the 7th floor (!), no. 728<\/li>\n
- My office hours are on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday
\nfrom 2:30-4:30 p.m.<\/li>\n - I’m usually also there later, and Friday early afternoon, so if the door is ajar or open please come in. (Also, I have dark chocolate.)<\/li>\n
- If you can’t make it then and wish to make an appointment to see me, please email me<\/a> so that we can figure out a mutually-convenient time<\/li>\n
- Also (because knowledge is power<\/a>), here are some openly-accessible freely-available resources from UBC for advising, support, and care<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- \n
- Martianus Capella, De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- \n
- Guillaume de Lorris & Jean de Meun, The Romance of the Rose
\n<\/em>Trans. Frances Horgan.
\nOxford World’s Classics, 2008.
\nISBN: 978-0199540679
\nOriginal Old French text: the Roman de la Rose <\/em>digital library <\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\nSUPPLEMENTARY READINGS<\/h3>\n
- \n
- additional readings from references in lectures<\/li>\n
- students’ readings for their Liberal Art Week work and final project<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
SCHEDULE<\/a><\/h3>\n
WEEKS 1-3<\/p>\n
The course starts with a 5th-century text: Martianus Capella, De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii<\/i><\/a>. It will introduce us to: the history of the idea of liberal arts and some of its architects, from the pre-medieval (e.gg. Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Seneca) to the medieval (e.gg. Alcuin, Charlemagne, Alain de Lille) European worlds; university, scholarly, student, and intellectual cultures; these ideas\u2019 relationship to and integration within a larger global context; and the cultural roles of reading, commentary, and satire.<\/p>\n
- \n
- week 1: introduction + organisation of seven groups (for week 4-10 work)<\/li>\n
- week 2: A Brief History, Martianus Capella, Paris
\n+ student fieldwork<\/li>\n - week 3: Martianus Capella + the seven liberal arts + mystical marriages and an introduction to the Roman de la Rose<\/i><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
WEEKS 4-10<\/p>\n
The main body of the course centres on a 13th-century work which resonates through the 14th century and beyond, Guillaume de Lorris & Jean de Meun\u2019s Roman de la Rose<\/i><\/a>, through which \u201cportal-text\u201d we will investigate each of the seven liberal arts of the trivium<\/i> (grammar, logic\/dialectic, rhetoric) and quadrivium<\/i> (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music\/harmony) individually in turn, one per week; along with a radial network of associated material (e.gg. illuminated manuscripts, libraries, Christine de Pizan and the Romance of the Rose <\/i>debate, clerkly culture, public debates and other performances as proto-outreach, and other educations that include those excluded from or otherwise unable to attend universities).<\/p>\n
During this “middle period” of the course:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Tuesday = Roman de la Rose\u00a0<\/i>lecture (interactive) and discussion<\/li>\n
- Thursday = that week’s liberal art, presented by a group of students, and class discussion
\nLiberal Arts groups will be set up at the beginning of term and will meet with the instructor the week before their performance<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nSet readings each week = around 50 pages.<\/p>\n
Some readings will be repeated, there are connections between liberal-art themed weeks, and these rereadings and intersections will accumulate over the seven weeks. You should find that you have reread several parts of the Roman<\/i> de la Rose<\/i> several times—in different ways and resulting in multiple meanings—by the end of the course.<\/p>\n
- \n
- week 4:\u00a0grammar
\nReading: Reason and Fortune (Roman de la Rose<\/i> 46-48, 64-110)<\/li>\n- week 5:\u00a0logic \/ dialectic
\nReading: Friend, clerkly culture (Roman de la Rose<\/i> 48-49, 111-153)<\/li>\n- week 6: rhetoric
\nReading: Love & Genius, sermons (Roman de la Rose<\/i> 26-43, 158-68, 300-18)<\/li>\n- week 7: arithmetic
\nReading: False Semblance, prophesy, calculations and time (and timelessness and being out of time), apocalypse (Roman de la Rose<\/i>\u00a03-14, 21-26, 168-193, 307-308, 312-318)<\/li>\n- week 8: geometry
\nReading: psychometry \/ psychogeography \/ psychomachia, the multiplicity of impediments (ex. Wealth), Pygmalion, structure, (compositional) shape (Roman de la Rose<\/i> 5-9, 44-45, 53-59, 154-158, 229-233, 236-245, 319-326)<\/li>\n- week 9: astronomy
\nReading: Nature (Roman de la Rose<\/i> 246-299)<\/li>\n- week 10: music \/ harmony
\nReading: Fair Welcome, perfect gardens, soundscapes, dance and mapping, lyricism (Roman de la Rose<\/i> 3-26, 43-45, 50-61, 320-335)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nWEEKS 11-13<\/p>\n
The last three weeks will conclude in medievalist epilogue: looking forward to the 16th-c. studia humanitas<\/i>, the post-medieval liberal arts & humanistic education, post-humanism and ecocriticism, emancipation and social justice, utopias, rethinking the university, speculative futures \u2026 and final round-table discussions.<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/div>\n- \n
- week 11:
\nthe 14th century and later… from Christine de Pizan and the\u00a0Querelle\u00a0<\/em>to Francis I and the Coll\u00e8ge de France, Rabelais, Montaigne, and a second dream vision: that of educational utopias…
\nand earlier, later, and elsewhere outside Europe…
\nReading: Old Woman, authorial retraction, other knowledge outside the liberal arts (medicine, theology, law) and academe, applied knowledge in practice \/ everyday life in the actual material temporal world \u00a0(Roman de la Rose<\/i> 193-227, 234-36)<\/li>\n- week 12: round-tables<\/li>\n
- week 13: round-table (Tuesday) & final presentations as “festival of learning” fair (Thursday)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
OBJECTIVES<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nThis course aims to provide you with:<\/p>\n
- \n
- foundational knowledge about the world of 5th- to 14th-century Europe: its culture and literature, the broad lines of its historical background<\/li>\n
- a grasp of how those fit into broader schemes and spheres of reference: European culture before c. 1700, the “pre-modern” world, world literature, literature in English, comparative literature, translation (in the broadest sense), and contemporary global\u2014including local\u2014cultures, including but by no means limited to literature<\/li>\n
- several sorts of reading skill: from fast general-gist reading; to very slow, careful, attentive, meticulous close-reading, that includes rereading<\/li>\n
- fundamental research skills: library, catalogues, databases, reference works, online sources and resources; the collection and sorting of data, prior to its analysis and use<\/li>\n
- writing skills: from short pithy paragraphs to longer forms; constructing sound arguments; using textual evidence and good reasoning; with an emphasis on commentary, analysis, exegesis, and critique: the \u201cclose writing\u201d that parallels close reading<\/li>\n
- last but not least, the development, enhancement, and honing of thinking, presentation, and discussion skills: analogy and allegory, paralleling exegesis and analysis<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
REQUIREMENTS \/ ASSESSMENT<\/h3>\n
This course is on literature, reading, books about reading, and cultures of reading. It is also a course about arts (and creativity) and liberty. Assignments should reflect these preoccupations.<\/p>\n
- \n
- Regular short writing on the course blog<\/a> = 10%
\nDue: from week 3 onwards, at least once a week<\/li>\n- Group presentation of a liberal art<\/a> = 20%
\nDue: from week 4 onwards, groups set up at the start of term<\/li>\n- A commentary<\/a> (4-5 pages or equivalent) = 10%
\nDue: 23 October at midnight (mid-term, end of week 7)<\/li>\n- The (poster) presentation of that project (or preparation for it: your prohject doesn’t need to be finished by this point!)<\/a> = 25%
\nDue: 1 December (week 13)<\/li>\n- A research project<\/a> (7-10 page paper or equivalent) = 35%
\nindependent or in a group (then 7-10 pages per person)
\nDue: Friday 16 December<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nThere is no final examination. Work may be written in English or another language according to preference or program requirements.<\/p>\n
PREREQUISITES<\/h3>\n
There is no pre-requisite for this course.<\/p>\n
CREDITS<\/h3>\n
3<\/p>\n
SEE FURTHER<\/h3>\n
- \n
- “THE RULES<\/a>” = syllabus part 2: aims & objectives, expectations, responsibilities, grading criteria, plagiarism, late work & extensions, quick links to UBC rules & policies & procedures<\/li>\n
- Help = advising, support, and care<\/a><\/li>\n
- Assignments<\/a><\/li>\n
- Weekly commentary<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
ADVICE & ASSISTANCE<\/h3>\nIf in doubt, if you have any questions or worries about anything, please ask!<\/p>\n
- \n
- this course, your class, and your instructor are a safe space and here to help<\/li>\n
- if I don\u2019t know an answer\u2014I’m merely human\u2014I’ll help you to find someone who does<\/li>\n
- this is a community of care<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Email:<\/p>\n
- \n
- juliet.obrien@ubc.ca<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Office hours:<\/p>\n
- \n
- My office is in Buchanan Tower, on the 7th floor (!), no. 728<\/li>\n
- My office hours are on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday
\nfrom 2:30-4:30 p.m.<\/li>\n - I’m usually also there later, and Friday early afternoon, so if the door is ajar or open please come in. (Also, I have dark chocolate.)<\/li>\n
- If you can’t make it then and wish to make an appointment to see me, please email me<\/a> so that we can figure out a mutually-convenient time<\/li>\n
- Also (because knowledge is power<\/a>), here are some openly-accessible freely-available resources from UBC for advising, support, and care<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- juliet.obrien@ubc.ca<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Help = advising, support, and care<\/a><\/li>\n
- Group presentation of a liberal art<\/a> = 20%
- Regular short writing on the course blog<\/a> = 10%
- week 5:\u00a0logic \/ dialectic
- Thursday = that week’s liberal art, presented by a group of students, and class discussion
- Tuesday = Roman de la Rose\u00a0<\/i>lecture (interactive) and discussion<\/li>\n
- Guillaume de Lorris & Jean de Meun, The Romance of the Rose