2021-22 Graduate Courses

INPER

S. Ghosh (S)

INPER

INPER

MST 3016H. Intermediate Ge’ez

SYNC

FAH1118F

The Medieval Treasury

Wednesday, 1-4pm

This course exmaines medieval church treasuries, their contents and architectural settings, and the ways they have been conceptualized from the Middle Ages to the present. It highlights the diversity of treasury contents, from liturgical chalices to legal documents, who contributed to the shape of such colletions and why, and how the collections were documented. Major themes in present-day art history create the conceptual underpinnings of the course, including materiality, collecting and display, mobility, and patronage. The course will provide opportunities for students to work with objects in local museums and to develop research projects in the Digital Humanities. Recommended: Reading knowledge of French, German, Italian, and Latin helpful.

This course is devoted to a collaborative reading and analysis of the Old English poem Beowulf: its language, its cultural and historical backgrounds, and its style. The work of our class will rely on close and informed attention to the poem's language and rhetorical strategies. In addition, we'll begin to explore some of the more technical aspects of studying Old English verse: possible topics include metrical analysis, paleography, and/or the problems of dating and authorship. 

Completion of Old English I or its equivalent is desirable, but not a prerequisite.

Course Reading List: 

Edition: R. D. Fulk et al., eds., Klaeber's Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg, 4th ed. (Toronto: U of Toronto Press, 2008). Secondary texts: TBA. 

Course Method of Evaluation and Requirements:

Class time will be spent in discussion and translation of the poem. Each student will be expected to lead at least one seminar (with a 1-2 page critique handed in on the day of the seminar). Evaluation: class work: 15%; class presentations: 15%; short essay (abstract): 10%; final paper: 60%)  

Term: S-TERM (January 2022 to April 2022) 
Time/Date: 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm, Fridays 

Advanced Oral and Written French for Academic purposes

Initiation à l’ancien français /Medieval French Language

Ce cours se propose de présenter les bases de la langue française du Moyen Âge, à travers une sélection d’extraits de textes originaux. On étudiera la morphologie et la syntaxe de l’ancien français, avec un aperçu de la phonétique historique et de la création lexicale. Les étudiants feront également connaissance avec les outils de travail existants (dictionnaires, grammaires). Les textes choisis permettront de se familiariser avec différents dialectes et de faire un tour d’horizon des principaux genres littéraires des 11e, 12e et 13e siècles; on s'en tiendra cependant à la lecture et n'approfondira pas le côté interprétatif. La description de la langue insistera davantage sur la dimension synchronique que sur la diachronie. Ce cours est également offert au niveau sous-gradué. Quelques séances supplémentaires seront obligatoires pour les étudiants gradués, mais facultatifs pour les étudiants sous-gradués.

FSL6000HS

Reading French Course for Graduate Students

Location TBA

This course offers an introduction to the German language, literature, and culture of the Middle Ages. We will read and translate Middle High German texts, study facsimiles of medieval manuscripts, and inquire into epochal cultural concepts like courtly love and chivalry as well as courtly and clerical designs of identity. Authors discussed will include Hartmann von Aue and Walther von der Vogelweide among others. Reading knowledge in German or any medieval Germanic language is an asset, but no prerequisite.

Location TBA

In this course German reading knowledge is taught following the grammar-translation method designed for graduate students from the Humanities. It is an intensive course that covers German grammar with focus on acquiring essential structures of the German language to develop translation skills. The course is conducted in English, and consequently participants do not learn how to speak or write in German, but rather the course focuses exclusively on reading and translating German. Prior knowledge of German not mandatory. By the end of the course, students should be able to handle a broad variety of texts in single modern Standard German. This course is not intended for MA or PhD students in German.

Location TBA

Description as above.

An examination of Dante’s works and criticism on them. This year course will focus on Dante’s life and offer a crossed-examination of the extant documentation on Dante’s life and the “autobiographical” declarations contained in his works.

NMC2110
Al-Jahiz and His Debate Partners

Tuesdays, 1-4 pm, starting January 11 2022

Al-Jahiz was a ninth-century polymath who incorporated every field of intellectual inquiry into his own essayistic and compilatory literary form.  He has been credited as a foundational prose stylist for the Arabic literary tradition, as well as the first contributor to Arabic literary theory and criticism.  His works also provide important and understudied insight into ninth century theology, exegesis, and natural science.  In this class, we will examine a variety of his works, from short epistles to excerpts of his longer works. Part of the analytic process will be to reconstruct the polemical context in which these works were written, and thus readings will be selected to illuminate his relationship to contemporary discourses, such as law, theology, Quran interpretation, logic, dialectic, and poetry.  Weekly reading assignments are in the original Arabic.

Proseminar for the Collaborative Program in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy

Breadth Requirement: N/A

Location: LI 301 (Lillian Massey Building, 125 Queen’s Park)

Limited to CPAMP students

Mandatory for CPAMP students in Y1 and 2; program students who have fulfilled this requirement are expected to attend regularly. Other interested doctoral students are welcome to attend as well and should contact the program director to indicate their interest. The proseminar has three components: a series of seminars; an ancient Greek philosophy reading group; and a Latin medieval philosophy reading group. All students in the proseminar must attend the seminars and at least one of the reading groups; students are warmly encouraged to attend both reading groups.

Introduction to Book History

Location TBA

This foundational course, required for all BHPC students in their first term, will introduce students to basic topics such as the semiotics of the book; orality and writing systems; book production from manuscript to computer technology; the development of printing; the concept of authorship; copyright; censorship; the economics of book production and distribution; libraries and the organization of information; principles of bibliographical description; print in other formats (newspapers, magazines, advertisements, etc.); reading and readership; editorial theory and practice. We will also study many artifacts and tools of the trade in situ through visits to the Massey College Bibliography Room and Coach House Books.

Book History in Practice

Location TBA

Advanced Seminar in Book History and Print Culture

Location TBA

The Archive as Text. The field of textual studies is concerned with the production, transmission, preservation, and ongoing history of texts. Recent developments in this field have encouraged an expansion of the term “text” to include all attempts at representation whatever form they may take. Drawing on readings from a range of fields, including textual criticism, archival studies, history, anthropology, and lifewriting, this seminar will explore how archives might be conceptualized as texts and the implications and limitations of that conceptualization.

Practicum in Book History and Print Culture