Unit information: The Intellectual Culture of the Twelfth Century (Level H Special Subject) in 2016/17

Unit name	The Intellectual Culture of the Twelfth Century (Level H Special Subject)
Unit code	HIST37001
Credit points	20
Level of study	H/6
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director	Dr. Wei
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of History (Historical Studies)
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

The twelfth century was a period of dramatic change in Western Europe. People thought and felt differently about themselves and about others, producing imaginative and accessible texts that are now available in translation. Cultural, intellectual, social, political, religious and economic historians have all deployed the most dramatic terms favoured by their generation to express the significance of this change: renaissance, reformation, discourse, etc. We will focus on the culture of learning in the twelfth century and its role in wider social change.

The first part will explore contexts of learning and intellectual methods: the culture of competition in the new schools, the study of logic and philosophy in the schools, ways of knowing God in schools and monasteries, techniques of textual interpretation, science and cosmology. The second part will examine how scholars viewed and interacted with the rest of society: gothic architecture, courtly culture and sexuality, pastoral care, social satire, law, the role of intellectuals in politics. We will conclude by exploring the emergence of universities.

Aims:

• To enable students to engage with current research on the intellectual culture of the twelfth century.
• To develop further the ability of students to work with primary sources.
• To develop further the abilities of students to integrate both primary and secondary source material into a wider historical analysis.

To develop further the ability of students to learn independently within a small-group context.

Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of the unit students should have:

• Developed an in depth understanding of the intellectual culture of the twelfth century

• Become more experienced and competent in working with an increasingly specialist range of primary sources

• Become more adept at contributing to and learning from a small-group environment.

Teaching Information

Seminars - 3 hours per week

Assessment Information

1 x 3500 word essay (50%) and 1 x 2 hour exam (50%)

Reading and References

C.B. Bouchard, ‘Every Valley Shall Be Exalted’: the Discourse of Opposites in Twelfth-Century Thought (Ithaca, N.Y., 2003)

M.T. Clanchy, Abelard: A Medieval Life (Oxford, 1997)

G. Constable, The Reformation of the Twelfth Century (Cambridge, 1996)

D.E. Luscombe, Medieval Thought (Oxford, 1997)

C. Morris, The Discovery of the Individual, 1050-1200 (London, 1972)

R.N. Swanson, The Twelfth-Century Renaissance (Manchester, 1999)