ENGL4956.01 Fall 2015 Ats:Animalworlds Midages [Stanton]

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ENGL4956 Advanced Topic Seminar: Animal Worlds in the Middle Ages
Fall 2015
Wednesday 4:30-6:55
Stokes 207S

Prof. Robert Stanton, Stokes 385S
Office Hours: Monday 2:30-3:30 or by appointment

This course explores troubled boundaries between human and non-human subjects and objects in the literature, culture, and art of the Middle Ages. While human beings defined the nature and role of animals, those terms, as well as the institutions that mediated them, constituted what being human meant. We will read philosophy, history, theology, saints’ lives, fables, lyrics, epics, sagas, romances, laws, visions, and mystical/devotional texts alongside works in the emerging field of critical animal studies to begin to answer key questions about economic roles, cultural constructions, and the formation of ethical structures in the service of sharing lives and worlds.

Grading Scheme:

Response Papers (600 words) 20%
Short Paper (1500-1750 words) 20%
Long Paper (4000-4500 words) 35%
Seminar Presentation 10%
Discussion Leading/Reading Questions/Class Participation/Animal News Now! 15%


Course Texts:
Kari Weil, Thinking Animals: Why Animal Studies Now? (New York: Columbia University Press, 2012).
Karl Steel, How To Make A Human: Animals and Violence in the Middle Ages (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2011.

Here is an evolving course bibliography, which I encourage you to add to or tinker with (it's editable by everyone). Most of the texts we will read are in modern English translation, but some will be in Middle English. For those not familiar with the language, the Harvard METRO site is a great place to start.

Attendance Policy:
This is a small seminar, so being physically and intellectually present for each class is extremely important. You may have one unexcused absence without penalty ("unexcused" means without a doctor's note or a communication from the dean). Two unexcused absences will result in grade reduction, and three or more unexcused absences may result in a grade of F.

Academic Integrity:
The Boston College academic integrity policy defines cheating as "the fraudulent or dishonest presentation of work" and plagiarism as "the act of taking the words, ideas, data, illustrations, or statements of another person or source, and presenting them as one's own." For more information, read the full academic integrity policy.

Disability Services:
If you are a student with a documented disability seeking reasonable accommodations in this course, please contact Kathy Duggan, (617) 552-8093, at the Connors Family Learning Center regarding learning disabilities, or Paulette Durrett, (617) 552-3470, in the Disability Services Office regarding all other types of disabilities.

Schedule (subject to change):

September 2

Introductory; PowerPoint of a thumbnail sketch of Critical Animal Studies; Weil, Chapter 1: "A Report on the Animal Turn" (3-24); Franz Kafka, "A Report to an Academy"

 

Animals as Concept, Category, and Image

September 9

Ancient Animality

Primary Sources: Darren
Secondary Sources: Natalie
Animal News: Adam

Richard Sorabji, Animal Minds and Human Morals: The Origins of the Western Debate (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993), 7-29, 78-96.

Plato:
Timaeus 44 (pp. 339-45)
Phaedo 30-31 (pp. 283-7)
Phaedrus, 29 (pp. 481-3)
Statesman 7-11 (pp. 11-19)

Aristotle:
De Anima 2.3-4 (pp. 1193-1200)
History of Animals 7(8).1 (pp. 57-67)
History of Animals 8(9).1 (pp. 215-33)
Politics 1.2 (pp. 26-30)

Pliny:
Natural History, 7 prologue (pp. 507-511)

Plutarch:
Gryllus

Weil, Ch. 2: "Seeing Animals" (25-50)

Cary Wolfe, "Moving Forward, Kicking Back: The Animal Turn.postmedieval 2 (2011): 1-12.

Optional Readings:

Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, “Inventing with Animals in the Middle Ages.” Engaging with Nature: Essays on the Natural World in Medieval and Early Modern Europe. Ed. Barbara A. Hanawalt and Lisa J. Kiser. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2008. 39-62.

(introduction to Derrida by Marie-Louise Mallet)
Jacques Derrida, “The Animal That Therefore I Am (More To Follow)." Critical Inquiry 28 (2002): 369-418.

Plato, Republic, 10.16, 619B-621D (pp. 511-21)
Plato, Timaeus 14 (pp. 141-7)
Sextus EmpiricusOutlines of Pyrrhonism 1.14.36-78 (pp. 25-47)

September 16

The Christian and Physiologus Traditions

Primary Sources: Rachel
Secondary Sources: Adam
Animal News: Tim

Christian:
Genesis chs. 1-3
Psalm 74:12-17
Numbers 22
Acts of Peter (Vercelli Acts) 9-11
Augustine, City of God 1.20
Augustine, On the Manichaean and Catholic Ways of Life 2.17.54-64 (pp. 83-9).Augustine, On Free Will 1.7-9 (pp. 49-55)
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica 2.2.25.3
Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermons on the Song of Songs, Sermon 5 ("On the Four Kinds of Spirits")
Isidore, Etymologies, Book 12 (“Animals”) [browse]

Physiologus:
This article from the Medieval Bestiary blog on Physiologus
The Old English Physiologus (The Panther, The Whale, The Partridge)

Bestiaries:
The Aberdeen Bestiary (read the introductory material and browse the illustrations, in the right hand column here)
Browse The Medieval Bestiary, a very nice site maintained by David Badke in Victoria, British Columbia. Please read the Introduction and then browse the list of beasts, pick a favorite, and chat briefly about it in class.
You might also want to browse Chimaera, a blog associated with the Medieval Bestiary site. Lots of great hi-res pictures.
Also for potential browsing: Bodley MS 764

Laura Hobgood-Oster, Holy Dogs and Asses: Animals in the Christian Tradition (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2008), ch. 1: "Weaving and Roaring: Animals and a Religious Studies-Centered Methodological Bricolage" (pp. 1-20).

Joyce Salisbury, "Do Animals Go to Heaven? Medieval Philosophers Contemplate Heavenly Human Exceptionalism." Athens Journal of Humanities and Arts 1 (2014): 79-85. [remember this story about something Pope Francis didn't say about pets going to heaven?]

Susan Crane, Animal Encounters: Contacts and Concepts in Medieval Britain. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 2013. Ch. 3: “A Bestiary’s Taxonomy of Creatures.” 69-100.

Optional Readings:

Book of Job

Lorraine Daston and Katharine Park, Wonders and the Order of Nature, 1150-1750. New York: Zone Books, 1998. 22-57.

September 23

Saintliness and Sympathy

Primary Sources: Tim
Secondary Sources: Kelsey
Animal News: Adam

Endelechius, “On the Deaths of Cows”
Paulinus of Nola, Natalicia of St. Felix: Poem 18, pp. 122-30; Poem 20, pp. 159-172.
Thomas of Celano, Life of St Francis, ch. 21, ch. 28
St Bonaventure, Life of St Francis, ch. 8
Old English Exeter Book riddles: fox/badger, ten chickensoysterox/leather, bull-calf/young ox, ox
The Book of Margery Kempe, Ch. 28

Karl Steel, How to Make a Human: Animals and Violence in the Middle Ages. Columbus: Ohio State UP, 2011. "Epilogue: The Peasant's Oxen and Other Worldly Animals." 232-45.

Laura Hobgood-Oster, Holy Dogs and Asses: Animals in the Christian Tradition. Urbana and Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2008. Ch. 4: “Counted among the Saints: Animals in Medieval Hagiography.” 63-80.

Lisa Kiser, “Margery Kempe and the Animalization of Christ: Animal Cruelty in Late Medieval England.“ Studies in Philology 106 (2009): 299-315.

Susan Crane, Animal Encounters, Ch. 1: "Cohabitation." 11-41.

Optional Readings:

Virgil, Georgics, Book 3 (pp. 177-217)
Old English Exeter Book riddles: cock/henbookworm

September 30

Class Cancelled

 

Useable Animals

October 7

Food

Primary Sources: Natalie
Secondary Sources: Darren
Animal News: Tim

Note: for help reading Middle English, refer to the Harvard METRO site (especially "Central") and this brief guide

Plutarch: The Eating of Flesh
John Lydgate, Debate of the Horse, Goose, and Sheep
Richard Coeur de Lion:
 read the synopsis here, and the introduction and text here. The key passages are ll. 989-1116, 3028-3226, 3397-3562, 5467-5892.

Karl Steel, How to Make a Human: Animals and Violence in the Middle Ages. Columbus: Ohio State UP, 2011. Ch. 5: “Pigs, Butchers, and the Ends of Humanity.” 179-220.

Geraldine Heng, "The Romance of England: Richard Coer de Lyon, Saracens, Jews, and the Politics of Race and Nation." The Postcolonial Middle Ages, ed. Jeffrey Jerome Cohen. New York: St. Martin's, 2000. 135-71.

Erica Fudge, “Two Ethics: Killing Animals in the Past and the Present.” Killing Animals. The Animal Studies Group. Chicago and Urbana: U of Illinois P, 2006. 99-119.

Rob Meens, “Eating Animals in the Early Middle Ages: Classifying the Animal World and Building Group Identities.” The Animal Human Boundary: Historical Perspectives. Ed. Angela Creager and William Chester Jordan. Rochester: U of Rochester P, 2002. 3-28.

October 14

Hunting

Primary: Kelsey
Secondary: Tim
News: Natalie

The Hunting Book of Gaston Phébus: read an introduction here, browse some great facsimiles here and here, and look at a translation of the Middle English version (browse the introduction and foreword - by Teddy Roosevelt! - and read Chapter 1)
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: Read this overview and Fitt 3 of the poem
Marie de France, Guigemar

Matt Cartmill, A View to a Death in the Morning: Hunting and Nature Through History. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1996. Ch. 4: “The White Stag.” 52-75.

Ryan Judkins, “The Game of the Courtly Hunt: Chasing and Breaking Deer in Late Medieval English Literature.” Journal of English and Germanic Philology 112 (2013): 70-92.

Karl Steel, “Biopolitics in the Forest.” The Politics of Ecology, ed. Randy Schiff and Joseph Taylor. Columbus: Ohio State UP, 2015.

Optional:
Garry Marvin, “Wild Killing: Contesting the Animal in Hunting.” Killing Animals. The Animal Studies Group: Chicago and Urbana: U of Illinois P, 2006. 10-29.

October 21

Before the Law: Animal Trials Short Paper Due

Paul Schiff Berman, "Rats, Pigs, and Statues on Trial: The Construction of Cultural Narratives in the Prosecution of Animals and Inanimate Objects," New York University Law Review 69 (1994): 288-326.

Piers Beirne, "The Law is an Ass: Reading E.P. Evans' The Medieval Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals," Society and Animals 2 (1994): 27-46.

Peter Dinzelbacher, “Animal Trials: A Multidisciplinary Approach.” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 32 (2002): 405-421.

Optional:
Kalpana Seshadri-Crooks, “Being Human: Bestiality, Anthropophagy, and Law.” Umbr(a) 2003: 97-114.

Movie: The Hour of the Pig (The Advocate), 1993

 

Conversations and Boundaries 

October 28

Humanimals: Dogs, Wolves

Primary: Rachel
Secondary: Natalie
News: Rachel

Sir Gowther : read this summary, the Introduction, and ll. 1-144, 265-372 
Ratramnus of Corbie’s Letter on the Cynocephali
Marie de FranceBisclavret
Melion
Biclarel
(just browse the introduction and read both texts)

Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, "Gowther Among the Dogs: Becoming Inhuman, Ca. 1400.Becoming Male in the Middle Ages, ed. Jeffrey Jerome Cohen and Bonnie Wheeler. New York and London: Garland, 1997. 219-44.

Sharon Kinoshita and Peggy McCracken, “Bodies and Embodiment: Characters.” Marie de France: A Critical Companion. New York: D.S. Brewer, 2012. 143-72 (focus on Bisclavret section)

Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, “The Werewolf’s Indifference.” Studies in the Age of Chaucer 34 (2012): 351-6.

Karl Steel, "Cynocephali: How a Dog Becomes Human.How to Make a Human: Animals and Violence in the Middle Ages (Columbus: Ohio State UP, 2011. 136-150.

Optional Reading: Kalpana Rahita Seshadri, HumAnimal: Race, Law, Language. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 2012. Ch. 5: "The Wild Child: Politics and Ethics of the Name." 141-79.

Optional Reading: Karl Steel, "With the World, Or, Bound to Face the Sky: The Postures of the Wolf-Child of Hesse.Animal, Vegetable, Mineral: Ethics and Objects. Washington, DC: Punctum Books, 2012. 9-34.

November 4

Humanimals: Horses, Birds

Primary: Adam
Secondary: Rachel
News: Kelsey

Marie de France, Yonec, Laustic, MilunView in a new window (optional: Intro to Marie de France)

Jeffrey Cohen, Medieval Identity Machines. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 2003. Ch. 2: "Chevalerie." 36-77. Here is a higher-quality image of the "horse machine" on p. 52, and one of Geoffrey Luttrell on horseback (p. 69).

Susan Crane, "Chivalry and the Pre/Postmodern,postmedieval 2 (2011): 69-87.

Sharon Kinoshita and Peggy McCracken, “Bodies and Embodiment: CharactersView in a new window.” Marie de France: A Critical Companion. New York: D.S. Brewer, 2012. 143-72 (focus on Yonec, Laustic, Milun sections)

Optional:
Margaret Robson, "Animal Magic: Moral Regeneration in View in a new windowSir Gowther."View in a new window Yearbook of English Studies 22 (1992): 140-53.

November 11

Humanimals: Monsters

Primary: Darren
Secondary: Tim
News: Darren

Beowulf: read this summary (Links to an external site.) (by Allen Frantzen from The Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature), and the following lines of the poem:
99-188 (description of Grendel)
662-852 (fight with Grendel)
1252-1382 (Grendel's mother attacks)
1383-1698 (fight with Grendel's mother).
Use this translation View in a new window(by Roy Liuzza), but feel free to refer to this one (Links to an external site.) (by Benjamin Slade) as well; it is more literal, is facing-page with the Old English, and has hyperlinked notes.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, fitts 1 and 4

Geoffrey of Monmouth, History of the Kings of Britain, Book 10, Chapter 3 (pp. 183-185, available on Google Books preview, or pp. 172-175 of this translation)

Alliterative Morte d'Arthur: read introduction and ll. 841-1221.

Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, "The Promise of Monsters." The Ashgate Research Companion to Monsters and the Monstrous. Ed. Asa Simon Mittman and Peter Dendle. Farnham, UK and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2012. 449-464.

Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, Of Giants: Sex, Monsters, and the Middle Ages. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1999, pp. 62-80 (on Eglamour), 152-159 (on the Alliterative Morte)

Film Clips:

Grendel Grendel Grendel (1981) [skip to 4:45]


Beowulf, dir. Graham Baker (1999)

Beowulf and Grendel, dir. Sturla Gunnarson (2005):

Beowulf, dir. Robert Zemeckis (2007):

Grendel marauding, (Links to an external site.)

 (Links to an external site.)Grendel defeated, (Links to an external site.)

Beowulf's mother (Links to an external site.)

[I had some humorous access issues with this video, but you can see Mrs Grendel on this classy website (Links to an external site.) as well]

Megan Cavell, "Constructing the Monstrous Body in BeowulfView in a new window," Anglo-Saxon England 43 (2014): 155-181.
Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, Of Giants: Sex, Monsters, and the Middle Ages. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1999, pp. 142-152View in a new window.

Optional: E.G. Stanley, "'A Very Land-Fish, Languageless, A Monster': Grendel and the Like in Old EnglishView in a new window." Monsters and the Monstrous in Medieval Northwestern Europe. Ed. K.E. Olsen and L.A.J.R. Houwen. Louvain: Peeters, 2001. 79-92.
Optional: Nickolas Haydock, "Meat Puzzles: Beowulf and Horror Film.View in a new windowEthics and Medievalism, ed. Karl Fugelso. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2014. 123-146.
Very Optional Indeed, in Fact, Nerd Alert, and Your Professor Was a Big Prog Rock Fan in the 70s: 1974 rock opera version of Beowulf (Links to an external site.)
 (Links to an external site.)

 

November 18

Humanimals: Pets and Death

Primary: Kelsey
Secondary: Adam
Animal News: Natalie

Sir Eglamour of Artoisread this summary, the introduction, and lines 283-588.
The Legend of St Guinefort (section 370 is the relevant part, but the context is important)

Lorraine Daston and Gregg Mitman, "Introduction," in Daston and Mitman, ed., Thinking with Animals: New Perspectives on Anthropomorphism (New York: Columbia University Press, 2005), 1-14.
Steel, How to Make a Human, pp. 221-231.
Karl Steel, "Ridiculous Mourning: Dead Pets and Lost Humans." Studies in the Age of Chaucer 34 (2012): 345-349.
Weil, Ch. 5 ("Dog Love/Wo(o)lf Love"), pp. 81-96.
Kathleen Walker-Meikle, Medieval Pets (Woodbridge and Rochester: Boydell, 2012), Ch. 2: "Getting (And Losing) A Pet.

November 25

 Thanksgiving - No Class

December 2

Humanimals: Fables     Long paper abstract due

Animal News: Kelsey

Aesop, Fables. We won't be dealing with Aesop in any detail, but browse around this online collection (sections 1-4, listed alphabetically). Aesop is the source of many fables in the medieval collections.
Marie de France, Fables. Read the Introduction and these fables.

R. Howard Bloch, "The Wolf in the Dog: Animal Fables and State Formation," Differences 15 (2004): 69-83.

Peter W. Travis, "Aesop's Symposium of Animal Tongues," postmedieval 2 (2011): 33-49.

Susan Crane, "The Trouble with Fable," Animal Encounters: Contacts and Concepts in Medieval Britain. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 2013), 42-48.

Tom Tyler, "If Horses Had Hands…," Society and Animals 11 (2003): 267-81.

Optional: Howard Needler, "The Medieval Fable among Other Medieval Literary Genres," New Literary History 22 (1991): 423-429.

Optional: 
Joyce E. Salisbury, "Human Animals of Medieval Fables,Animals in the Middle Ages: A Book of Essays, ed. Nona C. Flores (New York and London: Garland, 1996), 49-65.

Optional: Jill Mann, From Aesop to Reynard: Beast Literature in Medieval Britain (Oxford: Oxford UP, 2009). Ch. 2: "Marie de France: The Courtly Fable." Ch. 6: "Reynard in England." Ch. 7: "Henryson: The Epicized Fable."

December 9

Seminars 

 

Final Paper Due: Dec. 16, noon, on Canvas

Course Summary:

Date Details Due
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