FSEM 192   LateMedEng:Piety,Imagin&Revolt

Faculty Profile for Professor Cooper

Late Medieval England: Piety, Imagination, and Revolt

In the years after the Black Death, English society underwent profound change. War, political upheaval, and social revolt all changed the way in which people looked at themselves and the world around them. Students examine the rich and varied texts from the period to try to explore the mentalities, fears, and dreams of late-medieval men and women and to reconstruct their world-view on the eve of modernity. The texts to be studied include the Canterbury Tales, the writings of female mystics, John Mandeville’s fabulous travel yarns, the earliest stories of Robin Hood, and the conflicting accounts of the Peasants’ Revolt. Poetry, political satire, chronicles, religious polemics, visions, court records, family letters, maps, music, architecture, and paintings will all be encountered. No prior knowledge is required; a passion for the subject is vital, however, as active classroom participation will be a major part of your grade. Students who successfully complete this seminar will receive credit for HIST 199 and satisfy one half of the Social Relations, Institutions, and Agents are of inquiry requirement.

Professor Alan Cooper is a historian who works on the intersection of cultural history and the history of power in the European Middle Ages. His current project is about how psychological trauma caused the rhetoric of the Crusades to enter European politics.