ITL 304 BODY AND LOVE: THE MIDDLE AGES

This course explores Medieval and early Modern culture through the following questions: What did it mean to have a body in the Late Middle Ages? What were the perspectives on love from a literary, medical and religious point of view? How did the material presence of the human body help shape the perception of the beloved? How did mystical authors embody various forms of sacred love? Although the main focus will be on the works by Italian authors from the 13th and 14th centuries (for example, the Sicilian poets, Dante, Boccaccio, and Caterina da Siena), we will also include physicians from Classical antiquity (for example, Galen and Aristotle), Arabic philosophers (for example, Averroes and Avicenna), and French, English, and Spanish writers up to the 15th century (for example, Julian of Norwich, Marguerite d’Oingt, Teresa de Cartagena).

 

Credits

4

Notes

Course is in English.  This course may include an optional section that will meet for an additional hour each week to discuss supplemental readings in Italian. Students participating in the foreign language section will receive one additional credit hour, pass/not passed marking.

Prerequisite

Open to sophomores, juniors, and seniors; and to first year students with permission of the instructor.

Enrollment Limit

Enrollment limited to 16 students.

Attributes

MOIB, MOIE, W, WLC