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Conventionally speaking, the Middle Ages are considered to cover the centuries between the years 400 and 1500. The concept of the Middle Ages refers, in first instance, to a European phenomenon, although regions in the Byzantine and Islamic world come into the story as well. As common prejudice has it, the medieval period stands out most of all by a reversion to barbarism in which human progress came to a grinding halt: people lost the ability to read and write and even simple technologies like brick-fabrication were forgotten.
This course shows that there is no such thing as THE Middle Ages but rather four consecutive periods: Late Antiquity, the Early Middle Ages, the High Middle Ages, and finally the Late Middle Ages. All four periods were characterized by constant processes of change, by outbursts of creativity and inventiveness—but also by war, invasions, and horrible diseases that wiped out large proportions of the European population. Students will find that Barbarians were not all that barbarian, that those who entered a monastery were no sad cases of religious mania, that medieval kings in their right minds did not order to have their rivals' heads chopped off on a whim, and that medieval peasants and townspeople were perfectly capable of making rational economic decisions.
Format
There are two classes each week, in which either segments of the handbook or recent articles and primary sources are discussed. Students prepare an oral presentation (ca. 15 minutes) and an essay (ca. 2,500 words) for this course.
Students are further tested in two exams, one in the middle of the course and one at the end. The format is 'closed handbook, open reader', meaning that students are expected to recall the contents of the handbook by heart. Each exam covers half of the total course material. They both consist of four essay-questions, for which knowledge of the handbook is needed as well, but also draws on the student's ability to handle both primary sources and secondary literature.
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