Offered This Year

Medieval Studies is not offering any summer courses.

Elective credits are available with:

ANTH 398: Life and Death in the Viking World - May 12 - June 27th

MEDI 100: Enter the Middle Ages

This thematic introduction to the medieval world will emphasize the interdisciplinarity of Medieval Studies and the methodological approaches of its cognate disciplines. Content will be structured and presented as a series of interconnected thematic units, including “Faith Traditions,” “Lords and Land,” “Books and Learning,” “Village and Town,” “Artists and Craftspeople” and “Knights and Warfare.” Conceptions of the Middle Ages will also be explored, ranging from the pejorative opinions of Renaissance Humanists to the Romantics’ idealism and re-enactments in contemporary film, literature and gaming.
For more information, visit us online at http://www.uvic.ca/humanities/medieval/
This course will emphasize scholarly approaches to both the Middle Ages and modern renderings of medieval material. Upon completion of MEDI 100, students will recognize the principal social, political and religious phenomena that defined the medieval world, including the impact of intercultural dialogue between Christian, Jewish and Muslim communities.

 Instructor: Dr. Michael Reed

MEDI 303: The Medieval World

An interdisciplinary introduction to the Middle Ages through a comparative overview of medieval cultures and civilizations until about CE 1500, with a focus on the formation of medieval Christian Europe and its relations with Judaism, Byzantine Christianity, and Islam.

Instructor: Dr. Michael Reed

MEDI 430: Medieval China

More information coming soon!

Instructor: Dr. TC Lin

MEDI 344A: Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales

Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales is a collection of medieval poetry and prose whose mixture of formal complexity, generic experimentation, and social critique excites admiration and imitation to this day. It has been translated into numerous languages and continues to be adapted in various media. We will explore the animating features of Chaucer's compilation: the multiplicity of voices and moral visions; critical developments in genre, style, and narrative technique; ideas of authorship and audience; and the emergence of the vernacular as a literary medium in England. Our goal is to situate Chaucer’s special achievement within relevant linguistic, cultural, and political contexts of the fourteenth century.

Instructor: Dr. Allan Mitchel

MEDI 346: 

An interdisciplinary introduction to the Middle Ages through a comparative overview of medieval cultures and civilizations until about CE 1500, with a focus on the formation of medieval Christian Europe and its relations with Judaism, Byzantine Christianity, and Islam.

Instructor: Dr. Joseph Grossi

MEDI 348: Themes in Medieval Literature

Examines the literatures, languages and cultures of medieval Britain, through to 15th century, covering some combination of poetry, prose and/or drama, organized around a specific theme or topic; materials may be taught in translation.

Instructor: Dr. Allan Mitchel

MEDI 200: Myths and Legends of the Middle Ages

Heroes, Beasts, and Other-worldly Beings

This thematic introduction to selected myths and legends of the medieval world will emphasize heroes, fantastic animals, other-worldly beings and syncretic myth-making practices. Topics will include contexts for the use(s) of heroic and fantastic stories in various cultural and faith traditions (including Scandinavian, Chinese and Islamic); the relationship(s) between textual and visual depictions of heroes and fantastic stories; and the resonance of medieval heroism and the fantastic in contemporary societies. This course will emphasize scholarly approaches to medieval and modern renderings of myth and legend. Upon completion of MEDI 200, students will be apprised of the variety and use of heroic and fantastic stories in the medieval world.

Instructor: Dr. Michael Reed

MEDI 320C: Dante's Divine Comedy

In medieval Italy, politicians (and others) who behaved like criminals had to reckon with creative writers, some of whom risked arrest and death to speak truth to power. Never one to mind his own business, Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) adapted the literary genre of the dream vision to searing political critique; the result, his Divine Comedy, teems with the damned in Hell, the hopeful in Purgatory, and the joyful in Paradise. In his epic imaginary tour of the afterlife, Dante vividly urges his readers to adhere to a rules-based cosmic order even as he proclaims a bold new vision of the poet’s guiding role in society. In this course, we’ll explore Dante’s Comedy in English translation, though we’ll also glance frequently at the Italian original and at some images that accompanied the poem in various fourteenth- and fifteenth-century illuminated manuscripts. No prior coursework in Italian language or literature is required. 

Instructor: Dr. Joseph Grossi

MEDI 328: Gothic Art and Architecture

An interdisciplinary introduction to the Middle Ages through a comparative overview of medieval cultures and civilizations until about CE 1500, with a focus on the formation of medieval Christian Europe and its relations with Judaism, Byzantine Christianity, and Islam.

Instructor: Dr. Michael Reed

MEDI 344B: Chaucer's Dream Visions and Other works

What was it like for medieval people to have dreams, to make love, to avenge wrongs, to read and write, and to reason? Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde and his dream visions, lyrics poems, and prose translations present answers to these questions. This course is devoted to a set of important and influential works by the fourteenth-century English author, situating them within relevant linguistic, cultural, and political contexts. Other authors may be studied to illuminate the medieval literary traditions in which Chaucer was writing and which he later influenced. 

Instructor: Dr. Allan Mitchel