History 125A

Fall 2000

Mr. Sabean

 

 

Europe 1450-1600

 

 

 

This course deals with the reorganization of power, new forms of representation, and discourses about rule and obedience in Europe during the high Renaissance, Reformation, and era of Confessional consolidation. It deals with the vast growth of European courts, their changing political functions, and their culture. The theses of Elias and zur Lippe, who see in court society the genesis of the `modern individual', will be examined. The course also deals with recent discussions about popular culture and religion and peasant society. It will examine the process of producing consent and the space available for resistance. A central issue will be the complex problem of social domination. Finally, we will take up the problem of refashioning religion and power, looking at fragmentation, localization, reordering of central metaphors, and new forms of uniformity. Throughout the course, the impact of Renaissance humanism and the Catholic and Protestant reformations on culture, society and politics will be examined.

 

The reading for the course is not always closely tied to the lectures and should be considered as an independent exercise. Regular attendance at lectures is expected. Attendance will be taken. Failure to attend three lectures or more will result in a lower grade for the course.

 

Exams will contain only essay questions, some of which will be related to the assigned reading. Each paper and the mid-term exam will count for 20% of the grade and the final for 40%. There will be no make-up mid-term exam. The final exam will count for 60% of the grade for students who fail to take the mid term.

 

 

Week 1

 

September 28: Lecture 1: Introduction

 

Week 2

 

Reading: Roy Strong, Art and Power

 

Supplementary Reading for graduate students and students with a special interest in the sixteenth century: Koenigsberger, Mosse, and Bowler, Europe in the Sixteenth Century, pp. 1-386

 

October 3: Lecture 2: Renaissance courts: a perambulatory review

 

October 5: Lecture 3: Representations: entrances and exits

 

Week 3

 

Reading: Machiavelli, The Prince

 

Supplementary Reading: Koenigsberger, Mosse and Bowler, Europe in the Sixteenth Century, pp. 387-433.

 

October 10: Lecture 4: Courtliness and discipline: towards the geometrization of space

 

October 12: Lecture 5: Legitimacy and sovereignty: princely courts and the technology of rulership

 

Week 4

 

Reading: Jean Bodin, On Sovereignty. There will be a five-page paper assigned on this book. The topic will be handed out on October 17 in class and the paper will be due in class on October 24. Late papers will be marked down.

 

Supplementary Reading: Norbert Elias, The History of Manners, vol. 1, The Civilizing Process

 

October 17: Lecture 6: Extra-economic coercion: restructuring noble power

 

October 19: Lecture 7: Court culture: manners and mannerism

 

Week 5

 

Reading: Castiglione, Book of the Courtier

 

Supplementary Reading: Peter Blickle, The Revolution of 1525

 

October 24: Lecture 8: Sacralization of kings and princes: mannerism

 

October 26: Lecture 9: A Century of Expansion: population, family, social differentiation

 

 

Week 6

 

Reading: Reader

 

Supplementary Reading: Carlo Ginzburg, Cheese and Worms

 

October 31: Lecture 10: Community: village social organization

 

November 2: Lecture 11: Resistance, rebellion, and death

 

Week 7

 

November 7: Mid-term examination

 

November 9: Lecture 12: Social Orders: discourses of representation, community, resistance

 

Week 8

 

Reading: Erasmus, Praise of Folly

 

Supplementary Reading: Bakhtin, Rabelais and His World

 

November 14: Lecture 13: The defence of property: family, women, and youth

 

November 16: Lecture 14: Scatalogical pleasures: carnival

 

Week 9

 

Reading: Steinberg, Sexuality of Christ

 

Supplementary Reading: William Christian, Local Religion in Sixteenth-Century Spain

 

November 21: Lecture 15: Late medieval piety: new tendencies in religious practice

 

November 23: Thanksgiving

 

Week 10

 

Reading: Martin Luther, Selections. There will be a five-page paper assigned on this book. The topic will be handed out on November 28 in class and the paper will be due in class on December 5. Late papers will be marked down.  

 

Supplementary Reading: Ronnie Hsia, Myth of Ritual Murder

 

November 28: Lecture 16: New discourses: Luther (and Calvin)

 

November 30: Lecture 17: Local practices: fragmentation of the sacred

 

 

Week 11

 

Reading: Montaigne, Essays (selections to be assigned)

 

December 5: Lecture 18: Church and domination: curing souls

 

December 7: Conclusion: Word vs. picture: confessionalism