Syllabus

MEDIEVAL STUDIES 1450 HEROES AND VILLAINS OF THE MIDDLE AGES Section 42142 Dunbar 03204, Mondays and Wednesdays, 2:00-3:15 pm

INSTRUCTOR Robin Henley robin.j.henley@wmich.edu

INSTRUCTOR Samuel T. Dobberstein samuel.t.dobberstein@wmich.edu

Office Hours: Mondays, Wednesdays, Friedman 3314, 1:00-2:00 pm

ABOUT THIS COURSE Heroes and Villains of the Middle Ages is a reading intensive, interdisciplinary course designed to introduce beginning students to the medieval roots of the individual, social, and institutional ideals and values of modern Western culture as expressed and exemplified in the images of medieval heroes and their counterparts. Heroes and Villains of the Middle Ages currently meets the requirements for Distribution Area II, Humanities, of the General Education Curriculum. This course offers three hours of credit. Please note that students may not receive credit for both MDVL 1450 and HIST 1450. REQUIRED TEXTS Robert Harrison, trans., The Song of Roland (New York: Mentor, 1970) (ISBN10: 0451531930) (ISBN13: 9780451531933) Chrtien de Troyes, Yvain, or, The Knight with the Lion, trans. Ruth Harwood Cline (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1975) (ISBN10: 0820307580) (ISBN13: 9780820307589) Galbert of Bruges, The Murder of Charles the Good, trans. James Bruce Ross (New York: Columbia University Press, 2005) (ISBN10: 0231136714) (ISBN13: 9780231136716) Daniel Donoghue, ed., Beowulf: A Verse Translation: Authoritative Text, Contexts, Criticism (New York: Norton, 2002) (ISBN10: 0393975800) (ISBN13: 9780393975802) Judith M. Bennett, Medieval Europe: A Short History (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2006) (ISBN-10: 0073385506) (ISBN-13: 978-0073385501)

CLASS REQUIREMENTS
SYLLABUS REQUIREMENT Bring your syllabus to every lecture and refer to it often. It is a record of all assignments and due dates, as well as instructors office hours, classroom policies, and grading policies. CONTACTING YOUR INSTRUCTORS If you need to contact your instructors, Western requires that you do so through your WMU email account. Please allow instructors at least 24 hours to respond to your email. E mails concerning a particular assignment that are sent on the day that the assignment in question is due will be disregarded. ELECTRONIC DEVICES Electronic devices are not permitted in this classroom without permission. Please speak to us if you plan on using electronic editions of texts with ebook readers, and we will give you permission to use the appropriate reading device in class. Students found using permitted devices for nonclass related activities (game playing, text or instant messaging, surfing the web) will have their privileges revoked. Please remember to silence your mobile phone on entering the classroom. Violating any of these policies will result in you being marked absent that day. FOOD AND BEVERAGE While it is okay to have a beverage during class time, we ask that students do not eat during class. We are responsible for keeping this room clean, so students should clean up after themselves. CLASS DISCUSSION AND ETIQUETTE In this class, discussion is one of the primary method by which we learn. For this reason, everyone's participation is not just allowed, it is encouraged, and will be a major part of this course. We will be discussing topics that can be controversial and it is important to maintain a civil and safe environment where people can express their views in a rational manner. Religion was an integral part of the Middle Ages and it is important that we discuss it in a respectful manner. If something is said that offends any student, as instructors, we hope you will feel able to express yourself in a productive, non-confrontational way. If you feel uncomfortable about publicly raising your concerns during any discussion for whatever reason, please feel free to talk to either of your instructors after class. Although we hope our own conduct will be exemplary, if you do have an issue with either or both of us that you would rather address through a third party, the University Ombudsman office is available to confidentially assist you in resolving the issue (http://www.wmich.edu/ombudsman/). DISABILITIES AND SPECIAL NEEDS Students with disabilities or special needs should contact the instructors at the beginning of the semester to set up accommodation for taking the course and to answer any questions or address any concerns. Any student with a documented disability (e.g., physical, learning, psychiatric, etc.) who wishes to arrange reasonable accommodations must contact Ms. Beth Denhartigh at 2693872116 or via email at beth.denhartigh@wmich.edu at the beginning of the semester. A disability determination must be made by that office before any accommodations are provided, so the sooner one registers with the Disability Center, the better for that student. CHEATING AND PLAGIARISM If you are caught cheating on any test, quiz, or assignments, you will fail that assignment. If you are caught cheating a second time, you will be referred to the Office of Student Conduct. If you are caught plagiarizing, you will fail that assignment and be referred to the Office of Student Conduct. Please refer to University Policies Regarding Academic Honesty (below) for more information.

UNIVERSITY POLICY REGARDING ACADEMIC INTEGRITY Students are responsible for making themselves aware of and understanding the policies and procedures in the Undergraduate and Graduate Catalogs that pertain to academic honesty. These policies include cheating, fabrication, falsification and forgery, multiple submission, plagiarism, complicity, and computer misuse. The policies can be found at: http://catalog.wmich.edu under Academic Policies, Student Rights and Responsibilities. If there is reason to believe a student has been involved in academic dishonesty, we will refer that student to the Office of Student Conduct. The student will be given the opportunity to review the charge(s). If the student believes they are not guilty, they will have the opportunity for a hearing. Students should consult with their instructors if they are uncertain about an issue of academic honesty prior to submission of an assignment or test. Please refer to http://osc.wmich.edu and www.wmich.edu/registrar/ to access the Universitys Code of Honor and general academic policies on such issues as diversity, religious observance, student disabilities, etc. ATTENDANCE Attendance is an important part of learning and will be taken at every class period. If a student is sick or cannot attend for an important reason, they should make every effort to contanct the instructors BEFORE the class period to be missed. More than three absences will result in a students final grade being lowered a full grade. Tardies will be noted, and repeated tardies will result in a lowered grade. Quizzes are only made up for excused absences. Also, as there will be small group discussion centering on the texts we are reading in class, students MUST bring their texts, whether in hardcopy or on a reader. IF the student shows up without the text, the student will be marked absent. As attendance is taken, the student will show they have the days text and is prepared to participate in the class. GRADING The course is made up of five modules. The writing assignment for each module will be a response paper that will include a writing exercise. Instructions will be given out on the first day of each module, and paper with exericises are due the last day of the module. Examples of response prompts might be: What aspects of courtly love still exist today? What is important in a leader as implied in Galberts Charles the Good? Examples of writing exercises would be formulating a bibliography from the modules reading assignments in Chicago Style (style guide provided), developing thesis ideas from the current material, or using proper quotes and citations in your response paper. PLEASE NOTE: the writing exercise is required, and has to accompany the reading response you will turn in on the last day of the module in order to get full credit. Writing responses turned in without the exercises will get half credit. Writing responses turned in late will receive a full grade lower each day past the due date. A reading quiz will also be given during each module bases on the assigned texts. The quiz will be administered as a pop quiz, at the instructors discretion, and will only refer to the text s required to have been read up to that point. If a quiz is given on the second day of a module, the quiz questions will only be on the reading and lectures for those two days. If the quiz is given on the last day of the module, questions may focus on all of the texts and lectures for those days, or may focus on a particular text. There will be a final on December 09 from 2:45 to 4:45. It will be an essay based on all of your previous writing responses. There will be three essay questions to choose from, and it will be open book. The grading of the essay will be based on how well the writer supports their arguments, with cited examples from their texts. There will be further discussion as to requirements for the final essay the week before the final is taken. The grading of the quizzes/responses are as follows: * Five quizzes x 10 points each = 50 points

* Five responses x 20 points each = 100 points * Final = ** Total= 50 points 200 points

The grading scale is as follows: A = 94% up BA = 88% - 93% B = 84% - 87% CB = 77% - 83% C = 74% - 76% DC = 67% - 73% D = 64% - 66% E = 0% - 63% Extra Credit There will be several opportunities for students to earn points through extra credit this semester. There will be several speakers focusing on our period, and we will announce when they are happening. To get the extra credit, a student will attend and then write a 2 to 3 page response to the lecture. Each opportunity for extra credit is worth 10 points. Class Schedule Sept. 04 Introduction Module I Sept. 09 Boethius (pg. 1-29, Workbook) and Bennett (Chapter 1, 1-27) Sept. 11 Einhard/Charlemagne Sept. 16 Roland (59-79) and Bennett (Chapter 9) Sept. 18 Roland (80-135, Pt. 186) Sept. 23 Roland (135-183) and Bennett (Chapter 3) Response paper and exercise due by class in hard copy. Sept. 25 RARE BOOK ROOM, Waldo Library Module II Sept. 30 Beowulf (3-37) and Archeology and Beowulf, (212-223) Oct. 02 Beowulf (37-56) and The Wanderer (WORKBOOK 44-50) and Deor (WORKBOOK 51-52) Oct. 09 Beowulf (56-78) and The Beowulf Poets Sense of History (167-181) Oct. 16 Norse Mythology (tba) Response paper #2 plus exercise due by class in hardcopy Module III Oct 21 Charles the Good (80-156)

Oct. 23 Charles the Good (156-218) Oct. 30 Monasteries, universities, and Peter Abelard (WORKBOOK 53-82, tba) Response paper #3 plus exercise due by class in hardcopy Module IV Nov. 04 Yvaine (1-60) Nov. 11 Yvaine (61-121) Nov. 13 Yvaine (121-193) Response paper #4 plus exercise due by class in hardcopy Module V Nov. 18 Bennett (Chapter 12), Boccaccio (WORKBOOK)Proem, 1st Book of Decameron) Nov. 25 Rise of the Vernacular (tba) Dec. 02 Chaucer (Parlaiment of Foules, Canterbury Tales-Prologue and the Franklins Tale, WORKBOOK (115-163) Dec. 04 Christine de Pizan (Introduction through first two vitas, Poem of Joan of Arc, WORKBOOK 83-114) Response paper #5 plus exercise is due by class in hardcopy Dec. 09 FINAL: 2:45-4:45