Medieval and Renaissance Civilizations
Key themes, problems and topics in Medieval and Renaissance civilizations, including: the development of concepts of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance; notions of decline, renewal, rebirth and reformation in the West; sources and methods of inquiry.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Beowulf to Boccaccio: Great Books and Writers of the Middle Ages
Major medieval writers and selections from their works. Writers include the Beowulf poet, Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Chaucer and Christine de Pisan
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Restriction: open to MARS majors until date specified in Registration guide.
Prerequisite: MARS 1F90 or permission of the Director.
Castle, Cathedral and Manor: Medieval Architecture and Society
Relationship of trends in military, religious, domestic, urban and monumental architecture of the Middle Ages to changes in medieval society; the relationship of medieval architecture and art to thought.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Restriction: open to MARS majors until date specified in Registration guide.
Prerequisite: MARS 2P90 or permission of the Director.
Prose and Poetry of the Renaissance
Themes and style in the works of 15th- and 16th-century continental writers; humanism and philosophical treatises; realism and classicism; Petrarchan ideal in lyric poetry; quérelle des anciens et des modernes; imitation and originality; the status of the vernacular. Authors may include Machiavelli, Castiglione, Ariosto, Pico, Valla, Ficino, Erasmus, the Plaeiade poets, Rabelais, and Montaigne.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Restriction: open to MARS majors until date specified in Registration guide.
Prerequisites: MARS 2P90 and 2P91 or permission of the Director
Renaissance Art and Architecture
Debates concerning the early manifestations of Renaissance art; principal works of painting, sculpture and architecture of the Italian Renaissance; overview of the Northern Renaissance; representative artworks from France, Spain, Portugal, England and Scotland; Christian and Classical iconography; ecclesiastical and secular art; the sacred and the profane; interconnections among artworks and literature.
Seminar, 3 hours per week.
Restriction: open to MARS majors until date specified in Registration guide.
Prerequisite: MARS 3P90 or permission of the Director.
Themes in Medieval-Renaissance Civilizations
Seminar, 3 hours per week.
Problems in Medieval-Renaissance Civilizations
Seminar, 3 hours per week.
End of the Ancient World and the Making of the Middle Ages
Transformation of the Roman world between the third and ninth centuries from a variety of critical perspectives, emphasizing recent historical and archaeological work.
Restriction: students must have a minimum 70 percent major average and approval to year 4 (honours).
Prerequisite: MARS 3P91.
The Cross Goes North
Conversion of Europe to Christianity as a significant theme in the history of the first millennium and the development of medieval European culture. Processes in the conversion of the so-called barbarian peoples of northern Europe between about 500 and 1000.
Seminar, 3 hours per week.
Restriction: students must have a minimum 70 percent major average and approval to year 4 (honours).
Prerequisite: MARS 4P80.
Honours Seminar in Medieval and Renaissance Studies
Critical approaches to Medieval and Renaissance studies from a variety of disciplines and perspectives.
Seminar, 3 hours per week.
Restriction: students must have a minimum 75 percent major average and approval to year 4 (honours).
Prerequisite: MARS 3P90 and 3P91.
Honours Thesis
Major project in Medieval and Renaissance Studies on a topic of mutual interest to the student and instructor.
Restriction: students must have a minimum 75 percent major average and approval to year 4 (honours).
Prerequisite: MARS 4P98.