College Writing Program
Reasoning & Writing in the College CAS 105
Summer 2008
Each section description is based on the general CAS 105/105E course description developed by the Interdisciplinary College Writing Commiteee.
Getting (Neo)Medieval: Reading and Re-Writing the Past
Annie Heckel, Department of English
MWR 10:00 - 1:00 pm CRN 10683
RRL G108A
In this class, students will hone their skills of critical thought and academic writing while exploring modern conceptions of one of the most romanticized and demonized time periods in the western past: the Middle Ages. Pop culture depictions of the medieval period have run the gamut from extremely positive—it's a golden age of brave knights and pious, learned monks—to extremely negative—it's a dark age of violence, ignorance, and barbarity—and everything in between. In Getting (Neo)Medieval, we’ll analyze modern takes on the Middle Ages, starting with the classic film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Through class discussions, student presentations, and both formal and informal writing, we'll wrestle with questions of how authors and creators of “medieval” worlds play with and play off truths and misconceptions about the Middle Ages, and what their goals are in doing so. In discussing these and similar questions, we'll to try to get a handle on how the medieval period is and has been used and abused by cultural critics and creators in later centuries. Students will have the opportunity to refine and revise their ideas as each of their formal papers (three 3-5 page essays and one 8-10 page research essay) undergo a sequence of peer feedback, self assessment, and instructor comment.
