Expository Writing (105-0-20)
Topic
Marketing the Medieval: Modern Fictions of the Mid
Instructors
Eliza Feero
Meeting Info
University Library 3322: Tues, Thurs 11:00AM - 12:20PM
Overview of class
From Dungeons & Dragons to Viking symbols at the 2017 "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, modern uses and abuses of the European Middle Ages are all around us. In this course, we will use these depictions of medieval Europe - also called "medievalisms" - to learn a variety of techniques for analyzing, engaging critically with, and producing arguments in our own and others' writing. Working with medieval texts, such as the visions of mystic Margery Kempe, alongside modern medievalisms, like "Game of Thrones" and Monty Python and the Holy Grail, we will examine how writers and creators use language and rhetoric to create myths, communicate ideas, and structure arguments about a medieval past. Looking at modern cultural and political phenomena such as Harry Potter, D&D, and white supremacists' fantasies around medieval Europe, we will interrogate how powerful rhetoric, argumentation, and storytelling can have lasting and varied real-world implications.
The primary objective of this course is to help you become a better writer, reader, and critical thinker. Through independent and in-class writing and discussion, we will practice communicating our own ideas clearly, engaging carefully with others' ideas, and structuring arguments using evidence. We will treat writing as a multi-step process that relies on an initial expression of ideas, and then careful revision and reworking of those ideas to build clarity, voice, style, and argumentative power.