Research Seminar (395-0-20)
Topic
The Black Death
Instructors
Dyan H Elliott
847/491-7652
Harris Hall Room 337
Meeting Info
Harris Hall L06: Tues, Thurs 3:30PM - 4:50PM
Overview of class
The fourteenth-century Black Death (or bubonic plague) has long been the benchmark against which all other disasters have been measured. Although there were devastating instances of plague in Roman times, and even isolated outbreaks in our own time, the medieval plague was a true pandemic that raged throughout the world. This courses focuses on the bubonic plague in Western Europe. After examining the first visitation of the plague in the Byzantine era (6c), we will then focus on the period between 1346 and 1348, when the Black Death wiped out somewhere between 40 and 60 percent of the population, and the aftermath. At a time when principles of contagion were hazy and medical treatment primitive, the panic-stricken society alternated between regarding the plague as evidence of God's wrath for humanity's sins and desperately seeking scapegoats to blame. This course will approach the plague from multiple perspectives through the lens of primary and secondary sources. Among the topics addressed will be: the immediate causes of the plague; medieval and modern theories of the disease; the plague's impact on both religious personnel and the secular work force; its impact on culture; the relation between plague and persecution, and violence; and the impact of the plague outside of Europe and beyond the Middle Ages.
Learning Objectives
Learning Objectives (HD-FS): The readings in this course introduce students to an array of primary sources: theology, canon and civil law, sermons, autobiography, chronicles, medical treatises -- to name but a few. The diversity of these texts will provide a textured and multi-vocalic perception of the Black Death that resists being flattened out into a simplistic narrative. Secondary sources will be used to contextualization medieval documents and provide models for constructing historical arguments through the application of appropriate methodologies and a judicious assessment of evidence. Learning Objectives (FD-SBS) This course focuses on the fourteenth-century Black Death (the Bubonic Plague), primarily in Western Europe. This a time of unmitigated disaster. Students will learn to appreciate the relations between disease and historical contingencies like class, age, gender, warfare, the economy, and climate. We will consider the active efforts of medical, religious, and political authorities to meet the needs of a society on the brink of collapse. We will also assess the way in which disaster undermined social norms, leading to disaffection, the challenge of authority, and the scape-gating of minorities. Students will be introduced to some of the recent scientific breakthroughs in archeology and DNA analyses that have shed new light on this enigmatic period. By the end of the course, students will not only be familiar with a watershed moment in western history from multiple perspectives, but will also come to a greater understanding of how societies in general respond to natural disasters.
Evaluation Method
Identification of research topic (4-5 pp., 5%); short proposal or abstract (6-8 pp. + annotated bibliography, 10%); draft (15 %); final research paper (20 pp. + notes and bibliography, 50%); participation and oral presentations (20%)
Class Attributes
Historical Studies Distro Area
Enrollment Requirements
Enrollment Requirements: Freshmen may not register for this course.