History 238: Women in Early Modern Europe
Interim, 2008
Prof. Laurel Carrington Holland Hall 509, x 3628 |
Office Hours: 11:00-12:00
e-mail: carringt@stolaf.edu |
Course Goals and Policies:
The purpose of this course will be twofold: to introduce you to several topics in women's history during a transitional period in the west, and to help you develop a sense of the methodologies of women's history as a field. The major work of the course will consist of reading and discussing the daily assignments. There will also be two papers, due on the first and third Wednesday of the course calendar. These will be analytical papers based on the readings, of about 4 pages each. Questions will be given to you in class several days in advance. There will also be two in-class examinations on the second and fourth Wednesdays.
Grading will be as follows: Class attendance and participation, papers, and final, 20% each.
Books to Purchase:
- Leon Battista Alberti The Family in Renaissance Florence, Book Three, Renee Neu Watkins, trans. (1994: Waveland Press, Inc., ISBN 0-88133-821-4 )
- Baldassare Castiglione The Book of the Courtier (2003: Dover, ISBN 0-486-42702-1)
- Natalie Z. Davis The Return of Martin Guerre (1983: Harvard Univ. Press, ISBN 0-674-76691-1)
- Margaret L. King Women of the Renaissance (1991: Univ. of Chicago Press, ISBN 0-226-43618-7)
- Merry Wiesner Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe (2000: Cambridge Univ. Press, ISBN 0-521-77822-0)
- Reading Packet (available in the history departmental office, Holland 513)
Thu Jan 3
- Introduction to the course
Fri Jan 4
- Wiesner 1-41: Introduction, Ideas and Laws about Women (Inherited traditions, The Renaissance debate about women, Religious reformers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, The Scientific Revolution, Laws regarding women)
- Wiesner 51-94: The Female Life Cycle (Childhood and adolescence, Sexuality, Marriage, Pregnancy, childhood, motherhood; Widowhood and old age)
Mon Jan 7
- King 1-62 Women in the Family (Mother and Child, Daughters, Wives, Widows)
- Marriage and the Family in Renaissance Florence, from Kenneth Bartlett, The Civilization of the Italian Renaissance
Tue Jan 8
- Alberti Book III of Book of the Family
Wed Jan 9
Thu Jan 10
- King 81-135: Women and the Church (Convent Walls, Determined Nuns, Holy Women, Female Sanctity, The Family and the Holy)
- Wiesner 213-240: Religion (The role of women in late medieval Christianity, The Protestant Reformation, The Catholic Reformation)
- Life of St. Teresa
Fri Jan 11
- King 164-188: Women of High Culture (The Schooling of Women, The Quest for Knowledge); 194-239 (Learned Women, The Female Voice)
- Wiesner 143-158: Literacy and Learning (Basic training in reading and writing, Humanist education)
- Letters of Coluccio Salutati, Leonardo Bruni and Laura Cereta, from Bartlett
Mon Jan 14
- Baldassare Castiglione The Book of the Courtier, Dedicatory Letter, Book One
Tue Jan 15
Wed Jan 16
Thu Jan 17
- Castiglione, Book Three
- Erasmus The Wooer and the Maiden
Fri Jan 18
- Wiesner 102-134 Women’s economic role (Work identity and concepts of work, Women’s work in the Countryside, Women’s work in towns and cities, Investment, management, and purchasing)
- King 62-80 Workers
- Documents illustrating the lives of poor and marginal women in Renaissance Florence, from Bartlett
Mon Jan 21
- Natalie Davis The Return of Martin Guerre Preface, Introduction, Chapters 1-6
Tue Jan 22
- Natalie Davis The Return of Martin Guerre Chapters 6-12, Epilogue
Wed Jan 23
Thu Jan 24
- King 135-144 (Women and the Reform)
- “Marriage and the Church” from Joel Harrington Reordering marriage and society in Reformation Germany
- Martin Luther The Estate of Marriage
Fri Jan 25
- Brian P. Levack, Chapter I from The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe
- Henry Boguet, from An Examen of Witches; The Manner of Procedure of a Judge in a Case of Witchcraft
- Anne Llewellyn Barstow, “Why Women? Gender, Numbers, Class,” from Witchcraze
- Selections from the Malleus Maleficiarum
Mon Jan 28
- Wiesner, 288-311: Gender and power (Gender and political power, Gender and the social order)
- King 157-164: Women of Might, Power, and Influence
- Laurel Carrington “Women, Rhetoric, and Letter Writing” from Molly Meijer Wertheimer Listening to their Voices
- Queen Elizabeth Selected Writings and Speeches
Tue Jan 29
- Sara Mendelson and Patricia Crawford “Politics” from Women in Early Modern England
- Evaluations, summation
Wed Jan 30
Laurel Carrington carringt@stolaf.edu
Most recent update: January 18, 2008
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