Medieval and Renaissance Studies (2020 - 2022)
This is a sampling of courses specifically designed for the program in medieval and Renaissance Studies.
The Civilization and Culture of the Middle Ages
MEDI-UA 11 Identical to HIST-UA 11. Offered every year. 4 points.
Concentrates on the culture of medieval Europe, a world that produced castles and crusades, cathedrals and tapestries, mystery plays and epics, and plainsong and philosophy. Examines the richness and diversity of medieval creativity and features museum visits.
Philosophy in the Middle Ages
MEDI-UA 60 Identical to PHIL-UA 25. Offered regularly. 4 points.
Study of major medieval philosophers, their issues, schools, and current philosophic interests. Includes Augustine, Anselm, Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, and William of Ockham.
Medieval Romance
MEDI-UA 311 Identical to ENGL-UA 311. Offered periodically. 4 points.
How these tales of adventure, love, and magic both construct and deconstruct ideals of selfhood, masculinity, femininity, heterosexuality, nationality, geography, temporality, religion, spirituality, nature, and the function and performance of linguistic discourse. Consideration of other genres (saints’ lives, chronicles, travel writing, allegory, and exempla). Readings in Middle English and in translation.
Cervantes
MEDI-UA 371 Identical to SPAN-UA 371. Offered every other year. 4 points.
Close reading of Don Quijote and/or the Novelas ejemplares, supplemented by critical and historical readings. Topics: madness and desire, authorship, the seductions and dangers of reading, the status of representation, the relation between history and truth, the Inquisition, Spanish imperialism, the New World, and the Morisco expulsion.
The Medieval and Renaissance Love Lyric
MEDI-UA 420 Offered periodically. 4 points.
Love as both degrading passion and ennobling force. Traces the genre from its beginnings in 11th-century Provençal through its developments in Latin, German, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and English. Examines how the themes and conventions of this lyric are transformed in the Renaissance by Petrarch, Sidney, Shakespeare, and Donne.
Medieval Misogyny
MEDI-UA 488 Identical to SCA-UA 488. Offered every other year. 4 points.
From the Bible to key texts of the Western Middle Ages in which men lay down the law, and occasionally women talk back. Other works: the letters of Abelard and Heloise, the fictive but larger than life Wife of Bath, and the imagined feminine utopia of Christine de Pizan.
Medieval Theatre
MEDI-UA 712 Offered periodically. 4 points.
Plays and their contexts in the church, courts, and carnival. Study of the plays themselves (ranging from mystery plays to farces), techniques of staging, and accounts of festive celebrations. Includes videos and attendance at live performances.
Arthurian Legend
MEDI-UA 800 Identical to ENGL-UA 717. Offered regularly. 4 points.
The conception of history, the rise of the romance genre, the themes of courtly love, the code of chivalry, and philosophical and theological questions raised by the stories of the Holy Grail. French, English, and German romances in translation.
Dante and His World
MEDI-UA 801 Identical to ENGL-UA 143, ITAL-UA 160. Offered every two to three years. 4 points.
Interdisciplinary introduction (in English) to late medieval culture. The literature, art, and music, as well as political, religious, and social developments of the time. Emphasizes the classical background of medieval culture and its transmission to the modern world. Readings from Dante, St. Augustine, Boethius, St. Francis, Brunetto Latini, Thomas Aquinas, and Boccaccio.
Acting Medieval Literature
MEDI-UA 868 Identical to DRLIT-UA 35, FREN-UA 868, THEA-UT 732. Offered regularly. 4 points.
Medieval literature as works that were acted out, sung, and narrated from memory as part of a storytelling tradition. Students stage a medieval play, perform a substantial piece of narrative poetry, or sing or play a body of medieval songs. Works studied/ performed include epics, romances, and songs.
Passion and Desire in the Middle Ages
MEDI-UA 961 Identical to RELST-UA 250. Offered regularly. 2 points.
Passionate love; refined “courtly” love; sexual or “carnal” love; love of kin; love of country; love of God. Discusses how literary genres can be defined by the nature of the desires represented, explores medieval theorists’ views of human love, and investigates the conflicts among different kinds of love.
Internship
MEDI-UA 980, 981 Prerequisite: written permission of the director of the program. Restricted to majors and minors. 1 to 4 points per term.
Requires a faculty sponsor and a substantial written report.
Topics in Medieval Studies
MEDI-UA 983, 984 Offered regularly. 4 points per term.
Topics vary. Recent offerings: Courtly Love, Marriage, and Adultery; The Subversive Bible in Medieval Society; Witch, Heroine, Saint: Joan of Arc; and The Middle Ages at the Movies: From Monsters to Mystics.
Studies in Medieval Culture
MEDI-UA 985, 986 Offered regularly. 4 points per term.
Topics vary. Recent offerings: Love, Marriage, and the Family in Medieval Europe; The Medieval Manuscript and the Book of Hours; and Medieval Literature in the Movies.
Interdisciplinary Seminar in Medieval and Renaissance Studies
MEDI-UA 991, 992 Offered every semester. 4 points per term.
Recent offerings: Chaucer’s Italy; The Ballad, Medieval and Early Modern; The Virgin Mary in Medieval Culture; The Bible in the Middle Ages; Renaissance Libraries; Visions of Medieval History; and The Age of Chivalry.
Topics in Renaissance Studies
MEDI-UA 993, 994 Offered regularly. 4 points per term.
Topics vary. Recent offerings: Pride and Power: Renaissance Revolutions in Art and Culture; Material Culture of the Renaissance; and A Renaissance of Curiosity: Travel Books, Maps, and Marvels.
Studies in Renaissance Culture
MEDI-UA 995, 996 Offered regularly. 4 points per term.
Topics vary. Recent offerings: Love in the Renaissance; Cross-Cultural Encounters on the Renaissance Stage; Shakespeare’s Mediterranean; Ancient and Renaissance Festivity; and French Women Writers of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
Independent Study
MEDI-UA 997 Prerequisite: written permission of the director of the program. Restricted to majors and minors. May not duplicate the content of a regularly scheduled course. 1 to 4 points per term.
Honors Independent Study
MEDI-UA 998 Prerequisites: admission to the honors program, permission of the director of undergraduate studies, and Senior Honors Seminar (MEDI-UA 999). Open only to honors majors. Offered in the spring. 4 points.
Students meet regularly with their faculty advisers and complete research and writing of the senior honors thesis.
Senior Honors Seminar
MEDI-UA 999 Prerequisites: admission to the honors program and permission of the director of undergraduate studies. Open only to honors majors. Offered in the fall. 4 points.
Students begin researching and writing their senior honors theses. Covers critical methodologies, research tools in Bobst Library, field standards for preparing research papers (forms of documentation, citation, and bibliography), and current theories in the field of literary and cultural criticism.
Cross-Listed Courses
These courses count toward the major and minor in medieval and Renaissance studies, although students are advised to confirm with the director of the program. See departmental sections in this Bulletin for course descriptions and prerequisites. For cross-listed electives offered at NYU’s global academic centers, consult Albert. Approval of the director of the program is required to count other courses taken away toward the major or minor.
ART HISTORY
History of Western Art I|
MEDI-UA 1 Identical to ARTH-UA 1. 4 points.
Art in the Islamic World
MEDI-UA 98 Identical to ARTH-UA 540. 4 points.
Medieval Art
MEDI-UA 200 Identical to ARTH-UA 4. 4 points.
Art of the Early Middle Ages
MEDI-UA 201 Identical to ARTH-UA 201. 4 points.
Romanesque Art
MEDI-UA 202 Identical to ARTH-UA 202. 4 points.
Gothic Art in Northern Europe
MEDI-UA 203 Identical to ARTH-UA 203. 4 points.
Art and Architecture in the Age of Giotto: Italian Art, 1200–1420
MEDI-UA 204 Identical to ARTH-UA 204. 4 points.
Medieval Architecture
MEDI-UA 205 Identical to ARTH-UA 205. 4 points.
Architecture and Urbanism in Renaissance Europe
MEDI-UA 301 Identical to ARTH-UA 301. 4 points.
Architecture and Urbanism in the Age of the Baroque
MEDI-UA 302 Identical to ARTH-UA 302. 4 points.
Northern Renaissance Art, 1400–1530
MEDI-UA 303 Identical to ARTH-UA 303. 4 points.
16th-Century Art North of the Alps
MEDI-UA 304 Identical to ARTH-UA 304. 4 points.
Italian Renaissance Sculpture
MEDI-UA 305 Identical to ARTH-UA 305. 4 points.
Early Masters of Italian Renaissance Painting
MEDI-UA 306 Identical to ARTH-UA 306. 4 points.
The Age of Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo
MEDI-UA 307 Identical to ARTH-UA 307. 4 points.
The Golden Age of Venetian Painting
MEDI-UA 308 Identical to ARTH-UA 308. 4 points.
Italian Art in the Age of the Baroque
MEDI-UA 309 Identical to ARTH-UA 309. 4 points.
Dutch and Flemish Painting 1600–1700
MEDI-UA 311 Identical to ARTH-UA 311. 4 points.
French Art: Renaissance to Rococo, 1520–1770
MEDI-UA 313 Identical to ARTH-UA 313. 4 points.
Renaissance and Baroque Art
MEDI-UA 333 Identical to ARTH-UA 5. 4 points.
CLASSICS
Classical Mythology
MEDI-UA 404 Identical to CLASS-UA 404. 4 points.
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE
Masterpieces of Renaissance Literature
MEDI-UA 17 Identical to COLIT-UA 151. 4 points.
ENGLISH
History of Drama and Theatre I
MEDI-UA 127 Identical to ENGL-UA 125, DRLIT-UA 110. 4 points.
Literatures in English I: Medieval and Early Modern Literatures
MEDI-UA 210 Formerly British Literature I. Identical to ENGL-UA 111 (formerly ENGL-UA 210). 4 points.
Medieval Literature in Translation
MEDI-UA 310 Identical to ENGL-UA 310. 4 points.
Colloquium: Chaucer
MEDI-UA 320 Identical to ENGL-UA 320. 4 points.
16th-Century English Literature
MEDI-UA 400 Identical to ENGL-UA 400. 4 points.
Shakespeare I, II
MEDI-UA 410, 411 Identical to ENGL-UA 410, 411. 4 points per term.
Colloquium: Shakespeare
MEDI-UA 415 Identical to ENGL-UA 415. 4 points.
17th-Century English Literature
MEDI-UA 440 Identical to ENGL-UA 440. 4 points.
Colloquium: The Renaissance Writer
MEDI-UA 445 Identical to ENGL-UA 445. 4 points.
Colloquium: Milton
MEDI-UA 450 Identical to ENGL-UA 450. 4 points.
Topics: Medieval Literature
MEDI-UA 953 Identical to ENGL-UA 950. 4 points.
Topics: Renaissance Literature
MEDI-UA 954 Identical to ENGL-UA 951. 4 points.
Topics: 17th-Century British Literature
MEDI-UA 955 Identical to ENGL-UA 952. 4 points.
FRENCH
Topics in French Culture
MEDI-UA 864 (in English), MEDI-UA 965 (in French) Identical to FREN-UA 865 (in English), FREN-UA 965 (in French). 4 points.
Topics in French Literature
MEDI-UA 869 (in English), MEDI-UA 969 (in French) Identical to FREN-UA 868 (in English), FREN-UA 968 (in French). 4 points.
HEBREW AND JUDAIC STUDIES
Foundations of the Christian-Jewish Argument
MEDI-UA 160 Identical to HBRJD-UA 106. 4 points.
Jewish Philosophy in the Medieval World
MEDI-UA 425 Identical to HBRJD-UA 425. 4 points.
Jewish Mysticism and Hasidism
MEDI-UA 430 Identical to HBRJD-UA 430. 4 points.
The Jews in Medieval Spain
MEDI-UA 913 Identical to HBRJD-UA 113. 4 points.
HISTORY
The Early Middle Ages
MEDI-UA 111 Identical to HIST-UA 111. 4 points.
The Crusades
MEDI-UA 113 Identical to HIST-UA 113. 4 points.
The High Middle Ages
MEDI-UA 114 Identical to HIST-UA 114. 4 points.
The Renaissance
MEDI-UA 121 Identical to HIST-UA 121. 4 points.
Science and Society in Early Modern Europe
MEDI-UA 135 Identical to HIST-UA 135. 4 points.
Seminar: The Trial of Galileo
MEDI-UA 206 Identical to HIST-UA 203. 4 points.
Seminar: Plague and Public Health in Renaissance Italy
MEDI-UA 253 Identical to HIST-UA 253. 4 points.
Seminar: Topics in Early Modern Europe
MEDI-UA 279 Identical to HIST-UA 279. 4 points.
ITALIAN
Giordano Bruno and the Art of Memory
MEDI-UA 148 Identical to ITAL-UA 148, HIST-UA 126. 4 points.
The Civilization of the Italian Renaissance
MEDI-UA 161 Identical to ITAL-UA 161. 4 points.
Dante's Divine Comedy in Context
MEDI-UA 269 Identical to ITAL-UA 269. 4 points.
Dante’s Divine Comedy
MEDI-UA 270 Identical to ITAL-UA 270. 4 points.
Boccaccio’s Decameron
MEDI-UA 271 Identical to ITAL-UA 271. 4 points.
MIDDLE EASTERN AND ISLAMIC STUDIES
The Making of the Muslim Middle East, 600–1250
MEDI-UA 640 Identical to MEIS-UA 640. 4 points.
Islam and the West
MEDI-UA 694 Identical to MEIS-UA 694, HIST-UA 250. 4 points.
Masterpieces of Islamic Literature in Translation
MEDI-UA 710 Identical to MEIS-UA 710. 4 points.
The Arabian Nights
MEDI-UA 714 Identical to MEIS-UA 716. 4 points.
Seminar: Introduction to Islamic Texts
MEDI-UA 720 Identical to MEIS-UA 720. 4 points.
Seminar: Women and Islamic Law
MEDI-UA 783 Identical to MEIS-UA 783. 4 points.
The Sufis: Mystics of Islam
MEDI-UA 863 Identical to RELST-UA 863, MEIS-UA 863. 4 points.
MUSIC
Medieval and Renaissance Music
MEDI-UA 101 Identical to MUSIC-UA 101. 4 points.
POLITICS
Topics in Premodern Political Philosophy
MEDI-UA 110 Identical to POL-UA 110. 4 points.
RELIGIOUS STUDIES
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
MEDI-UA 25 Identical to MEIS-UA 800, HBRJD-UA 160, RELST-UA 102. 4 points.
SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES
Chronicles and Travel Literature of the Colonial World
MEDI-UA 273 Identical to SPAN-UA 273. 4 points.
Theatre and Poetry of the Spanish Golden Age
MEDI-UA 421 Identical to SPAN-UA 421. 4 points.
Graduate Courses Open to Undergraduates (with Permission)
ENGLISH
Introductory Old English
ENGL-GA 1060 4 points.
Introductory Middle English
ENGL-GA 1061 4 points.
Shakespeare
ENGL-GA 1345 4 points.
FRENCH
Introduction to Medieval French Literature
FREN-GA 1211 4 points.
MUSIC
Collegium Musicum
MUSIC-GA 1001 4 points.
SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES
Introduction to Medieval Spanish Literature
SPAN-GA 1211 4 points.