HST697: Order and disorder around the year 1000
15 credits (semester 1)
Module Leader: Dr Charles West
| Module Summary |
Medieval European society around 1000 used to be depicted as lawless and violent. However, many historians have turned away from working out what fragmented society towards investigating what bound it together. This module examines five 'axes of order', social fields which are understood to have generated and informed - in very different ways - European social structure: namely the state, the Church, feud and kinship, gender, and the gift. As well as investigating these themes, their historiography and their mutual compatibility, this module will consider the links between anthropology and history, and how far this really was a 'disordered' society.
| Module Aims |
This is a diverse field of study, with implications for a wide range of historical issues, and also a hotly contested one, with a great deal of recent research. The module will thus introduce students both to historiographical issues and to questions of documentation and interpretation. Those taking the module will develop an understanding of how historians' interpretations of Europe around the year 1000 have changed and of the material and textual sources that are available to them. They will also develop a wider understanding of medieval history and of the singularity of the early medieval period.
| Teaching |
The module will be taught in five, two-hour classes. Each class will focus on one of the 'axes of order', discussing recent historiographical contributions as well as examining selected, and varied, sources. The classes will provide a structured environment for students to debate the topics raised and to share knowledge and perspectives. Students will, in addition, have an individual tutorial in which to discuss the work they will write for assessment for this module.
| Assessment |
Students will complete one or more exercises (totalling a maximum of 3,000 words) which explore one of the key themes raised by an in-depth study of this topic. Students will be expected to demonstrate an ability to handle bibliographical resources, a critical understanding of different methodological approaches and available primary sources, and an independent engagement with current historiographical debate.
| Intended Learning Outcomes |
By the end of the module a candidate will be able to demonstrate:
- The ability to evaluate and analyse sources for the study of European society around the year 1000.
- An understanding of the benefits and risks associated with interdisciplinarity.
- The ability to assess the effect and working of the social forces which integrated medieval European society around the year 1000.
- A capacity for informed and critical historical analysis.
- An ability to elaborate and defend an intellectual position and to present scholarly arguments and historiographical debates both orally and in writing.