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Seminar Group E

LeperThursday 7-8pm (H0.45)

Tutor: Stepen Bates (s.m.j.bates@warwick.ac.uk)
Office hours: Mondays 2-4pm; Thursdays 8-9pm (H0.19/H0.15)

Participants: Kuldip Bagri; Sarah Brennan; Fleur Craven; Lyn Hargreaves; Harrison Hedges; Emily Jull; David McAteer; Nicola Norman; Grace Paddock; Hayley Perry; Hope Priddle; Ben Sunnocks; Nick Webb


Some students have told me of problems opening digital extracts: I recommend you right-click and select 'save as'. If you're still struggling please email me.


Week 24 - Revision Seminar

(7 May)

No preparation is required for this class.


NB. I will be returning essays in this seminar. If you would like a consultation, please sign-up here.


Week 23 - Conclusions

(30 April)

This class will consider the themes of the course and how they relate to the deviants we have thought about during the year.

No preparation is required for this class, though you will find it useful to go back through your notes.



Summer Examination

  • The Deviance exam will take place on Thursday 28 May at 2.30pm in the Butterworth Hall.
  • Full timetable information is available here.

Week 21 - Slaves and Blacks

(23 April)

For our final substantive seminar, we will be thinking of the place of slaves in pre-modern society and the problem of 'racism' as a pre-modern term. Please look at (at least) two items form the reading list and consider the following questions:

  • How widely was slavery practised in the pre-modern period?
  • How was slavery justified in pre-modern society?
  • How were blacks viewed by pre-modern Europeans?
  • Why is racism a problematic term when applied to pre-modern attitudes?

To get us started Kuldip will review one book or article for us. What was the author's main argument? Were you convinced? What questions did it leave you with?


Information for Week 21 exam-practice essay submission:
  • For your final formative essay you are required to complete an exam-practice essay.
  • Select a question from last year's exam paper and revise for it.
  • Write your answer in a closed-book environment, in 50-minutes, to simulate exam conditions.
  • There is a green folder on the right of the undergraduate pigeonholes (opposite H3.05) with my name on it.
  • Essays should be placed in this folder by noon, on Wednesday 22 April (Week 21) - CLL students can let me have it in the seminar.
  • Please remember to include a short essay coversheet with your submission.
 

Week 20 - Protestant and Catholic Minorities

(12 March)

For the final week of term we will be considering marginality in the wake of the Reformation by looking at Protestant and Catholic minorities:

  • Were these religious minorities tolerated or persecuted in early modern Europe?
  • Did this change over time?
  • Were they treated differently to other religious minorities in pre-modern society? Why?
  • What threat did they actually pose to their home states?

Please look at (at least) two items from the reading list. Find out about your assigned religious minority and one other of your choosing:

French Huguenots: Kuldip, Emily, Hayley

Dutch Catholics: Sarah, David, Ben

English Catholics: Lyn, Grace

Jansenists: Harrison, Hope, Nick

NB, if you would like an essay-feedback consultation, please sign-up here or pop by in office hours.


Week 19 - Radicals and Atheists

(5 March)

Our attention moves to a focus on forms of post-Reformation religious deviance:

  • What threat were radicals and atheists believed to pose in early modern Europe?
  • What threat did they actually pose, and to whom?
  • How were they treated by the authorities?
  • Was it even possible to be a pre-modern atheist?

Please read Diarmaid MacCulloch's brief exposition of the Münster rebellion in Reformation: Europe's House Divided (2003), pp. 204-12.

Then have a look at (at least) one item from the reading list on radicals, and (at least) one other from the reading list on atheists. Come prepared to share briefly on your assigned radical group/possible atheist: what did they believe and did this make them a threat?

  • The Münster rebels - everyone!
  • Melchior Hoffman - Kuldip and Ben
  • The Family of Love - Sarah and Hope
  • Fifth Monarchy Men - Fleur and Hayley
  • The Quakers - Nick, Lyn and Grace
  • Ranters - Emily and David
  • Etienne Dolet - Nick, Kuldip, Sarah and Fleur
  • Christopher Marlowe - Lyn, Emily and David
  • Pierre Bayle - Ben, Grace, Hayley and Hope

To get us thinking Harrison will share briefly (c.500 words, 4-5 minutes) on the historiographical debate concerning Lucien Febvre's Problem of Unbelief.

Harrison, have a look at Febvre's The Problem of Unbelief (1982) and David Wooton's review in the Journal of Modern History, 60 (1988), 695-730. Febvre's book is lengthy, so feel free to use reviews (but do at least read his intro, prefatory note and conclusion). You may also find the Sommerville/Edwards debate in P&P, 128 (1990), 152-61 useful. Try to offer us a precis of Febvre's argument and whether you find him convincing.



Week 18 - Prophets and Mystics

(26 February)

This week we will be thinking about medieval and early modern mystics, and the practice of astrology:

  • To what extent and in what ways were these groups acceptable to pre-modern society?
  • In what ways and in what circumstances might they be classified as deviant?
  • Assess the significance of gender for the identity of and attitude s toward such individuals

Please have a look at (at least) one item from the reading list for prophets and mystics, and one from the list for astrologers. Then come prepared to share about your assigned deviants (note you have three each - two prophets and one astrologer):

John of the Cross - Kuldip and Harrison
Teresa of Ávila - Sarah and Emily
Catherine of Siena - Fleur and David
Miguel de Piedrola - Lyn and Grace
Ignatius Loyola - Harrison and Hayley
Joan of Arc - Emily and Hope
Richard Rolle - David and Ben
Walter Hilton - Grace and Nick
Julian of Norwich - Hayley and Kuldip
Margery Kempe - Hope and Sarah
Elizabeth Barton - Ben and Fleur
William 'Frantick' Hacket - Nick and Lyn
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa - Kuldip, Lyn, David and Hope
Michel de Nostradame - Sarah, Harrison, Grace and Ben
John Dee - Fleur, Emily, Hayley and Nick

Hayley, please can you select one book or article to review for us. What was the author's main argument? Were you convinced? What questions did it leave you with?


Week 17 - Bandits and Gypsies

(19 February)

This week we will be discussing the following questions:

  • To what extent were bandits and gypsies accepted in pre-modern society?
  • How and why did popular and elite attitudes to social outcasts differ?
  • Why did attitudes to such groups fluctuate over time?

Please have a look at the reading list and read:

  • one item on bandits
  • one item on gypsies/roma

To get us started, David will present on 'to what extent were bandits popularly regarded as heroes?'; I would recommend looking at Eric Hobsbawm's book and the subsequent exchange between him and Pat O'Malley.


Week 16 - Reading Week

(no seminar)

Information for Week 17 essay submission:
  • Short (unassessed) essays can still be the basis for an answer in the exam.
  • There is a maximum world length of 2,000 words (no +/-10% but footnotes and bibliography do not count)
  • Good news - you do not need to submit a copy electronically!
  • There is a green folder on the right of the undergraduate pigeonholes (opposite H3.05) with my name on it.
  • A hard copy of your essay should be placed in this folder by 5pm on Friday Week 17 (20 February).
  • Please remember to include a short essay coversheet with your submission.
 

Week 15 - Vagrants and Arsonists

(5 February)

Over the next few weeks we are going to be thinking about social deviance:

  • How were beggars viewed and treated by pre-modern society?
  • Why was vagrancy a particular concern for pre-modern society?
  • To what extent were so-called 'dishonourable trades' seen as deviant?
  • Why were those suspected of arson treated so harshly?

Please have a look at the reading list and read:

  • Johannes Dillinger, ‘Terrorists and Witches: Popular Ideas of Evil in the Early Modern Period’, History of European Ideas, 30 (2004), 167-82
  • one item on vagrants
  • one item on arsonists

Week 14 - Monsters and Hermaphrodites

(29 January)

This week we're going to think about society's attitude to those with physical abnormalities:

  • How did pre-modern society view 'monsters' and hermaphrodites?
  • Were these groups more a subject of fascination than of fear?
  • Was their importance more symbolic than real?
  • How did science alter contemporary perceptions of monsters and hermaphrodites?

Please read:

  • Kathleen Long, 'Sexual Dissonance: Early Modern Scientific Accounts of Hermaphrodites', in Platt (ed.), Wonders, Marvels and Monsters (1999), pp. 145-63;
  • and Ruth Gilbert, 'Seeing and Knowing: Science, Pornography and Early Modern Hermaphrodites', in Fudge, Gilbert and Wiseman (eds), At the Borders of the Human (1999), pp. 150-70

Both of these chapters are available as digital extracts. Please have a look at one other item from the reading list. Then (unless you're particularly squeamish) please have a look at the so-called 'chicken man' kept at Waldenburg Museum.

Hope, could you offer us a brief review of one article or book - what is the author arguing, and are you persuaded?



Week 13 - Prostitution

(22 January)

We continue thinking about sexual deviance this week, focussing specifically on prostitution:

  • Why was prostitution more tolerated than other forms of sexual deviance?
  • Explain the fluctuations in the tolerance of prostitution?
  • How significant was gender in the treatment of prostitution?
  • What does the Rykener trial tell us about pre-modern attitudes to prostitution?

Please read:

Finally, have a read of this recent article and come prepared to debate the perception of prostitutes in our period as:

immoral, spreaders of vice and disease - Kuldip, Lyn, David, Hope
exploited, victims of economic and social circumstances - Sarah, Harrison, Grace, Ben
agents, professionals exercising a trade - Fleur, Emily, Hayley, Nick
 
Sarah, can you select a journal article from the reading list and review it for the rest of us?
 

Week 12 - Sexual Deviance

(15 January)

We now move away from supernatural deviance to consider sexual deviants:

  • Why was there such a divergemce between theory and practice in the treatment of sexual deviance?
  • In what circumstances was sexual deviance tolerated?
  • In what ways were pre-modern attitudes to sexual deviance different from our own?

Please read Nicholas Davidson's chapter on 'Theology, Nature and the Law' in Renaissance Italy (available as a digital extract) and at least one other item from the Reading List.

Nicholas, could you come prepared to present for 5 minutes, having picked a journal article from the Further Reading that you think looks particularly interesting, summarising and critiquing it for the rest of us.


Term 2, Week 11 - Werewolves and the Possessed

(8 January)

We will start this term by thinking about the treatment of werewolves and those judged to be suffering from demonic possession:

  • how were werewolves and the possessed viewed by pre-modern society?
  • how were werewolves and the possessed treated by the authorities?
  • in what sense were werewolves and possession cases 'real'?

Prior to the seminar I would like everyone to have a look at one text from the Reading List on Werewolves and one on the Possessed. I would also like you to read the Darren Oldridge digital extract: chapter 6 from his Strange Histories (2005).

Lyn, could you pick one article and review it for the rest of us:

  • what convinced you and what failed to persuade you?
  • what (if anything) you found interesting or left you with questions for further investigation?

xmasholly_tr.jpgChristmas Holidays


Over the Christmas holidays why not take the opportunity to read one of the more general texts from the reading list? This is your chance to really sink your teeth into something that you could only skim through during the term.

Alternatively, if you want to get to grips with the broader context of the period, I would recommend the following:

xmasholly_bl.jpgWell done for all your efforts this term. Have a very Merry Christmas and all the best for the New Year!


Week 10 - Witches

(4 December)

This week we'll be discussing pre-modern thinking about witchcraft and demonology:

  • Was witchcraft the 'perfect' deviance?
  • Why did so many different groups believe in witchcraft?
  • To what extent was witchcraft gender-related and why?
  • To what extent was there a 'witch-craze'?

Prior to the seminar I would like everyone to have a look at one text from the General Reading list and one from the Further Reading. I would also like you to read Henry Goodcole, The wonderfull discouerie of Elizabeth Savvyer a witch (1621), which is available from Early English Book Online.

You may also find this In Our Time podcast on 'Witchcraft' helpful (45 mins).

Grace, for your presentation I would like you to pick either one journal article from the Further Reading that you think looks particularly interesting, or one chapter from Brian Levack (ed.), New Perspectives on Witchcraft, vols 1-5, and review it for the rest of us.



Week 9 - the Diseased

(27 November)

We now move away from religion to think about the sufferers of disease:
  • What sort of deviant behaviour was associated with the spread of disease?
  • To what extent did pre-modern society distinguish between different types of disease?
  • Were pre-modern attitudes toward the diseased sympathetic?

Everyone should look at the Francois-Olivier Touati chapter on 'Contagion and Leprosy' (available as a digital extract), one item from the general reading and one from the further reading list focussing on your assigned affliction. Come prepared to share on what you have read: what was the authors main argument, and were you convinced? Then, by the end of the seminar, everyone should be able to compare and contrast the reponses the three diseased deviants:

Leprosy: Kuldip, Fleur, Emily and Grace

The Plague: Dilber, Lyn, David, Hayley and Ben

Syphilis: Sarah, Harrison, Hope and Nick

You may all find listening to the In Our Time podcast on 'The Black Death' helpful too (45 mins).

Please sign up for essay feedback here. CLL students will be able to receive feedback after the seminar in week 10.


Week 8 - Muslims

(20 November)

This week we're thinking about Muslims, specifically:

  • How do pre-modern Christian attitudes toward, and treatment of, Muslims compare and contrast with those toward Jews?
  • What threat were Muslims believed to pose to pre-modern society?
  • Did contact with the Turk improve or worsen relations with or attitudes among Christians?

Everyone should look at one item from the general reading and at least one item from the further reading list. Come prepared to share on what you have read - what was argued and were you persuaded?

You may also find listening to the following In Our Time podcasts helpful:

'Muslim Spain' (45 mins)

'Constantinople Siege and Fall' (45 mins)

Ben - for your presentation, please come prepared to share for 4-5 minutes (c.500 words) on:
  • one book or article you read
  • what the author's main argument was
  • what you found convincing and/or what failed to persuade you
  • what (if anything) you found interesting or left you with questions for further investigation
Venue change: please note that all seminars are now being held in H0.45 in the Humanities Building

Week 7 - Jews

(13 November)

Our attention shifts this week to religious deviants outside of Christianity, as we explore the treatment of Europe's Jews:

  • What factors determined the treatment of Jews in pre-modern Europe?
  • Why did some communities/societies tolerate Jews and others expel them?
  • How much of a threat were pre-modern Jews and to whom?

Everyone should look at one item from the general reading and at least one item from the further reading. Try to develop some expertise about the Jewish experience as follows:

France: Kuldip, Lyn and Grace
Spain and Portugal: Dilber, Harrison, Hayley and Nick - do read the 'Alhambra decree' (1492)
Germany and/or Poland: Sarah, Emily and Hope

Rome and Venice: Fleur, David and Ben

Do have a listen to the following podcast:

In Our Time, 'The Spanish Inquisition' (45mins)

and for some light relief ... 'The Spanish Inquisition' (5 mins)


Information for Week 7 essay submission:
  • Short (unassessed) essays can still be the basis for an answer in the exam.
  • There is a maximum world length of 2,000 words (no +/-10% but footnotes and bibliography do not count)
  • Good news - you do not need to submit a copy electronically!
  • There is a green folder on the right of the undergraduate pigeonholes (opposite H3.05) with my name on it.
  • A hard copy of your essay should be placed in this folder by midday on Monday Week 8 (17 November).
  • Please remember to include a short essay coversheet with your submission.
 

Week 6 - Reading Week

(no seminar)

Venue change: please note that all lectures are now being held in L5 in the Science Concourse

Week 5 - Heretics

(30 October)

This week we're going to be thinking about the treatment of heretical groups, focussing on the following questions:

  • Why does heresy appear to be an increasing problem from the eleventh century?
  • How was heresy defined and identified?
  • What threat did heretics actually pose in pre-modern Europe and to whom?
  • How harshly were heretics treated?

From the reading list on Heretics, everyone should have a look at (at least) one item from the General Reading and one item from the Further Reading. Please come prepared to share:

  • on your assigned group from the list below
  • and on one other (whichever piques your interest)

Who were they, what (broadly) did they believe, how were they treated?

Waldensians: Ben and Hayley
Cathars: David, Nicola and Jane
The (medieval) Inquisition: Dilber, Sarah and Nick - have a look at Hamilton (1981); Lambert (1992), Ch. 6.
Franciscans: Fleur and Hope - read David Knowles, The Religious Orders in England, Volume 1 (1948), chapter 11
Lollards: Grace and Kuldip - Rex (2002) is very accessible
Hussites: Harrison and Lyn - have a look at Lambert (1992), Chs 15 and 16; for a brief epilogue, read Diarmaid MacCulloch, Reformation: Europe's House Divided (2003), pp. 493-96.

In addition to the reading, do have a listen to these related podcasts:
In Our Time, 'Catharism' (45 mins)

In Our Time, 'Wyclif and the Lollards' (45 mins)

Emily - you can choose your heretical groups! For your presentation, please come prepared to share for 4-5 minutes (c.500 words) on:

  • one book or article you read
  • what the author's main argument was
  • what you found convincing and/or what failed to persuade you
  • what (if anything) you found interesting or left you with questions for further investigation

Week 4 - Chronologies of Deviance

(23 Ocotber)

Please find out what the following were and when they happened. Try to summarise each in 2 or 3 sentences. You may be asked to report back to the group, so be prepared!

  1. The Crusades
  2. The papacy of Innocent III - read this extract from R. H. C. Davis, A History of Medieval Europe (2nd edn, 1988), pp. 326-37
  3. The money worries of Philip IV of France
  4. The Great Famine
  5. The Black Death
  6. Gutenberg's press
  7. The Reformation
  8. The Thirty Years' War

The main purpose of our discussion this week will be to make our period, which is broad, feel a little bit more familiar and a great deal less threatening! But we will also consider how these events (and others like them) affected the treatment of deviants - so bear that in mind when doing your research.


Week 3 - Persecuting Societies

(16 October)

This week we will be thinking in more detail about the nature of prejudice. In preparation, please:

Both of these books are available as e-texts through the library's online catalogue. In the seminar we will consider the following questions:

  • Do you think that prejudice is innate or learned/socially conditioned?
  • Do societies need to define ‘outside’ or ‘marginal’ groups and, if so, why?
  • What determines the level of persecution to which such groups are subjected?


Week 2 - Defining Deviance

(9 October)

This week we will start thinking about how we define deviance and deviant behaviour. We will consider the following questions:

  • Dictionary definitions aside, how would you define deviance?
  • Is deviance in the eye of the beholder?
  • Do individuals or groups choose to be deviant?

Before we meet, please find a political map of Europe c.1400 and familiarise yourself with the contemporary polities. Then read William Bouwsma's essay, 'Anxiety and the Formation of Modern Culture' (2010), available here as a digital extract.



Week 1 - Introductory Seminar

(2 October)

No preparation is required for our introductory seminar.