MA in Medieval Studies

This interdisciplinary programme will provide you with an opportunity to deepen your knowledge and understanding of medieval society and culture. Staff expertise, drawn from across the University, covers a wide range of disciplines and specialisms: archaeology, history, Islamic studies, law, music, theology, visual and material culture, and the literatures of England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain from the Dark Ages to the Renaissance.

The University and Cathedral Libraries maintain extensive holdings in all these disciplines, including a number of significant medieval manuscripts and renowned audio-visual collections. You will benefit from contact with leading scholars in the field, whilst receiving the training suitable for MPhil/PhD research.

Duration: 12 months full-time; 24 months part-time.

Entry requirements: Normally a minimum 2:1 degree (or equivalent) in a related discipline from a recognised institution. Non-native speakers of English should have proven proficiency in English.

Programme structure

Total credits required: 180

Compulsory modules

SMLM023 Introduction to Medieval Latin (15)
This module is designed to equip students with a sound reading knowledge of medieval Latin texts and with basic skills in translation. Assessment is by a portfolio of six selected translations, up to a maximum of 2,00 to 2,500.
NB: Students who are already sufficiently qualified in Latin will receive tuition in another language (Old English, Castilian, Catalan, French, German, or Italian).

HISM401 Introduction to Medieval Palaeography (15)
This module aims to introduce students to the principles of medieval palaeography: the rules for transcription, the main types of script and their development, systems of abbreviation, basic codicology. It should direct students to the key bibliography on medieval scripts, facsimiles, manuals of abbreviation and equip students with basic skills in transcription and the ability to read, and understand, a catalogue description of a manuscript. The focus of the module will be on practical skills rather than on the history of scripts, although it will provide bibliographical guidance in the latter.
Assessment is a portfolio of transcriptions amounting to 4000 words in total (100%).
HISM023 Interpreting the Middle Ages (30)
This module aims to introduce students to a variety of inter-disciplinary research skills and to different topics within the field of Medieval Studies. At a series of two-hour workshops, students will analyse a wide range of evidence - including artistic works, written documents, and material objects - and explore some of the questions these different types of source materials elicit and the methodologies that can be deployed to tackle them. The module is team-taught and draws on the expertise of a range of specialist tutors in the various different disciplines and topics studied.
Assessment is by a first 3500-4000 word essay worth 50% of the overall module mark and second 3500-4000 word essay worth 50% of the overall module mark.
Dissertation (60)
The final component of the MA is the 20,000-word Dissertation, on a topic of the candidate's choice, subject to the approval of their supervisor, for which students will be prepared by the work they have completed as part of the Core modules and Option modules.

Option modules (inclusion in this list does not guarantee that a module will run in a particular year. It is dependent on staff availability, and the number of students wishing to take the module).

Two from:

ARCM201 Analysis and Evolution of the Historic Landscape (30)
This modules aims to provide a solid understanding of the concepts, sources and techniques used in the analysis and interpretation of the historic landscape, and key academic issues that relate to the origins and development of the historic landscape.
EASM130 Medieval Political Fictions (30)
Late medieval literature explored complex questions of social identity and political justice. This module focuses on narratives of the aristocracy and asks how far they challenge society's norms. How do we discover these norms within and beyond literary texts? How do medieval texts imagine conflicts within contemporary society, or imagine them away? Many texts see knights, lords, kings and their followers as crucial players for conflict or harmony, and these texts register a great range of anxieties about these players' relationship to the rest of society. The module aims to focus on two of the most important vernacular writers of the Ricardian age, Chaucer and Gower. Short anonymous tales from the period reveal more popular and often sensationalist approaches to social values. We also concentrate on two of the most significant female protagonists in medieval literature - the passive, indestructible Constance, and Criseyde, the complex heroine of Chaucer's Trojan masterpiece, Troilus and Criseyde.
HISM408 Christendom and Islam in the Middle Ages (30)
This module explores Christian attitudes towards the Islamic world from the time of Muhammad to the Late Middle Ages. Particular attention is paid to Christian reactions to the rise of Islam; the origins and development of the crusading movement in western Europe; the emergence of a missionary strategy during the thirteenth century; contemporary literary perceptions of Muslims; and the enduring permeability of the frontier with Islam, which was crossed with regularity by Christian mercenaries and merchants, among others. Taking Spain and Sicily as case-studies, the module will also analyse diverse forms of social and cultural interaction between Christian and Muslim communities during the Middle Ages, highlighting, among other things, the transfer of ideas and technology from the Muslim world to the Christian West. The long-term aim of the module is to cultivate a perceptive and open-minded attitude towards a complex religious, social and cultural phenomenon, in which issues of relevance to today's world are brought to light.
HISM416 Medicine and Society in the Middle Ages (30)
This course aims to introduce students to the history of medieval medicine and its place in medieval society, using a range of sources including medical texts, miracle stories, court records, and depictions of illness in letters and chronicles. It will introduce students to the key changes that took place within medicine during the Middle Ages, such as the impact of medical texts translated from Arabic and Greek, the development of hospitals and universities, and the first attempts at licensing medical practitioners. The course will also examine the interaction between medicine and society, discussing the impact of the Black Death on ideas about illness and healing, and medicine's relationship to religion, magic and gender.
HISM410 Ritual Life in the Middle Ages 800-1200 (30)
This module examines the importance of rituals in the lives of those living in Latin Europe in the central Middle Ages. Its central aim is to assess the extent to which there was a change in the significance of rituals across this period: historians of the pre-1050 period have emphasised the importance of collective consciousness and behaviour, and seen the world of people at this time as dominated by a series of individual and communal rituals, whilst historians of the long twelfth century (c. 1050-1200) have seen their period as marked by an emphasis on rational thought and individual behaviour. It also introduces students to the problems associated with recovering the evidence for ritual in this period. This module takes a thematic approach, studying those life-changing rituals which were universal, those which were personal, those of every-day life, those of public life, and those which were undertaken as a result to personal anxieties.
HISM405 Uses of the Past in the Middle Ages (30)
This course aims to introduce students to the multifarious ways in which the past was used in the Middle Ages: conservatively, to explain the present, defensively, to shore up privilege and status, and aggressively, to validate action and change. The course will explore the paradigms used and strategies employed in constructing accounts of the past. It will draw on narrative and documentary sources, looking in particular at national histories, institutional histories and charters. This material raises issues such as the construction of community and identity, orality and literacy, forgery and the misrepresentation of the past.
SMLM021 The Legend of King Arthur (30)
This module aims to explore the origins and the impact of the Arthurian legend on medieval and early modern literature and material culture in France, Germany, and England from the 12th to the 16th centuries and beyond.
SMLM132 History of the Medieval Book (30)
This module explores the production and use of books in the Middle Ages and its modern scholarship. The aims are to introduce
students to both traditional approaches to manuscript sources (textual criticism, codicology, bibliography) and to investigate the
role of the history of the book for the appreciation of medieval culture and society. The module will aim to develop some
practical skills: it will include sessions on various types of manuscripts, and at least one session will be held in a research library
(possibly the Cathedral library).
SMLM133 Music and Society in Medieval Europe (30)
This module aims to explore the social history of music in late medieval Europe, in particular France, Italy and England. The aims are to introduce students to the multifaceted roles that music played in different contexts and situations: how music was perceived and experienced in the church, city and court; the social origins of different orders of musicians and how they were trained, and what career paths were open to them; the different musical genres composed for different social occasions or rituals. We will examine specific cases of musicians and music events corresponding to or crossing social and historical cathegories. Different types of primary sources will inform our study, including iconography and poetry, chronicles and accounts, archival documents, treatises, and musical works surviving in manuscripts. Students will not expected to have musical skills or knowledge: study of musical works will be accomplished through guided
listening.

The closing date for applications is the end of September of the year of entry.

Enquiries concerning the MA in Medieval Studies should be addressed to:

Dr Yolanda Plumley
Director, Centre for Medieval Studies
Amory Building
University of Exeter,
Exeter EX4 4QH
Phone: + 44 (0) 1392 724429
Email: Y.M.Plumley@exeter.ac.uk