Europe’s Middle Ages, from 600 to 1500 A.D., is often remembered for its barbarity. Indeed, the repression of Jews, slavery, and rigid social hierarchy characterized the period. Today, it’s common to refer to the Taliban as medieval. And the phrase, “Get Medieval On Your Ass,” is now in the Oxford English Dictionary. Yet the broad scope of medieval literature—from the so-called romances to Beowulf, and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales—remains a major cultural force 500 years later. This class explores how Medievalism is everywhere today, and how it got to be that way. Our rituals of courtship, honor, true love, dress, and gender roles, to name a few, all have their roots in the medieval period.
