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489769-HS2024-0-The sensorial lives of humans, animals, and objects: Medieval literature, material culture, and the senses (MA Seminar Literature)





Root number 489769
Semester HS2024
Type of course Seminar
Allocation to subject English Languages and Literatures
Type of exam not defined
Title The sensorial lives of humans, animals, and objects: Medieval literature, material culture, and the senses (MA Seminar Literature)
Description How do animals use their senses? Do sinners stink? What are the sensory implications of material objects? In this seminar, we explore how people in the medieval past understood and imagined the sensorial lives of humans, animals, and objects.
In the first part of the seminar, we will explore the articulation and mediation of sensory experiences in medieval literature of a variety of genres, including saints’ lives, romances, cycle plays, and Chaucer’s Second Nun’s Tale and The Tale of the Canon’s Yeoman. The second part of the seminar will be devoted to the sensorial lives of medieval objects and will include a visit to the Historisches Museum Bern.

Preliminary Reading (available on ILIAS)
Before the first session, please read:
• Richard G. Newhauser, ‘Introduction: The Sensual Middle Ages,’ in A Cultural History of the Senses in the Middle Ages, ed. Richard G. Newhauser (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2014), 1-22.
• Annette Kern-Stähler and Elizabeth Robertson, ‘Literature and the Senses: An Introduction,’ in Literature and the Senses, ed. Annette Kern-Stähler and Elizabeth Robertson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023), 1-17.
• Mark Smith, ‘Producing Sense, Consuming Sense, Making Sense: Perils and Prospects for Sensory History,’ Journal of Social History 40 (2007): 841-858.
ILIAS-Link (Learning resource for course) Registrations are transmitted from CTS to (no admission in ILIAS possible). ILIAS
Link to another web site
Lecturers Prof. Dr. Annette Kern-Stähler, Institute of English Languages and Literatures ✉
ECTS 4
Recognition as optional course possible No
Grading passed/failed
 
Dates Thursday 14:15-16:00 Weekly
 
Rooms Seminarraum F -122, Hörraumgebäude Unitobler
 
Students please consult the detailed view for complete information on dates, rooms and planned podcasts.