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| Course Description | |
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Torture in Anglo-Saxon England: It’s not just Beowulf ripping Grendel’s arm off anymore! In this course we will explore some areas of Anglo-Saxon literature, history, and law which may seem alien and freakish to the modern mind…but wait! Holy preconceptions, Batman! We may well find that these areas lurk just around the corner from concepts which mesh closely with our own. The introduction to this course will include a discussion of various understandings of what torture is, and how bodies may act as texts. We will conclude the course with a discussion of the role of the “other” in the terms of Anglo-Saxon torture. Such a discussion both illuminates and is illuminated by modern studies of the other and its place in any anthropology of torture, and is especially relevant in a post-9/11 America. In between we will read and discuss epics of heroes, praises of holy virgins, songs of battles and tales of satanic monsters. Most of the reading is in modern English translations, but we will learn a bit about the Old English language, and we’ll get a glimpse into the arcane worlds of manuscripts and runes. We also will use (and add to!) multimedia resources that allow us to visit and to study material and textual artifacts from across oceans of time and space. No previous knowledge of Medieval literature is necessary. Because of its interdisciplinary and theoretical components, this course will be of special interest to students invested in history, anthropology, women’s studies, and peace studies.
Copyright 2005-2006 Gettysburg College and Christopher R. Fee