English 401: Torture and Text in Anglo-Saxon England

Required Texts
	Required Texts Reading Schedule Back to Index

Required Texts

Reading Schedule

  Week 1 (W 08/31/05)—Introduction:  Torture, Text, & Context; The Duality of the Old English Soul and Body I; an Overview of the Anglo-Saxon Visionary Rood Multimedia Project. READING: Foucault, Michel.  Discipline and Punish:  The Birth of the Prison.  Trans. Alan Sheridan.  New York:  Vintage Books, 1977. “The Body of the Condemned.” Pages 3-31. Campbell, Chapter 1. Baker, Chapter 1: "The Anglo-Saxons and their Language"; & Chapter 2: "Pronunciation".

Week 2 (W 09/07/05): Torture in The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. READING: Swanton, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Fee Appendix A: "Torture in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle". Fee Appendix B: "Public Pain in Anglo-Saxon Law". Scarry, Elaine. The Body in Pain.  New York: Oxford University Press, 1985.  “Introduction”, and “The Structure of Torture: The Conversion of Real Pain into the Fiction of Power.” Pages 3-59. Campbell, Chapter 2. Baker, Chapter 3: "Basic Grammar: A Review"; & Chapter 4: "Case".

Week 3 (W 09/14/05): LIBRARY RESEARCH SESSION; MEET IN LIR. Discuss Sources, Methodologies, and Final Research Projects. READING: Bynum, Caroline.  “Why All the Fuss About the Body?  A Medievalist's Perspective.” Critical Inquiry 22.1 (1995): 1-33. Bradley, Soul & Body I & II. Fee, Introduction: "Uncovering the Body: The Power of Pain in the Old English Poetic Corpus". Campbell, Chapter 3. Baker, Chapter 5: "Pronouns"; Chapter 6: "Nouns"; & Chapter 8: "Adjectives".

Week 4 (W 09/21/05): GUEST SPEAKER: Scott E. Pincikowski, Assistant Professor of German at Hood College and author of Bodies of Pain. READING: Pincikowski, Scott E. Bodies of Pain: Suffering in the Works of Hartmann von Aue. New York: Routledge, 2002: "Preface", "Introduction", and "Chapter One: The Body in Pain". Pages xiii-xxv and 1-17. Baker, Chapter 7: "Verbs".

Week 5 (W 09/28/05): Anglo-Saxon Paleography, Codicology, and Runology; Sisam’s Vercelli Book Facsimile; MEET IN SPECIAL COLLECTIONS. READING: Campbell, Chapter 4. Baker, Chapter 10: "Adverbs, Conjunctions and Prepositions" & Chapter 16: "Reading Old English Manuscripts".

Week 6 (W 10/05/05): Signifying Suffering:  Pain, Perception, and the Language of Wounds and Weapons in the Old English The Dream of the Rood. READING: Swanton, The Dream of the Rood: "Introduction". Bradley, The Dream of the Rood. Fee, Chapter One. Campbell, Chapter 5.

Week 7 (W 10/12/05) & Week 8 (W 10/19/05): Inscription or Infliction?  Torture, Text, & Gender in the Old English Andreas, The Fates of the Apostles, Elene, and Judith. READING: Bradley, Andreas, The Fates of the Apostles, Elene, and Judith. Fee, Chapter Two. Campbell, Chapters 6 & 7.

Week 9 (W 10/26/05) & Week 10 (W 11/02/05): Consumption as Productive Destruction: Eating Body and Digesting Soul in the Old English Andreas, Daniel, and Guthlac. READING: Bradley, Andreas, Daniel, and Guthlac. Fee, Chapter Three. Campbell, Chapters 8 & 9.

Week 11 (W 11/09/05) & Week 12 (W 11/16/05): Coercion, Conversion, and Crucible:  Smelting the Sinner and Smithing the Soul in Old English Visions of Judgment in Christ III, Judgment Day I & II, Phoenix, and Elene. READING: Bradley, Christ III, Judgment Day I & II, Phoenix, and Elene. Fee, Chapter Four. Campbell, Chapter 10.

THANKSGIVING BREAK (W 11/23/05)

Week 13 (W 11/30/05): GUEST SPEAKER: Shari Horner, Associate Professor of English at Shippensburg University and author of “The Violence of Exegesis”.  READING: Horner, Shari. “The Violence of Exegesis: Reading the Bodies of Ælfric's Female Saints.” Violence Against Women in Medieval Texts. ed. Anna Roberts. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1997. 22-43.

Week 14 (W 12/07/05)—Conclusion: The Purpose of Public Pain in the Old English Andreas, Daniel, The Dream of the Rood, Elene, The Fates of the Apostles, Judith, and Juliana. READING: Bradley, Andreas, Daniel, The Dream of the Rood, Elene, The Fates of the Apostles, Judith, and Juliana. Fee, Conclusion: "The Purpose of Public Pain in the Old English Poetic Corpus". Graziano, Frank.  Divine Violence:  Spectacle, Psychosexuality & Radical Christianity in the Argentine “Dirty War”.  Boulder : Westview Press, 1992. Pages 107-146 and 191-227.