• Dutton Elisabeth

Because education in medieval England was largely in the hands of the church, it is unsurprising that a huge number of texts which survive in Old and Middle English are religious and devotional in nature.  Learning to read was connected to learning to pray, and the language of devotion is thus fundamental to an understanding of the Middle Ages.  This course will trace the development of medieval devotional language from the earliest surviving devotional texts such as the Old English Dream of the Rood, through early Middle English texts including the Ancrene Wisse, to the flowering of vernacular devotional writing in the late medieval period, when English began to compete with Latin as a language for theological debate as well as ‘simpler’ devotional advice.  Topics will include: the conservatism of devotional language versus its potential subversiveness; the role of the ‘author’ in relation to God; the role of women in the creation of religious texts; strategies for creating a language to describe the ineffable. 

• Familiarity with late-Middle English and early-Modern English language
• Appreciation of role and nature of medieval religion
• Appreciation of the continuities and changes in devotional language through the medieval period
• Understanding of the role of religion in the development of written language
• Appreciation of issues of gender in relation to medieval texts
• Understanding of the development of English as a written vernacular