Studying at York
The Uses of Writing in the 'Dark Ages' from Late Antiquity to the Age of Charlemagne & Beyond - MST00040M
Module summary
The course will provide an integrated introduction to selected themes in the history of education, communication, Latin literacy, book-making and palaeography, mainly in the centuries between the end of the western Roman Empire and the Carolingian Renaissance, but with some consideration of later developments. The course will offer insight into the cultural setting of Latin learning in the post Roman world and will also introduce students to the physical form in which historical and literary evidence survives and the material and institutional settings which ensure its preservation.
Weekly seminars will focus on key primary texts and classic approaches to the problems raised by the texts. Topics covered may range from the roman postal system to runes and ogam, from land charters to medieval textbooks.
Module will run
| Occurrence | Teaching period |
|---|---|
| A | Semester 2 2024-25 |
Module aims
The module aims to:
- Develop skills of source analysis and interpretation;
- Assess a range of source material and relevant secondary works; and
- Develop students’ powers of evidence-based historical argument, both orally and in writing.
Module learning outcomes
Students who complete this module successfully will:
- Demonstrate a knowledge of a specialist historiographical literature;
- Present findings in an analytical framework derived from a specialist field;
- Solve a well-defined historiographical problem using insights drawn from secondary and, where appropriate, primary sources.
- Set out written findings using a professional scholarly apparatus.
Module content
Students will attend a 1-hour briefing in week 1. Students will then attend a 2-hour seminar in weeks 2-4, 6-8 and 10-11. Weeks 5 & 9 are Reading and Writing (RAW) weeks during which there are no seminars, and during which students research and write a formative essay, consulting with the module tutor. Students prepare for eight seminars in all.
Seminar topics are subject to variation, but are likely to include the following:
- Roman Foundations
- How the Monastery became a school
- The Monastery as a school, part II
- Ways of Reading
- The Insular World
- The Book as Treasure
- New forms of the book
- A long view
Indicative assessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100 |
Special assessment rules
None
Indicative reassessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100 |
Module feedback
Students have the opportunity to submit a formative essay of up to 2,000 words and receive written or oral feedback, as appropriate, from a tutor. For the summative essay (3500-4000 words), students will receive their provisional mark and written feedback in line with the University's turnaround policy. The tutor will then be available during student hours for follow-up guidance if required.
Indicative reading
For reading during the module, please refer to the module VLE site. Before the course starts, we encourage you to look at the following items of preliminary reading:
- Brown, Michelle. Manuscripts from the Anglo-Saxon Age. London: British Library, 2007.
- McKitterick, Rosamund (ed.). The Uses of Literacy in Early Medieval Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
- Dronke, Peter. Women Writers of the Middle Ages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984.