English 226 - Encountering the Other: Medieval Literature between Christianity and Islam

Medieval Lit: Christianity & Islam

Spring
2025
01
4.00
Seamus Dwyer

TU TH 2:45 PM - 4:00 PM

Smith College
ENG-226-01-202503
Hatfield 106
sdwyer75@smith.edu
Much of the medieval Eurasian world was dominated by two cultural hegemonies: one half distilled as “Western” and “Christian,” the other half as “Eastern” and “Muslim.” This course seeks to interrogate this binary. How did the literary output of authors from each sphere shape their understandings of the other? To answer this question, students read texts written between the 12th and 14th centuries from England to Baghdad. Ultimately, students achieve an understanding of how medieval literature from Europe, the Maghreb, and the Middle East observed, chronicled, reviled, and admired the Foreigner, the Pilgrim, the Infidel—that is, the Other. (E)
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