This module explores the place of death within medieval European culture, focusing especially on the visual and material evidence of relics, tombs, architecture, wall paintings, and illuminated manuscripts. It will begin by examining how ideas about death and the dead were expressed in works of art from Late Antiquity until the arrival of the Black Death in 1348. Our primary sources will be set within the context of literary, visual, documentary and liturgical evidence. Together, we will examine these sources from different disciplinary perspectives in attempt to determine how the study of medieval death and contemporary anxieties about the afterlife can inform us about how people lived in the Middle Ages.
Total contact hours: 30
Private study hours: 270
Total study hours: 300
Autumn or Spring
Main assessment methods:
Source Analysis 3000 words 40%
Term Paper 3000 words 40%
Thematic Timed Essay 1000 words 20%
Reassessment methods:
Reassessment Instrument: 100% coursework
The University is committed to ensuring that core reading materials are in accessible electronic format in line with the Kent Inclusive Practices.
The most up to date reading list for each module can be found on the university's reading list pages: https://kent.rl.talis.com/index.html
See the library reading list for this module (Canterbury)
The intended subject specific learning outcomes.
On successfully completing the module level 5 students will be able to:
1. Demonstrate skills that enable them to work with a variety of historical sources, including visual evidence (e.g., sculpture, paintings, stained glass) and documentary sources (e.g., wills and coroners' records), and to evaluate their relative strengths and limitations, and to interpret these sources.
2. Provide an overview of the development of the visual culture of death in medieval Europe and an understanding of artistic innovations within the context of wider artistic, economic, devotional, social and epidemiological developments.
3. Demonstrate an awareness of different disciplinary approaches to the theme of death in the Middle Ages (especially art-historical, social-historical, theological, and literary), and to
The intended generic learning outcomes.
On successfully completing the module level 5 students will be able to:
1. Demonstrate the ability to construct robust historical arguments drawing intelligently on primary and secondary sources, and to present these arguments.
2. Demonstrate skills of conceptualisation, reflexivity, critical thought and epistemological awareness.
3. Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the past and particular aspects of the historiography and methodology, assisting them in other courses.
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