Indiana
University
History J400 Anglo-Saxon England
Fall Semester 2006 Dr. Deborah M. Deliyannis
Place: Ballantine Hall 335 Office: Ballantine Hall 708
Time: TuTh 4-5:15 pm Office Hours: W 1:30-3:30 or by appt.
Section: 17581 Phone: 855-3431
website: / email: ddeliyan@indiana.edu
Description
When the Roman legions pulled out of Britain in the early fifth century, the island entered a "dark age", during which groups of people from the continent, known to us collectively as Anglo-Saxons, entered Britain and became its rulers. In this course, we will examine the history and culture of Anglo-Saxon England from 400 to 1100. We will consider a variety of issues such as the history of Christianity in England, social and political development, contacts with other islands and the continent, the repeated waves of invaders, the gradual unification of the island, and finally the the Norman conquest of 1066. We will read extensively in both primary and secondary sources, and we will also examine archaeological material in detail.
One of the expectations of a senior seminar is that history students will learn how to write as historians write history. In addition to discussing the history of Anglo-Saxon England, we will be discussing historial methodology and historical writing, both through discussion of your own research projects and through discussion of books and articles written by modern historians about Anglo-Saxon England. We will pay particular attention to the way that scholars use the available primary sources to construct an argument.
Books
The following
books are
available for purchase at the IU Bookstore:
Kevin Crossley-Holland, The
Anglo-Saxon World : An
Anthology. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1999.
Peter
Hunter Blair, An Introduction to Anglo-Saxon England, 3rd ed., introduction by
Simon
Keynes. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2003.
Bede,
The Ecclesiastical History of the English People; The Greater
Chronicle;
Bede's Letter to Egbert.
Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1999.
J.
F. Webb and D. H. Farmer, trans. The
Age of Bede. Harmondsworth: Penguin,
1998.
Simon
Keynes and Michael Lapidge, trans., Alfred the Great: Asser's Life
of King
Alfred and Other Contemporary Sources. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1984.
Additional books
have been
placed on reserve in the library; some of them will be assigned as book
report
topics, others contain assigned readings, and others might simply be
useful for
your research. A list of these can
be found at the end of the syllabus.
Requirements
This course will be taught as a seminar; that is,
classes
will be discussion based, and students should expect to participate in,
and
perhaps occasionally lead, debate.
Each student will give an oral presentation on one book, and
there will
also be short weekly written exercises on the readings.
The major requirement of the
course will be a research paper on a topic of the student's choice,
which will
also be presented orally to the class at the end of the semester.
Attendance
and participation in discussion
25%
Weekly
written assignments
15%
Book
report
15%
Paper
presentation
15%
Research
paper
30%
Attendance will
be taken in
every class. Participation means having
done the assigned reading for the day, having formed opinions about it
based on
the set discussion question for the day, and taking part in discussion.
For each class
there will be
an assigned discussion question based on the readings.
You are to write a short one-page
(double-spaced, 1" margins, 12-point font) response to the question. These will be graded with
check/check-minus/F. You may miss
up to 4 of them; I suggest that you save these in case you are sick or
have
some other emergency. Your grade
for this component of the class will be based on your turning in the
correct
number of papers, and performing satisfactorily on a majority of them.
Each student
will present
one book report on a scholarly book.
The books are listed by date on the syllabus, and there is a
list at the
end of the syllabus. Your book
report should take no more than 10 minutes (practice!
and be concise).
In it you should briefly explain (a) what the subject and thesis
of the
book are; (b) what primary sources the author uses in the book; and (c)
whether
you found it informative and convincing.
Your research
paper should
be 10-12 pages (12-point font, double spaced, 1" margins), and will be
on
a topic of your choice. A list of
suggested topics can be found at the end of the syllabus, and it is
strongly
suggested that you choose one of them; if you wish to write on
something else,
you must discuss it with me. Paper
topics must be officially declared in writing on September 30. On October 30 you must turn in a preliminary
bibliography for the paper.
During the last
two weeks of
class, you will give a short (10-12 minute) presentation of the
material that
will be covered in your paper. It
is strongly suggested that your paper be finished by the date of your
presentation. Your presentation will be
graded on how
clearly you explain the topic of your paper, whether you use
appropriate visual
aids (diagrams, transparencies, etc.), whether you stick to the time
limit, and
how well you answer questions.
Research aids
The following
on-line
bibliography may be of use when you are writing your paper:
http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/research/rawl/keynesbib/index.html
You should also consult the International Medieval Bibliography (IMB Online), which can be accessed online through the IU Libraries webpage at:
http://www.libraries.iub.edu/index.php?pageId=1044&mode=alpha&letter=I
The History Department has set up an extremely useful webpage about writing research papers for J400 classes; it can be found at:
http://www.indiana.edu/~histweb/seminars/index.html
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