As we reach the one-year mark of the Charlottesville 鈥淯nite the Right鈥� rally, we now recognize how a July 2017 article in the听Chronicle of Higher Education听foretold the scene that unfolded in Virginia just one month later. The听颁丑谤辞苍颈肠濒别听explains that 鈥淎lt-right online forums have co-opted themes from the Middle Ages and created memes that feature a battle cry from the Crusades, 鈥�Deus Vult,鈥澨�or 鈥淕od wills it,鈥� to advocate for violence against nonwhite people.鈥� The article goes on to suggest, in Suzanne Akbari鈥檚 words (University of Toronto), how 鈥渢he alt-right鈥檚 鈥榝antasy鈥� of the medieval past couldn鈥檛 be further from the truth 鈥�. The medieval past is actually highly integrated, highly diverse, with a tremendous amount of cultural interchange.鈥� How are we to think about two versions of the Middle Ages that are so fundamentally at odds with one another? And, moreover, why are we returning to the premodern past in order to makes sense of our own highly-charged, turbulent historical moment?
We begin with an examination of how and why white supremacists today appropriate images and language from the Middle Ages and how this appropriation relates to medieval studies. After framing the class with current, hotly-contested arguments around race and gender in the field, we turn to primary sources and literary criticism to explore the overarching topic of the class. This course studies difference 鈥� specifically race, gender and textual
difference 鈥� in medieval and early modern England. We鈥檒l think about how premodern writers represent these categories; how the medieval relates to and differs from the early modern; and how these historical categories anticipate but also diverge from our own understandings and markers of identity. While we focus on two canonical writers of English literature, Geoffrey Chaucer and William Shakespeare, we will be attentive to voices from the margins as well. 麻豆淫院 will have the opportunity to connect the topics of race and gender in medieval and early modern England to current events in a 鈥渕edievalism/early modernism鈥� assignment and will also have the option to make a capstone project in the digital humanities.