Proseminar: The Anchoress and the Text

  • Teaching

    Details

    Faculty Faculty of Humanities
    Domain English
    Code UE-L06.01538
    Languages English
    Type of lesson Proseminar
    Level Bachelor
    Semester SS-2025

    Schedules and rooms

    Summary schedule Wednesday 10:15 - 12:00, Hebdomadaire (Spring semester)

    Teaching

    Responsibles
    • Vuille Juliette
    Teachers
    • Vuille Juliette
    Description

    This pro-seminar is aimed at students interested in questions of gender in the medieval period, as well as being intended for those who want to gain skills in paleography and codicology (manuscript study, transcription, editorial and archival practices).

    In this seminar, we will closely study the Ancrene Wisse Group, a group of texts written in the Welsh marshes in the late-twelfth/early thirteenth century, and addressed either to female anchorites (recluses who lived walled-in in cells, often at the side of a church) or female religious in general. 

    These include Ancrene Wisse (guide for female recluses), The Life of Saint Margaret (a saint's life), Hali Meithhad (a treatise advocating virginity), and The Wooing of our Lord (a sensual, affective prayer).  

    Through these texts, we will gain a deeper understanding of how femininity was conceived in the early medieval period, as well as what it meant to be a woman and a female religious at the time. It is often surprising how medieval presuppositions about women's virginity, about the way women should dress, behave, or interact with others, have survived to this day. 

    A good part of the seminar will also be devoted to considering the manuscript context of these works, and students will learn basics of reading medieval manuscripts, script identification, codicology, transcription, and editorial practices. We will focus on the language of these texts, which Tolkien defined as "AB language," a language in transition between Old and Middle English, with Welsh and Scandinavian influences. 

    Training objectives

    At the end of the seminar, students will be able to choose between writing a traditional essay, or producing a short transcription, edition or translation of a given text.

    Softskills No
    Off field No
    BeNeFri No
    Mobility Yes
    UniPop No

    Documents

    Bibliography

    A handout with the course texts will be available for purchase from UNIPRINT at the beginning of the semester.

  • Dates and rooms
    Date Hour Type of lesson Place
    19.02.2025 10:15 - 12:00 Cours MIS 04, Room 4122
    26.02.2025 10:15 - 12:00 Cours MIS 04, Room 4122
    05.03.2025 10:15 - 12:00 Cours MIS 04, Room 4122
    12.03.2025 10:15 - 12:00 Cours MIS 04, Room 4122
    19.03.2025 10:15 - 12:00 Cours MIS 04, Room 4122
    26.03.2025 10:15 - 12:00 Cours MIS 04, Room 4122
    02.04.2025 10:15 - 12:00 Cours MIS 04, Room 4122
    09.04.2025 10:15 - 12:00 Cours MIS 04, Room 4122
    16.04.2025 10:15 - 12:00 Cours MIS 04, Room 4122
    30.04.2025 10:15 - 12:00 Cours MIS 04, Room 4122
    07.05.2025 10:15 - 12:00 Cours MIS 04, Room 4122
    14.05.2025 10:15 - 12:00 Cours MIS 04, Room 4122
    21.05.2025 10:15 - 12:00 Cours MIS 04, Room 4122
    28.05.2025 10:15 - 12:00 Cours MIS 04, Room 4122
  • Assessments methods

    Séminaire - SS-2025, Session d'été 2025

    Assessments methods By rating, By success/failure

    Séminaire - SS-2025, Autumn Session 2025

    Assessments methods By rating, By success/failure

    Séminaire - AS-2025, Session d'hiver 2026

    Assessments methods By rating, By success/failure

    Séminaire - SS-2026, Session d'été 2026

    Assessments methods By rating, By success/failure
  • Assignment
    Valid for the following curricula:
    English Language and Literature 120
    Version: SA15_BA_ang_V02
    Module Four: Theory and Texts
    Module Six: Advanced Research and Writing

    English Language and Literature 60
    Version: SA15_BA_ang_V01
    Theory and Texte or Culture and Identity > Module Four: Theory and Texts

    Ens. compl. en Lettres
    Version: ens_compl_lettres

    Lettres [Cours]
    Version: Lettres_v01