This module (and its co-requisite) will allow students to study a historical theme or area in great depth, under the guidance of an individual member of staff drawing on both secondary sources (i.e. books and articles) and primary sources (documents, newspapers etc), both published and unpublished. The module will allow students to study an aspect of history in detail and gain a fuller understanding of how different types of source material inform the historical process.
Module Summary: In September 1066 an army of warriors from Normandy crossed the Channel and embarked on the conquest and colonisation of England; thirty years later, an army of crusaders from across Latin Europe set out to reclaim the Holy Land for Christendom, culminating in the capture of Jerusalem in July 1099. Both these events prompted an immediate and sustained outpouring of historical writing, as participants and observers alike sought to make sense of and celebrate the conquerors’ achievements.
In this module students will explore the theory and practice of medieval historiography through analysis of a range of narrative histories produced in the wake of the conquests of England in 1066 and of the Holy Land in 1099. During the Autumn term you will be introduced to our canon of texts, finding out about our authors, the educational backgrounds they shared, and the institutions and environments in which they produced their works; and about the subject matter, genre, and rhetorical features of their texts, and the audiences at which they were aimed. In the Spring term we shall then look at key historical moments and themes treated across the range of these sources, doing close readings of particular texts, and investigating their reception in subsequent moments of historiographical reflection.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the module students should be able to:
Analyse and critically appraise key events and historical processes relevant to the subject under scrutiny;
Analyse and critically evaluate a wide range of relevant primary source material;
Critically evaluate the historiographical context and trends of the subject under exploration;
Summarise, synthesise and evaluate the subject material in a sophisticated written form.