MO3036 The Italian Renaissance
   
Lecturer Dr Emily Michelson (St John's House, room 7)
   
Credits 30
   
Availability 2010-2011 - semester 1
   
Class Hour view timetable
   
Description This class introduces students to the major texts, topics, and questions that define the period of the Renaissance. Students will develop skills in close analysis of primary sources and critical reading of historical scholarship. In addition, students will learn both the traditional definition of the period and a variety of more recent scholarly assessments; this will enable them to summarize and evaluate scholarly arguments the nature and value of this historical period.

   
   
   

Course Structure
  1. Introduction: Defining the Renaissance
  2. Historical Context           
  3. Humanism I: Back to the Sources
  4. Humanism III: Civic Humanism
  5. Urban life: Venice
  6. Urban life: Florence and the Medici
  7. Renaissance Politics and Court Culture
  8. Art and Architecture I
  9. Art and Architecture II
  10. Gender and Marginalisation
  11. Religion
   
Assessment 60% examination – 3 hour paper
40% coursework
   

Learning Outcomes
  • Demonstrate improved skills in critical and creative thinking through extensive practice in critical inquiry and close analysis.
  • Identify the defining features of the Renaissance,
  • Analyze literary, historical, and artistic documents from the 13th-16th centuries and evaluate the work of modern scholars on this topic.
  • Learn to assess scholarly hypotheses, and to generate their own arguments in an intellectually responsible evidence-based fashion.

 

 

 

 
   
Restrictions None