ME3242 'In a Dark Wood Wandering': War, Plague, and Society in Valois France, 1328-1422

Academic year

2024 to 2025 Semester 2

Further information on which modules are specific to your programme.

Key module information

SCOTCAT credits

30

The Scottish Credit Accumulation and Transfer (SCOTCAT) system allows credits gained in Scotland to be transferred between institutions. The number of credits associated with a module gives an indication of the amount of learning effort required by the learner. European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) credits are half the value of SCOTCAT credits.

SCQF level

SCQF level 9

The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) provides an indication of the complexity of award qualifications and associated learning and operates on an ascending numeric scale from Levels 1-12 with SCQF Level 10 equating to a Scottish undergraduate Honours degree.

Planned timetable

TBC

This information is given as indicative. Timetable may change at short notice depending on room availability.

Module coordinator

Prof J M Firnhaber-Baker

This information is given as indicative. Staff involved in a module may change at short notice depending on availability and circumstances.

Module Staff

Dr Justine Firnhaber-Baker

This information is given as indicative. Staff involved in a module may change at short notice depending on availability and circumstances.

Module description

This module focuses on the French political, social, and cultural history between the extinction of the Capetian dynasty and the death of Charles VI. This was the time of the Hundred Years War (1338-1453), most of which was fought on French soil, and the plague, which reached France in 1347and returned repeatedly for decades. The Dutch novelist Halla Hasse wrote that those who lived in this period were 'in a dark wood wandering'. Yet, France not only maintained institutional and political continuity, but also developed a flourishing intellectual and artistic culture considered by many as the apex of medieval aesthetic achievement. This module is focused not just on the period's succession of disasters, but also on the lives that people led and the things that they did in the face of despair. The module combines political narrative, so that students do not get lost in the thicket of events, with a thematic approach that allows exploration of France's social variety and cultural riches.

Relationship to other modules

Pre-requisites

ENTRY TO HONS IN HISTORY OR MEDIAEVAL HISTORY

Assessment pattern

Examination = 40%, Coursework = 60%

Re-assessment

Coursework = 100%

Learning and teaching methods and delivery

Weekly contact

1 x 2 hour seminar, plus 1 office hour.

Scheduled learning hours

22

The number of compulsory student:staff contact hours over the period of the module.

Guided independent study hours

278

The number of hours that students are expected to invest in independent study over the period of the module.

Intended learning outcomes

  • By the end of the module, students will be able to identify, compare, and evaluate different historiographical positions.
  • By the end of the module, students will be able to analyze source texts and identify information that sheds light on relevant historical questions
  • By the end of the module, students will be able to synthesize disparate evidence from secondary and primary sources to develop their own arguments in essay form.
  • By the end of the module, students will have gained new knowledge about the events of the later fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries in France, including the Hundred Years War, the Black Death, the Great Schism, and the Armagnac-Burgundian civil war.
  • By the end of the module, students will have gained new knowledge about the intellectual and artistic achievements of the later fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries in France, including the development of royal ideology, manuscript painting, and literary polemics.
  • By the end of the module, students will have gained new knowledge about the social variety that characterised France in the later fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries in France, including urban and rural life, regional differences, disability and poverty, and the competing value systems of aristocrats and commoners.