81749 - History of Women and Gender in the Medieval Period (1)

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course students will know and apply the methods of gender studies and be able to recognise them in medieval historiography. In this light they will analyse narrative sources, legislation, treatises, literature and iconography. They will be able to write a little paper, collecting, selecting, organizing and logically outlining documentary data and information so as to formulate independent conclusions and opinions. They will interpret the products of historical communication with a critical eye and be able to personlize their own learning path in an organized, independent way, displaying self-criticism and interpersonal relating skills.

Course contents

Women's dowry, dowries and assets

Through the analysis of normative and documentary sources, the course, in seminar form, proposes to address the problem of women's economic capacity between the Early and the Late Middle Ages.

The use of the conceptual tools of gender history will allow to identify the forms that, in that specific historical context, assumed the construction of the social identity of individuals, male and female.

Readings/Bibliography

Attending students will study lecture notes, texts and documents uploaded on IOL.

Not attending students will study:

Il patrimonio delle regine: beni del fisco e politica regia fra IX e X secolo, a cura di T. Lazzari, RM Rivista, 13, 2/2012, on-line [http://www.rmojs.unina.it/index.php/rm/article/view/4788].

Le ricchezze delle donne. Diritti patrimoniali e poteri familiari in Italia (XIII-XIX sec.), a cura di Giulia Calvi e Isabelle Chabot, Torino, Rosenberg & Sellier, 1998, also in digital format.

Teaching methods

After some frontal lessons of presentation of the theme, students will be involved in the reading and presentation of specialized scientific essays and in the analysis of some selected, unpublished sources.

Assessment methods

Attending students will prepare a paper of 20 pages (40,000 characters, including spaces) setting out the lecture notes and the further readings uploaded on IOL.

Not attending students will sustain an oral test aimed to assess the learning and comprehension of the two books in bibliography.

In the evaluation of both, the thesis (students attending) and the oral test (students not attending), will be taken into account the student's ability to orient himself within the proposed sources and bibliographical material, to illustrate themes and problems and to know how to link them together.

They will then be assessed:
- The mastery of the contents
- The ability to synthesize and analyse themes and concepts
- The ability to express oneself in the appropriate language for the subject matter

The student's achievement of an organic vision of the themes dealt with in class together with their critical use, a good command of expression and specific language will be evaluated with marks of excellence.

A mnemonic knowledge of the subject, together with synthesis and analysis skills articulated in a correct but not always appropriate language, will lead to discreet evaluations.

Shortcomings and/or inappropriate language - albeit in a context of minimal knowledge of the examination material - will lead to marks that will not pass the sufficiency.

Educational gaps, inappropriate language, lack of orientation within the bibliographic materials offered during the course will be evaluated negatively.

Teaching tools

The repository of learning materials of the University of Bologna - will be used for the delivery of power points, pdf file of written sources and readings.

Office hours

See the website of Tiziana Lazzari