History 424T, "Women in European Society and Culture, 1350-1650"               

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Gayle K. Brunelle  Office: H-710 E                                           

Office Hours: M 10:30-11:30, M, 6-7 Phone: (714)278-7045

Fax: (714)278-2101 Email: gbrunelle@fullerton.edu

A History of Women. Renaissance and Enlightenment Paradoxes, Natalie Zemon Davis and Arlette Farge, eds., (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1993) ISBN: 0-674-40367-3

Martha C. Howell, The Marriage Exchange. Property, social place, and gender in the cities of the Low Countries, 1300-1550, (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1998), ISBN: 0-226-35516-0

Women in the Streets. Essays on sex and power in Renaissance Italy, Samuel K. Cohn Jr., ed., (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996), ISBN: 0-8018-5309-5

Natalie Zemon Davis, Women on the Margins. Three seventeenth-century lives, (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1995), ISBN: 0-674-95521-8

Lyndal Roper, Oedipus and the Devil. Witchcraft, sexuality and religion in early modern Europe, (London and New York: Routledge, 1994), ISBN: 0-415-10581-1

Articles on Reserve in Pollack Library (CSUF)

Sarah Hanley, "Engendering the State: Family Formation and State Building in Early Modern France," French Historical Studies, 16, no. 1 (Spring 1989): 4-27

Ibid. "Family and State in Early Modern France: 'The Marriage Pact,'" in Connecting Spheres: Women in the Western World, 1500 to the Present, Marilyn J. Boxer and Jean H. Quataert, eds., (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987, Second Edition, 2000), 61-72.

Marilyn J. Boxer and Jean H. Quataert, "New Connections," and "Restoring Women to History," in Connecting Spheres, 1-18.

Ibid., "Women in the Early Modern Era: Religious upheaval, political centralization, and colonial conquest. Overview, in Connecting Spheres, 1500-1750," 19-60.

Joan Kelly, "Did Women Have a Renaissance?" in Joan Kelly, Women, History, and Theory: The Essays of Joan Kelly, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984), p. 19-50.

Paula Miller, "Introduction," ch. One, "The Consolidation of Patriarchalism in Early Modern Europe," and ch. Two, "Patriarchalism Challenged," in Paula Miller, Transformations of Patriarchy in the West, 1500-1900, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998), 1-74.

Susan Karant-Nunn, "Women and the Reformation in Zwickau," Sixteenth Century Journal, 12 (Spring, 1982) 17-42.

Lyndal Roper, "The Domestication of the Reformation," in The Holy Household: Women and Morals in Reformation Augsburg, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989), 1-55

Merry Wiesner-Hanks, "Women's Work in the Changing City Economy, 1500-1650," in Connecting Spheres, 81-92.

Course Description

Women's history and gender history are still relatively new fields of historical study. History 424T is designed to offer students a menu of courses which will explore different aspects of gender in history. Some courses will focus primarily on women, whereas others will discuss the construction of male and female gender roles in a historical context.

"Women in European Society and Culture, 1350-1650" is designed to be a general survey of the history of women in European society and culture, from the high Renaissance through the end of the Thirty Years War. These were tumultuous years in European history, an era of violence and change, no less for women than for men. In this course students will examine the effects of the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Wars of Religion, the discovery and colonization of the New World, Absolutism, and the changes in the European economy, on women's lives, livelihoods, status, and physical and emotional well-being. The course will also analyze changing male attitudes and practices which affected women.

Learning Goals

1. To achieve a better understand of the early modern European women's history.

2. To understand the problems and approaches which characterize women's history, and distinguish it from other fields. For example, students will explore issues such as the nature of patriarchy, social deviance, gender, and violence.

3. Students should improve their critical reading, analysis, and writing skills through the assignments and class discussion.

Assessment

Because this class aims to foster student learning in both content and skills, assessment will also be based on student performance in both of these areas. Students will write two essay exams, a midterm and a final, where understanding content and quality of analysis will be emphasized over composition and grammar, although students will obviously need to be able to write clearly enough to communicate their knowledge and arguments adequately for me to understand the points they wish to make. Students will also write a research paper in which ability to communicate effectively and with a finished style will figure in the assessment of student performance. Students will be expected, therefore, to rewrite their papers based on editorial comments I will offer on previous drafts. "Last minute" papers will suffer on their grades. Finally, students will also be expected to demonstrate their ability to communicate orally through intelligent, thoughtful participation in class discussions.

Please Also Note: The final exam will be a take-home due Monday, Dec. 15, by 8 p.m. You finals should also be handed in via Turnitin.com.

Grades and Assignments: Students will be expected to write a research paper, based on secondary sources (12-15 pages). Guidelines to the paper will be handed out on the first day of class. Students should expect, however, that the paper will be based on a minimum of 10 sources, at least two of which must be journal articles. Students must have a topic for the paper chosen, and summarized in a paragraph which they will hand in to me for my approval, by the fifth week of the semester. Paper topics must be approved! This is for your benefit, so that you choose a topic which will allow you to write a good paper in the 12-15 page limit. Students must hand in a draft of the paper to me in the twelfth week of the semester. I will return it to them with comments the following week. The final draft of the paper will be due on the last day of class. In order to get full credit for the paper, students must hand in the topic summary and the edited draft along with their final draft. Failure to complete the topic summary and/or the preliminary draft will result in a loss of ten points from the final grade! Don't procrastinate and save your papers for the last minute!

Midterm 30%

Final 30%

Paper 30%

Class Participation 10%

Weekly Reading (Please note; reading assignments should be completed at the beginning of the week for which they are assigned. Please plan ahead.)

Week One (Aug. 23): Problems and paradigms in Early Modern Women's history. Periodization: What do we mean by "early modern?" What was the Renaissance? Did women have one?

Reading: Handout - Joan Kelly, "Did Women have a Renaissance?"

Week Two (Aug. 30): The problem of patriarchy in early modern women's history, then and now. Readings: 1. Paula Miller, "Introduction," ch. One, "The Consolidation of Patriarchalism in Early Modern Europe," and ch. Two, "Patriarchalism Challenged," in Paula Miller, Transformations of Patriarchy in the West, 1500-1900, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998), 1-74.

2. Marilyn J. Boxer and Jean H. Quataert, "New Connections," and "Restoring Women to History," in Connecting Spheres, 1-18.

3. Natalie Zemon Davis and Arlette Farge, "Women as Historical Actors," in A History of Women, 1-8.

Week Four (Sept. 13): Sex and Power in the Renaissance.

Reading: Samuel K. Cohn Jr., Women in the Streets, all.

Week Five (Sept. 20): The Reformation and women's lives.

Reading: 1. Susan Karant-Nunn, "Women and the Reformation in Zwickau," Sixteenth Century Journal, 12 (Spring, 1982) 17-42. 2. Lyndal Roper, "The Domestication of the Reformation," in The Holy Household: Women and Morals in Reformation Augsburg, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989), 1-55. 3. Boxer and Quataert, "Women in the Early Modern Era: Religious upheaval, political centralization, and colonial conquest," in Connecting Spheres, 19-60.

Week Six (Sept. 27): Women's daily life. Household labor and wage labor, appearance, education, political activities.

Reading: 1. A History of Women, Part One, "Works and Days," 9-184. 2. Merry Wiesner-Hanks, "Women's Work in the Changing City Economy, 1500-1650," in Connecting Spheres, 81-92.

Please Note: Summaries of your paper topics due by the end of class this week.

Week Seven (Oct. 4): Women's role in the family. Authority, control of property, business acumen.

Reading: Martha Howell, The Marriage Exchange, all.

Week Eight (Oct. 11). Midterm, the first half of class. Women as dissidents. Prostitution, criminals, and protesters.

Reading: A History of Women, Part Three, "Dissidences," 389-506.

Week Ten (Oct. 25) – just in time for Halloween, our topic is: The Witch Craze.

Reading: Lyndal Roper, Oedipus and the Devil, all. The midterm will be held this week during the first half of class.

Week Eleven (Nov. 1). Women and Absolutism.

Reading: 1. Sarah Hanley, "Engendering the State: Family Formation and State Building in Early Modern France," French Historical Studies, 16, no. 1 (Spring 1989): 4-27. 2. Ibid. "Family and State in Early Modern France: 'The Marriage Pact,'" in Connecting Spheres: Women in the Western World, 1500 to the Present, Marilyn J. Boxer and Jean H. Quataert, eds., (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987, Second Edition, 2000), 61-72.

Week Twelve (Nov. 8). Women in the eyes of men.

Reading: A History of Women, "Intermezzo" and Part Two, "So Much is Said About Her," 185-388.

Week Thirteen (Nov. 15). Women in their own words.

Reading: 1. History of Women, Part Four, "Women's Voices," 507-518. 2. Natalie Davis, Women on the Margins, Ch. 1, "Arguing with God. Glikl Bas Judah Leib," 1-62.

Please note: Paper drafts due by the end of class this week. I will have them in my student papers folder, ready for pickup, by Friday, so that you can work on them over Fall break, next week (the week of Nov. 22).

Week Fourteen (Nov. 29). Women in their own words, part two.

Reading: Women on the Margins, Ch. 2 to Conclusion.

Week Fifteen (Dec. 6): The image of early modern women in film. "Elizabeth" and "Dangerous Beauty" Please note: final draft of papers due on the final class. If you did not hand in a draft via Turnitin.com, you must hand in your final draft via Turnitin.

Week Sixteen. Final Exam. The exam will be a take-home exam due during the final exam period on Monday, December 13, by 8 pm.

Bibliography

General

A History of Women. Renaissance and Enlightenment Paradoxes. Natalie Zemon Davis and Arlette Farge, eds. Cambridge, Mass. Harvard University Press. 1994.

Becoming Visible. Women in European History. Renate Bridenthal, Susan Mosher Stuard, Merry E. Wiesner, eds. Boston and New York. Houghton Mifflin. Third Edition, 1998.

Connecting Spheres. European Women in a Globalizing World, 1500 to the Present. Marilyn J. Boxer and Jean H. Quataert, eds. New York and Oxford. Oxford University Press. Second Edition, 2000.

Hufton, Olwen. The Prospect Before Her. A History of Women in Western Europe, 1500-1800. New York. Vintage. 1995.

Miller, Pavla. Transformations of Patriarchy in the West, 1500-1900. Bloomington. Indiana University Press. 1998.

Wiesner, Merry. Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1993.

Women and Renaissance Culture

Rewriting the Renaissance. Discourses of Sexual Difference in Early Modern Europe. Margaret W. Ferguson, Maureen Quilligan, and Nancy Vickers, eds. Chicago. University of Chicago Press. 1986.

Cohn, Samuel K., Jr. Women in the Streets. Essays on Sex and Power in Renaissance Italy. Baltimore and London. The Johns Hopkins University Press. 1996.

Women at Work

Jordan, William Chester. Women and Credit in Pre-Industrial aned Developing Societies. Philadelphia. University of Pennsylvania Press. 1993.

Wiesner, Merry. Working Women in Renaissance Germany. New Brunswick. Rutgers University Press. 1986.

Women and Work in Pre-Industrial England. Lindsey Charles and Lorna Duffin, eds. London. Croom Helm. 1985.

Women and Work in Preindustrial Europe. Hanawalt, Barbara A., ed. Bloomington. Indiana University Press. 1986.

Women at Work in Spain, from the Middle Ages to Early Modern Times. Marilyn Stone and Carmen Benito-Vessels, eds. New York. Peter Lang. 1998.

Women and the Law

Kuehn, Thomas. Law, Family, and Women. Toward a legal anthropology of Renaissance Italy. Chicago. University of Chicago Press. 1991.

Stretton, Tim. Women Waging Law in Elizabethan England. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1998.

Women, Crime and the Courts in Early Modern England. Jenny Kermode and Garthine Walker, eds. Chapel Hill. University of North Carolina Press. 1994.

Women and Family

Hardwick, Julie. The Practice of Patriarchy. Gender and the politics of household authority in early modern France. University Park. Pennsylvania State University Press. 1998.

Howell, Martha C. The Marriage Exchange. Property, social place, and gender in cities of the Low Countries, 1300-1550. Chicago. University of Chicago Press. 1998.

Perry, Mary Elizabeth. Gender and Disorder in Early Modern Seville. Princeton. Princeton University Press. 1990.

Roper, Lyndal. The Holy Household. Women and morals in Reformation Augsburg. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1989.