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Semester 2

Adolescence in Medieval Europe (HIST10485)

Subject

History

College

CAHSS

Credits

20

Normal Year Taken

3

Delivery Session Year

2023/2024

Pre-requisites

Visiting students must have completed 3 History courses at grade B or above, and please note that we will only consider courses with a specific focus on History (not including History of Art) towards these pre-requisites. We will only consider University/College level courses. **Please see Additional Restrictions below**

Course Summary

Historians can be guilty of ignoring or underestimating young people in the past, but this course centres the experiences of adolescents across medieval Europe, c.1000-c.1300. Religious, social, economic and political changes over these centuries impressed themselves with particular strength on young men and women. This module helps students to examine definitions and concepts of medieval adolescence and to assess the factors shaping young people's experiences, from gender, family and social status to work, religion and education.

Course Description

The historical study of adolescence is a relatively new field. Since the 1960s, medievalists have challenged the claim that a concept of adolescence emerged only in the eighteenth century, often turning to insights from other disciplines to help overturn many previous assumptions. This course explores both ideas and realties of adolescence in Europe between c.1000 and c.1300. By engaging with historical concepts such as life cycle, gender, masculinity, and identity, students will hone transferable skills in summarising and contextualising complex ideas and arguments. The course also supports students to compare evidence from a diverse range of primary sources and develop their written and oral communication skills. The first half of the course considers different challenges the historian faces when studying adolescence, including problems of definition, gendered assumptions, and the prejudices of source material. Medieval writers overwhelmingly presented adolescence as masculine, but many young women experienced a similarly liminal phase between childhood and adulthood. The second half of the module turns to tailored case studies across different settings to evaluate whether, and how, experiences of adolescence differed. Wider developments across the period touched the lives of young men and women in the form of increasing legal and social regulation and changes to rites of passage. Expanding urban environments, schools and universities drew groups of youths into ever closer contact, and often conflict. Many young people faced similar expectations and pressures even if their paths to adulthood were different within specific monastic, courtly, knightly, educational and working environments. But did all young people experience this distinct life cycle phase? And was there anything universal about adolescent experience in medieval Europe?

Assessment Information

Written Exam 0%, Coursework 80%, Practical Exam 20%

Additional Restrictions

Unless you are nominated on a History or HCA exchange agreement, visiting students are only permitted to enrol in two 3rd year History courses each, per semester, before the start of the relevant semester’s welcome period – and spaces on each course are limited so cannot be guaranteed for any student. This includes courses in Economic History and Scottish History. Enrolment in a third course from this group will depend on whether there are still spaces available in the January Welcome Period, and cannot be guaranteed. It is NOT appropriate for students to contact staff within this subject area to ask for an exception to be made; all enquiries to enrol in these courses must be made through the CAHSS Visiting Student Office. This is due to the limited number of spaces available in this very popular subject area.

view the timetable and further details for this course