HIST 350, W St 350: Pullman                                                                                      Fall, 2005

European Women's History, 1400-1800

 

Mondays and Wednesdays, 10:35-11:50, Cleveland 312         

Prof. Sue Peabody                                                                      peabody@vancouver.wsu.edu

Phone: (360) 546-9647  FREE telephone call from any campus phone: ext. 69647

Office Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays, 1:00 - 2:00 and by appointment (But try any time!)

Home telephone: (360) 574-5991 (10am to 10 pm only)

Department Number (inclement weather, closings, information, etc.): (360) 546-9441

 

The WHETS Control Room: Murrow 54; Tel: (509) (33)5-5621

WHETS Lead Operator: Leslie Henriod (lhenriod@wsu.edu, 5-6534)

 

Themes

            The early modern period, 1400 to 1800, has traditionally been portrayed as the time of "Renaissance," "Reformation" and "Enlightenment."  Through a survey of women's family life cycle, sexuality, work, spirituality, education and persecution this course seeks to reexamine these categories to see how they apply (or do not apply) to continuity and change in the lives of European women.  We will explore the strengths and shortcomings of the theoretical framework of "gender" which has influenced much of the recent historiography on women.

 

On WHETS and Teaching

This course will be accessible to both the Vancouver and the Pullman campuses via WHETS, the televised conferencing system that links many campuses in Washington state.

I have taught this class and others over WHETS before. While the WHETS format is admittedly not as ideal as regular face-to-face contact with your instructor and classmates, I will do my best to make this a positive experience for students on all campuses. I am always accessible by telephone and e-mail and may visit the Pullman campus once during the semester.

Please take the initiative to be in contact with me – do not worry about bothering me! You will find that by being active in your education, you will reap tremendous rewards.

 

Required Texts (prices for new books are approximate)

Merry Wiesner, Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe. 2nd ed.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. (0521778220)  $19.00

Judith C. Brown, Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy.  Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986. (0-19-504225-5)  $13.95

The Memoirs of Glückel of Hameln. New York: Schocken, 1987. (0-8052-0572-1)  $15.00

Claire de Duras, Ourika. New York: Modern Language Association, 1994. (0-87352-780-1) $7.95

University Readers Coursepack (Order immediately: See p. 2, below)

 

Grades

10%     Class Participation (Attendance, discussions)

40%     Think Questions

25%     Mid-Term Exam

25%     Final Exam                  

 

Reasonable Accommodations are available for students who have a documented disability. Please notify the instructor during the first week of class of any accommodations needed for the course. Late notification may cause the requested accommodations to be unavailable. All accommodations must be approved through Wayne Brown, in the Student Services Office, (360) 546-9567.

 

Ordering Coursepacks

 

Students order online at http://www.universityreaders.com/students and follow these exact steps:

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  5. Click the “Save” button to create your account, and you'll automatically be taken to your university page.
  6. At your university page, click the “Add to Cart” button to the right of the course pack you want to purchase.
  7. Click on the “Checkout” button on the next page.
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  11. Enter payment details and click the “Place Order” button to finalize your order. The authorization will take about 5-10 seconds. You’ll be prompted with an Invoice screen once your order has been authorized and completed. You will also receive confirmation via email regarding your order.

Please direct all ordering questions to webmaster@universityreaders.com or call 800.200.3908. Thanks!

Writing Assignments

 

Think Questions

            Think Questions are short written assignments (1-2 pp., typed) designed to get you thinking about an issue before a class discussion.  They are listed on the syllabus. Be sure to do the associated reading assignment before you answer the Think Question. PLEASE run a spell-check program before you submit your Think Question. A Think Question is marked down one full grade for every day that it is late.

 

Revisions

            You may revise and resubmit a Think Question.  If the revised answer is an improvement on the original, the higher grade will replace the lower one. "Improvement" is based upon a deeper understanding of the issues, not merely correcting typographical errors. All such revisions are due NO LATER THAN the last day of classes.

 

Exams

            Exams consist primarily of essay questions based on readings, lectures, and discussions.  They are graded on how well you integrate all of these materials into a correct and clear essay.

 

Grades

            Grades for writing assignments are based on the following criteria:

 

                        A = An intelligent, insightful, clear, and well organized essay that shows a sophisticated awareness of historical argumentation (i.e., that history is a written discussion with evidence offered to support a thesis).

                        B = Mostly correct, well written, this essay is solid but does not sparkle with independent thinking or analysis

                        C = This essay contains some errors of fact or interpretation and/or numerous stylistical problems

                        D = This essay does not show evidence of much effort or contains unforgivable errors

                        F = Usually reserved for plagiarism or for papers that have been submitted several days late

 

Attendance

            Attendance is required at all class meetings.  If you cannot attend a class due to illness or other personal emergency, you may obtain an “Excused Absence” by notifying the instructor prior to the class session.  Leaving a message by voice mail or sending an e-mail message is sufficient to obtain an Excused Absence. Please note that whether or not an absence is excused, you are responsible for learning what happened in class and mastering that material (e.g. obtaining notes from a reliable classmate).

            Tardiness disturbs the teacher and your classmates. Furthermore, it can affect your work in the class.  I usually make important announcements at the beginning of class (e.g. announce the location of exams, a change in assignments).  If you miss these announcements, there is no guarantee that information will be repeated later.  On occasion, tardiness is unavoidable.  If you find yourself arriving late to class, please take your seat with a minimum of commotion. Three late arrivals constitute an unexcused absence.  (Note: if your work schedule necessitates regular late arrivals, please clear this with me in advance).

 

Plagiarism and Cheating

            Plagiarism and Cheating are serious offenses that may be penalized severely. You are plagiarizing or cheating if you:

 

        * present someone else’s words or ideas as your own, in writing or in speaking

        * present ideas without citing the source

        * paraphrase without crediting the source

        * use direct quotes with no quotation marks

        * use direct quotes without footnotes or other textual citation of the source

        * present work in a group project that is not your own or the work of the group

        * submit the same paper for credit in more than one course without discussing this option with the instructors

        * submit material written by someone else as your own (this includes purchasing a term or research paper)

        * submit a paper or assignment for which you have received so much help that it is no longer your own work

        * do not do an equal part of the work on a group project

        * copy someone else’s exam or graded homework

        * refer to a text, class notes, or other materials during an exam without being authorized to do so

        * purposefully allow another student to copy your work or submit work you have written as his/her own

        * collaborate with others on a take-home exam, or spend more time than that specified by the instructor on a take-home exam.

 

 

Extra Credit

There are several opportunities to earn Extra Credit this semester by attending events outside the regular classroom hours.  I will distribute a list of suggested activities in class. If you come up with any alternatives on either campus (these should be cultural or academic events that bear on women’s history), PLEASE CHECK WITH ME FIRST to see whether I will grant extra credit. (Email is best.)

 

Once your event has been confirmed by me, to obtain extra credit, write a 2-page Review of the event, describing it for someone who did not attend (whether I was there or not!) and discussing how it relates to themes in HIST/W St 350: European Women’s History, 1400-1800.

 

Value of extra credit to be determined by the instructor at the end of the semester, based on: 1) relevance of the activity to course aims; 2) quality of the review; and 3) quantity of extra events.
                                                                    Assignments

 

8/22

Introduction: Gender/Sex

 

8/23

Wiesner, Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe, Introduction, 1-7 and "Ideas and Laws Regarding Women," 9-38

 

 

THE MATERIAL WORLD

 

8/29

The Female Life Cycle

Wiesner, "The Female Life Cycle," 41-81

 

8/30

COURSEPACK: Christiane Klapisch-Zuber, Women Family and Ritual in Renaissance Italy, Foreward, vii-xi, and Chapters 6 and 7 (pp. 117-164)

 

Think Question #1 Due: Read the assignment above and CHOOSE ONE of the following questions:

 

            *Who is the "cruel mother" to whom Klapisch-Zuber refers in her title? And what makes her so cruel?

 

            *Who used wetnurses in Florence and why did this group change after 1450?

9/5

Labor Day: No Class

9/7

Women and Work: The Household Economy

Wiesner, "Women's Economic Role" in Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe, 82-114

 

 

STATE AND HISTORY

 

9/12

Historical Change: "Renaissance"

COURSEPACK: Perry, Chase, Jacob, Von Laue, Western Civilization: Ideas, Politics and Society. Vol. 1: To 1789, 3rd ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1989. pp. 259-281

 

COURSEPACK: McKay, Hill, Buckler, A History of Western Society. Vol. I: From Antiquity to the Enlightenment, Third Edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987, pp. 403-433

Be prepared to discuss the following questions in class:

1) What aspects of the Renaissance appear in both books?

2) How do the two accounts differ?

3) How did the Renaissance affect women?

 

9/14

COURSEPACK: Joan Kelly-Gadol, "Did Women Have a Renaissance?" in Becoming Visible, 2nd edition (Houghton Mifflin, 1987), 175-201

 

Think Question #2 Due: Joan Kelly-Gadol's article asks the question, "Did Women Really Have a Renaissance?"  Based upon your reading of Kelly-Gadol's article and of Western Civilization textbooks, what do you think?

 

9/19

COURSEPACK: Sarah Hanley, "Family and State in Early Modern France: The Marriage Pact," in Connecting Spheres, 53-63

 

9/21

COURSEPACK: Susan Doran, "Elizabeth I" Historian 54 (1997): 10-13

on Elizabeth I

9/26

Mid-Term Review

 

9/28

Mid-Term Exam

 

 

 

SPIRIT AND POWER

 

10/3

Reformations

Wiesner, "Religion," 179-217

10/5

Judith Brown, Immodest Acts, 3-74

 

10/5

(tentative)

12:00-1:15

MMC 204

EXTRA CREDIT: Vancouver and Pullman campuses

Lecture: Merry Weisner-Hanks, “A Renaissance Woman Adrift in the World”

WSU History Graduate Colloquium

Pullman: Wilson 301 and Vancouver: MMC 204.

10/10

Judith Brown, Immodest Acts, 75-142, 158-164

 

10/12

Witchcraft

Wiesner, "Witchcraft," 218-238

COURSEPACK: Kramer, Heinrich and James Sprenger. The Malleus Maleficarum. Translated with Introductions, Bibliography and Notes by Rev. Montague Summers. New York: Dover Publications, 1971. Pages i-iv, 41-48.

 

 

10/17

COURSEPACK: Roper, Lyndal. “Witchcraft and Fantasy in Early Modern Germany.” In Oedipus and the Devil: Witchcraft, Sexuality and Religion in Early Modern Europe. New York and London: Routledge, 1994. Pages 199-225.

 

COURSEPACK: Warnicke, Retha M. “Sexual Heresy.” In The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn. New York and Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989. Pages 191-233, 294-306.

 

COURSEPACK: Geis, Gilbert and Ivan Bunn. “Appendix.” In A Trial of Witches: A Seventeenth-Century Witchcraft Prosecution. New York and London: Routledge, 1997. Pages 212-228.

 

10/19

Think Question # 3 Due: Read all of the above reading assignments (see. p. 8) for class. Be prepared to discuss them all. Then select one of the following questions. Please write the title of the question you select at the top of your paper.

 

1. The Malleus Maleficarum

            Why do the authors of Malleus Maleficarum (first published in 1486) believe that women are especially susceptible to engaging in witchcraft and “superstition”? What are the causes and/or effects of these assertions?

 

2. Roper: “Witchcraft and Fantasy”

            According to historian Lyndal Roper, why were lying-in maids in seventeenth-century Augsburg particularly vulnerable to accusations of witchcraft? Do you find her explanation persuasive?

 

3. Warnicke: “Sexual Heresy”

            According to historian Retha Warnicke, why was Anne Boleyn accused of witchcraft? Do you find her explanation persuasive?

 

4. A Tryal of Witches

            Why do you think the accusers of Amy Duny and Rose Cullender brought charges against the women?

-OR-

 

What role, if any, did skepticism play in the 1664 “Tryal of Witches”?

10/24

Jewish Women

Wiesner, "Literacy and Learning," 117-145

Glückel, Memoirs of Glückel of Hameln, vi-39

 

10/26

Glückel, Memoirs of Glückel of Hameln, 40-145

 

10/31

Glückel, Memoirs of Glückel of Hameln, 146-221

 

11/2

Glückel, Memoirs of Glückel of Hameln, 222-277

 

 

“ENLIGHTENMENT” AND THE MODERN WORLD

 

11/7

Wiesner, "Women and the Creation of Culture," 146-175

11/9

COURSEPACK: Rousseau, Jean-Jacques.  Politics and the Arts: Letter to M. D'Alembert on the Theatre.  Translated by Allan Bloom.  Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1960.  Pages 47-57, 75-92.

 

11/14

Think Question # 4 Due: Why does Jean-Jacques Rousseau object to women's participation in theatre so much?

 

Women and the French Revolution

11/16

COURSEPACK: Declaration of the Rights of Man and of Citizens COURSEPACK: Olympe de Gouges, The Rights of Woman

                       

11/21, 11/23

THANKSGIVING BREAK

 

11/28

Claire de Duras, Ourika, Introduction and Foreword, vii-xxxiii

 

11/30

 

 

12/5

Claire de Duras, Ourika, 1-47

 

12/7

Final Exam Review

 

Wed. 12/14

3:10-6:10 pm

Final Exam

No outside sources (internet, books, etc.). Use only materials from class.