2023-2024 Academic Catalog

HI 304 Reformation in the Age of Exploration

Arts & Letters-History. This is a stacked class, offered at both the 200-level and the 300-level. All students will attend the regular class meetings. Students enrolled in this course at the 300-level will have the additional requirements. HI 304 - Description Two Reformations, one Protestant the other Catholic, a host of explorers, often behaving badly when viewed through our 21st century lens, and the daily life of ordinary people in the early modern age occupy our study this semester. More than just the reforms of Martin Luther and the travails of Christopher Columbus, this course looks critical and analytically, and at times even with great humor, at the people, events, ideas, values, cultures, and perspectives of this turbulent and fascinating time in history. We will consider carefully topics including the body and the spirit, sex and gender, the plight of the poor, and of course witchcraft. . We will venture beyond the confines of Europe in an attempt ascertain what might be learned about both the "discovered" and the "discoverer" from a wide array of travel narratives. We will consider the use of maps as both ideological statements and navigational tools, and we will conduct our own search for the elusive Prester John. Monopods, Atlantic Flying Fish, and a Ninety-Five Theses are sure to remind us that we are not in the Renaissance anymore. Cross listed with HI 206 - students may not get credit for one course if they have taken the other.

Credits

3

Distribution

HIS

Offered

At the Discretion of the Dept