MA in Celtic Studies

Module Descriptor - Women in the Middle Ages: Sources from the Celtic Regions

Department: Welsh
Module Code: MAAC0420
Level: postgraduate
No of Credits: 20
Methods of assessment: one essay (of approximately 5,000 words)
Teaching Method(s):distance learning (web-based course), email tutorials and directed learning
Pre-requisite(s): none
Co-requisite(s): none
Incompatibles: none
Medium: Taught through the medium of English or Welsh
Contact hours : n/a
Term taught: Flexible enrolment
Lecturers: Dr Elisa Moras and Dr Jane Cartwright

Syllabus:

This module will examine the lives and roles of women in the Middle Ages in the Celtic regions. The module will begin by considering women's role in Celtic heroic poetry, paying particular attention to the Gododdin , early Welsh saga poetry and the theme of sovereignty in early Irish literature. This will be followed by a study of Celtic medieval court poetry for women, which will also be considered in its European context. The module will then explore women's cultural contribution to medieval life, as patrons and poets (such as Gwerful Mechain), and will examine women's status under the law of Hywel Dda and early Irish law. The role women played in religious life will also be considered via a study of the extant historical sources for nunneries in Wales , Ireland and Scotland .

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module students will have become familiar with the historical, literary and legal sources regarding women in the Middle Ages in the Celtic regions. The student will be able to access and assess relevant primary and secondary sources, and critically evaluate the source material. The student will also have gained an understanding of Celtic women in the Middle Ages within a social, religious and economic context.

Transferable and other skills involved

This module, as with any postgraduate module, will develop critical skills at a postgraduate level: these are chiefly the ability to do independent research, to form and present critical arguments.

While this module does not concentrate specifically on internet skills, it presents the opportunity to use, and to assess, internet sources in the pursuit of high-level academic research and writing.

Select bibliography

• Davies, Sioned, ‘Y ferch yng Nghymru yn yr Oesoedd Canol', Cof Cenedl 9 (1994), 1-32.
• Cowan, I. B. and Easson, D. E., Medieval Religious Houses: Scotland ( London , 1976).
• Easson, D. E., ‘The nunneries of medieval Scotland ', Scottish Ecclesiological Transactions 13 (1940-41), 22-38.
• Fulton, Helen, ‘Medieval Welsh poems to nuns', Cambridge Medieval Celtic Studies 21 (1991), 87-112.
• Jenkins, Dafydd and Morfydd E. Owen (eds), The Welsh Law of Women ( Cardiff , 1980).
• Mac Cana, Proinsias, ‘Theme of king and goddess in Irish literature', Études Celtiques , 7 (1955-6), pp. 76-114, 356-413; 8, (1958-9) pp. 59-65.
• McCash, June Hall (ed), The Cultural Patronage of Medieval Women ( Georgia , 1996).
• Meek, Christine and Simms, Katherine (eds), ‘The Fragility of Her Sex'? Medieval Irishwomen in Their European Context ( Dublin , 1996).
• Moras, Elisa, ‘Nawdd gan Ferched yng Nghymru yn yr Oesoedd Canol', Llên Cymru (2005), forthcoming.
• Rowland, Jenny, Early Welsh Saga Poetry ( Cambridge , 1990).

Evaluation

Module evaluation questionnaires are distributed to students towards the end of the course. The curriculum is also discussed at termly meetings of the Staff-Student Consultative Committee and e-learning students are invited to submit comments to the Director of E-learning via email prior to the meetings. The course is also subject to annual reports by the External Examiner and periodic review by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education.