CONN 243 | Love and Violence in the Middle Ages

How do love and violence interact in secular and religious literature from the 10th to the 14th centuries? We will examine the ideal of courtly love in love poetry, depictions of marital violence in epic poetry and` instances in which love of God inspires or justifies violence, especially sadism and masochism. With each text we will ask how love engenders, justifies, or resists violence. Throughout the semester, we will also interrogate our own positionality, specifically how love and violence in a medieval context `read¿ in the modern era, including insights from the #metoo movement.