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Books and Readers in Early Modern Germany | The Richard Koebner Minerva Center for German History

Courses

The following courses are offered by Prof. affiliated with the Koebner Minerva Center. 

Books and Readers in Early Modern Germany

Aya Elyada
39340

Course Aims:

The Protestant Reformation, which brought about a new religious order in Europe from the 16th century onward, had profound implications also for the social, cultural, and political order in the early modern period, and for the power-relations between different social groups. The course will explore the influence of the Reformation on the attitudes toward women and on the power-relations between the genders in the Protestant territories, especially in the German-speaking lands. We shall discuss, for example, the attitudes of Luther and other Reformers toward women and their role in the Protestant social order; representations of women and womanhood in the popular culture of the time; gender-related aspects of the witch-hunt during the 16th and 17th centuries; and various forms of "feminine" crime, such as prostitution, fornication, and abortions.

On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
- Explain the main principles and assumptions underlying the field of the history of women and gender
- Describe the status of women and the attitudes toward them in Europe on the eve of the Reformation
- Discuss the attitudes of Reformers toward women and gender questions
- Assess the impact of the Reformation on the lives of women in 16th-century Germany
- Discuss the responses of women to the Reformation and assess the differences between them and the responses of men
- Analyze historical documents
- Discuss items of research literature and identify their main arguments
- Write an independent research paper in the field of women and gender in early modern Germany

 

Semester: 
Yearly
Offered: 
2017