HIS 409 The Middle Ages in Film

This course will explore several themes within Hollywood’s sustained fascination with the Middle Ages and the symbols, values and individuals that have come to represent it. Part of the course objective is to differentiate fact from fiction in the movies and to understand how subjectivity, bias, and manipulation enter into the history portrayed on the silver screen. To this end, we will analyze and assess the modern understanding and perceptions of the Middle Ages, created largely by inaccuracies, anachronisms, omissions or distortions of Hollywood’s lens. This course will also examine the contemporary circumstances that influenced Hollywood’s changing depictions of the Middle Ages.

3 credit hours
Satisfies Constellation - Media & Popular Culture for “Generation Next”