History of the Middle Ages (Culture and Mentalities)
Courses
Cod: 31038
Department: DCSG
ECTS: 6
Scientific area: History
Total working hours: 156
Total contact time: 15

This course unit offers students a diachronic perspective of medieval culture in correlation with the contemporary mentality. The course unit will discuss the various different dimensions of clerical, court and popular culture which feature the knowledge and mentality of the medieval man.
It will also introduce knowledge as a form of power, its protagonists and detractors, as well as their influence in the various spheres of knowledge.

• Recognising the role of cultural phenomena and practices in society;
• Understanding the importance of the study of History of Culture and Mentalities for a critical analysis of the task of history;
• Questioning the main cultural reasons existing in Middle Ages.

1. The incorporation of the classical cultural heritage in Christian society;
2. The rural Christians and the court;
3. Renovation and modernity in the ‘renaissances’ of the 12th and 13th centuries;
4. Consolidation and cultural debate in the Early Middle Ages.

A. J. SARAIVA, O Crepúsculo da Idade Média em Portugal, 5ª ed., Lisboa, Gradiva, 1998.
Reference books:
A.J. SARAIVA, A Cultura em Portugal, vol. I, Lisboa, Gradiva, 1994.
A.J. SARAIVA, A Cultura em Portugal, vol. II, Lisboa, Gradiva, 1991.

Online learning with continuous supervision favoring asynchronous communication (Moodle platform).
Students have to perform the tasks requested by the teacher: essays, critical recensions, reports, protocols, etc. All works will be evaluated and/or classified.

Continuous assessment is privileged: 2 or 3 digital written documents (e-folios) during the semester (40%) and a presence-based final exam (p-folio) in the end of the semester (60%).
In due time, students can alternatively choose to perform one final presence-based exam (100%).

Students are required to have access to a computer with Internet connection and an e-mail address as well as to have computer literacy from the users' perspective.