Topics in Medieval Literature will examine select literary movements, authors, and ideas with an eye to the formal features of texts as well as the social, historical, and political contexts in which they appear. The course will approach the canon for this period not as a fixed entity but as a body of work consistently open to reevaluation and critique; alternative texts, voices, and subject positions relevant to the topic(s) will be included. As a means of understanding the literature of the period, the course may focus on a literary genre or convention (e.g., epic, romance) or an important theme (e.g., chivalric and warrior codes, heresy and devotion, impermanence, erotic love). Each semester individual instructors will anchor the course in specific sub-topics, primary texts, cultures, historical moments, etc., depending on their own areas of specialization.