T

he Medieval and Renaissance program, an interdisciplinary program at the University of Virginia, is intended for students intrigued by the cultural forms of the past and the varied perspectives they offer on cultural forms of the present. Participants in the program will be encouraged not only to pursue their own interests in English (and European) literature from the centuries between the writing of Beowulf and the publication of Paradise Lost, but also to delve into the social, historical, and intellectual contexts of the literature of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

Students who wish to apply to the program should do so at the end of their second year, although some students may be admitted in their fifth semester.

Participants in the Medieval and Renaissance Area Program must:

1. Take at least 30 hours of English courses including ENGL 382 and 383. ENGL 381 is encouraged, but not required: it is assumed that students can judge whether they need to supplement the program's core seminar with the general survey.

2. Take ENRN 483, the core seminar in Medieval and Renaissance studies, ideally in the Fall of the third year. The seminar can help to establish close working relationships among various members of the program; it should also help to focus and orient your work in relation to various interpretive "schools," basic methods and tools of research, broad historical trends, and traditional patterns and themes in a wide range of genres and media.

3. Take at least three other courses in the ENMD or ENRN areas (literature written before 1700). At least one of these courses should be at the 400-level.

4. Take nine hours of coursework outside the department in areas which will complement and inform your Medieval/Renaissance literary studies. The director of the program will help you determine which courses in history, art history, classics, religious studies, philosophy, European literatures in translation etc. would be particularly relevant to your interests.

5. We strongly encourage students in the Medieval and Renaissance program to work on an independent study project (ENGL 493 or 494), or, if they are qualified, to consolidate their work within this field by writing a thesis in the Distinguished Majors Program (ENGL 491 and 492).

Students admitted to this program may count twelve hours of ENRN courses towards their 30 hours of coursework for the English major.