This is an important assignment.
Most of what students find difficult about medieval literature and culture comes ultimately from its relative difference from our own time.
A lot of that difference is due to the fact that the same words were used in a difference sense in the Middle Ages, with different meanings, than they are today.
Please make sure you listen to my talks on "The Medieval World View" in three parts.
Make sure you take notes. You are not going to be able to remember all of this.
First, download each of the lectures by RIGHT-clicking on these links: Part 1; Part 2; Part 3.
Then you can listen to them on your hard drive.
NOTE: To play these files, you should download the free VLC player. (You can also use the free RealMedia player, and other programs may also work).
Go here to download the free VLC player, at the bottom of the page. Choose the correct Operating System for your computer. Run the "install" program.
(If you don't know how to install a program, as a friend who knows computers. Everybody has a friend who is a real computer geek, and you don't need to be -- you just need to know how to download and run an install program.)
Be sure to refer to the handouts/web pages that accompany these lectures, The Social Hierarchy; The Universal Hierarchy; and the Ptolemaic Theory of the Universe. These are also linked at the top of the HW page.
Please write 350 words about the major DIFFERENCES you see between Medieval ways of thinking and ways of thinking we use today. Email to me with proper subject line and in proper format.