HIS6702 - Special Subject 1

Objectives:

On successful completion of the module, students will be able to:

(1) demonstrate detailed knowledge of a specific period;
(2) demonstrate an understanding of the limitations and advantages of the major primary sources and an ability to use those sources to build and support their own arguments;
(3) demonstrate an understanding of the differing arguments of historians on key themes and an awareness of the current nature of debates;
(4) demonstrate the ability to assess the validity of competing explanations for events and actions.
(5) synthesise, organise and present knowledge and understanding in written form, using the appropriate historical apparatus.

Content:

Two of the following topics will normally be delivered each year. Not all topics are offered each year.

1. Victorian Countryside

The rural population in the Victorian Countryside is examined, with students initially acquiring a context and an understanding of the issues involved. The rise and fall of British agriculture (the repeal of the Corns Law, the period of High farming and the Depression), and the repercussions of these changes on the countryside and its people are charted and considered. Students look at the experience of laborourers, farmers, landowners and the changes and continuities experienced by the communities in which they lived, from the Agricultural Revolution to the First World War. Issues such as: changing work practices, the embourgeoisment of the farmers and their families, and representations of the countryside in art and literature, including its use as a site of leisure, are discussed.

2. Votes for Women 1866 - 1919

This topic concentrates upon the campaign for women’s franchise in Britain. It commences with an overview of the women’s campaign and its wider social and political context for the entire period, asking the questions why the women’s claims were so contentious. The organisation and methods of both non-militant and militant groups are then considered in more detail during the periods 1866-1907, and 1907–1919 as well as the position of the various political parties and parliament. Other factors in why the vote won, including the franchise factor’, changing attitudes towards women, and women and the war, are assessed in the final section.

3. Representations of the Middle Ages, 1750-1900

This topic will examine eighteenth and nineteenth-century representations of the Middle Ages through a variety of media: Pre-Raphaelite paintings and Gothic Revival atchitecture. Gothic and historical novele, romantic poetry, social commentaries, and historical and antiquarian publications. Students will trace and critique the traditional trajectory from Enlightenment rejections of the Middle Ages as a time of barbarism, ignorance and superstition to the Victoria reinterpretation of the medieval period as an age of romance and chivalry, social order or community, religious faith and artistic authenticity. They will examine how valid this interpretation is and explore a range of different uses of the medieval pasts – from the Anglo Saxon period to the fifteenth-century – to express personal crises, religious convictions, political opinions from Tory to Marxist, concern about gender roles, and social and cultural ideals and aspirations.

4. Women in British Society 1500-1700

The important roles held by women in past societies have often been submerged by the more traditional approach of political, religious and economic history. In order to recover the early modern female past it is necessary to study women's place in social history and particularly how they were treated by men, other women and the legislation or conventions of their times. This special subject will look at the role of women in British society with emphasis on their public and private worlds. The approach will be thematic and will include detailed study of themes such as women’s role in society, marriage, childbirth, religion, politics, the civil wars and interregnum, education and culture, women and work, crime and witchcraft.

Learning and Teaching Information:

Seminars/Workshops
Contact hours 75
Number of groups 2

Individual Tuition
Contact hours 20 mins
Number of groups: individual tuition

Other (field work)
Contact hours 5
Number of groups 4

Assessment:

001 Essay 1 x 2000 words (before end of sem 2) 50%
002 Seen source analysis 2000 words (before end sem 2) 50%


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