Module: HIS6106-20 Society, Culture and Consumption 1700-1900

Credit Value: 20

Module Tutor: Jackie Collier

Module Tutor Contact Details: j.collier2@bathspa.ac.uk

1. Brief description and aims of module:

This module provides you with an introduction to the history of consumption and considers the social, cultural and historical implications of the development of ‘consumer culture’ in Britain between c.1700-1900. Within the contexts of industrialisation, the growth of capitalism, sweeping social transformation and the expansion of the British Empire it will trace the social and cultural development of leisure and consumer practices from the influence of the Grand Tour - at its zenith during the eighteenth century - through to the commercialisation of leisure and the birth of sport as a profession by the end of the nineteenth century. It will consider material culture through topics such as shopping and the impact of new ‘exotic’ goods on the consumer and the home, fashion and luxury and manifestations of status through improvement and taste. The transformation of leisure will also be examined by considering the development of diverse activities such as reading, theatre-going and sport as well as an exploration of the ‘social evils’ of gambling, drinking and prostitution. These connected histories will be analysed through the categories of gender, class, and race and will take into account concepts such as popular culture versus elite culture, and public versus private life. The module will also provide you with an understanding of the theories and historiography of British leisure and consumption in this period through an analysis of secondary material and traditional forms of primary material (official documents, newspapers, tracts and pamphlets, biographies, autobiographies and letters, etc.) but also through the analysis of literary and visual sources.

2.Outline syllabus:

We will explore a selection of topics from the following themes, using a series of introductory seminars and readings to set the scene for more detailed analysis:

• A Consumer Revolution?

• Consumption and the World of Goods/Industrialisation

• Theories of Consumption

• Colonial Desires - Cotton:’ Exotic’ and Imitation/Sugar: Rights and Wrongs

• Travel and the Grand Tour/ Gardens and the Country House

• Consumption and Gender: Tea, Coffee and Chocolate/Household Accounting

• Consumption and Class: Shopping/Luxury/The Second-Hand Trade

• The Great Exhibition/Advertising and Imperialism

• The Seduction of the Department Store: Women and Kleptomania

• Theories of Leisure/Creating Leisure

• Sport/18th Century

• Sport/ 19th Century

• Excess and Temptation/Drink, Drugs, Gambling and Prostitution

• John Johnson Collection/Victorian Popular Culture Databases: Theatre; London ‘Play’ Places; Menageries; Circuses; Concerts; Exhibitions; Human Freaks; Magic and Mystery; Museums and Waxworks.

• The Cult of Reading

• Bath and the Urban Renaissance/Blackpool and the Annual Break

3.Teaching and learning activities:

We will use set readings and occasional lectures to introduce key topics, which will be explored in greater depth in seminar workshops, including through the use of a wide range of primary sources and digital interfaces. You will be expected to engage independently with a wide selection of primary and secondary source materials, including the historic house and museum collections and discuss your findings in student led workshops.

Tutorials to discuss and feedback formative assignments will also be available.

Assessment Item 1:

• Assessment Type: CW

• Description: Essay (2,000 words)

• % Weighting: 40

Assessment Item 2:

• Assessment Type: CW

• Description: Research Project (3,000 words)

• % Weighting: 60