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30 credits, Semester one
Module leader 2022-23: Phil Withington
Module summary
Module summary
This core module involves a critical analysis of the many ways in which assumptions about the characteristics of 'pre-modern' and 'modern' cultures and societies have shaped historians' approaches to the early modern period. A series of seminars will introduce you to themes and topics in early modern history, focusing on issues of 'individuality' and 'self-hood' in the early modern period. The sources for writing early modern history will be a complementary focus of the module, which will also introduce you to the technical and methodological problems associated with the effective use and interpretation of a range of pre-modern sources.
Learning outcomes
Learning outcomes
By the end of the module, you will be able to:
Recognise and be aware of the distinctive presuppositions that underlie historical writing on the early modern period and the notion of ‘early modernity’
Recognise the contribution made by other academic disciplines to the recent study of early modern politics, culture and society
Identify and engage critically with historiographical debates about the early modern period
Elaborate and defend an intellectual position to other members of the seminar group, presenting complex scholarly arguments succinctly and accurately
Present conclusions in a fluent written form, demonstrating a mastery of bibliographical materials (including electronic resources) referencing your sources appropriately
Evaluate a range of early modern primary sources, including material culture, employing appropriate analytical techniques and theoretical approaches
Speak confidently, using technical language, when discussing early-modern sources of different types and using them to support scholarly argument
Learning and teaching methods
Learning and teaching methods
This module will be taught in ten two-hour seminar classes. This includes:
1. a series of content-specific seminars, looking at a range of historical topics, issues, and problems that take you through a particular historical period (in this case, the early modern period), providing both an introduction to the advanced study of the period and the historical and historiographical context from which to undertake practice-based research.
2. a series of source-criticism seminars, each of which will concentrate on a specific type or genre of source material and will both examine particular examples and discuss general interpretative problems.
You will be set preparatory reading in advance for all seminars and will be expected to share your knowledge of historiographical developments, debate controversial topics and listen and respond to the views of others in a structured environment.
In addition, you will attend regular individual tutorials, in which you will identify topics for written papers, develop your reading around these topics, and discuss the structure and content of your written work. Feedback on submitted work is again given in individual tutorials.
Assessment methods
Assessment methods
Assessment type - % of final mark
Essay (4000 words) - 80%
Engagement and participation - 20%
You will complete a 4000 word essay and an engagement and participation exercise based on engagement in the learning activities and environment for the module. The essay will relate to at least one of the key concepts or themes of the module. It should demonstrate an advanced understanding of and critical engagement with current historiography, and advanced skills in the use of sources.
The engagement and participation exercise will be set by the module convenor and may assess your overall participation across the module (for example assessing your preparedness and participation) or may involve specific short tasks (for example presentations, reflective seminar diaries, contributions to discussion forums or collaborative documents).
You will also complete a formative assessment in advance of the final essay (LOs 1,2,3,5,7).
Additional learning and teaching information
Additional learning and teaching information
Selected reading:
For your own preparation, and as an introduction into some of the themes of the module, you can read relevant sections of standard textbooks on early modern British and European history (e.g. Beat Kumin (ed.), The European World 1500-1800 (2nd edn, Routledge, 2014). In addition, for an introduction to the theme of 'selfhood', try beginning with Roy Porter (ed.), Rewriting the self: histories from the Renaissance to the present (Routledge, 1997).
We also recommend that you engage with any of the readings below, which are relevant for a number of topics in the module. Try beginning with those which are most pertinent to your own interests.
Peter Lake and Steven Pincus (eds.), The Politics of the Public Sphere in Early Modern England (Manchester, 2008)
Craig Muldrew, 'From a 'Light Cloak' to the 'Iron Cage': An Essay on Historical Changes in the Relationship between Community and Individualism' in Alex Shepard and Phil Withington (eds.), Communities in Early Modern England (Manchester, 2000), pp. 156-79.
Dorinda Outram, The Enlightenment (Cambridge, 1995)
Michael T. Ryan, ‘Assimilating New Worlds in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries’, Comparative Studies in Society and History 23.4 (October 1981), pp. 519-38
Carol Symes, 'When We Talk about Modernity', American Historical Review 116, no. 3 (2011).
Dror Wahrman, The Making of the Modern Self: Identity and Culture in Eighteenth-Century England, (Yale University Press, 2004), esp. pp. xi-xviii, 166-97, 265-321. [The chapter "The ancien régime of identity", pp.166-197 is available as an e-offprint]
Phil Withington, Society in Early Modern England. The Vernacular Origins of Some Powerful Ideas (Cambridge, Polity, 2010), especially ‘The Sociable Self’
Jonathan Wright, ‘The World’s Worst Worm: Conscience and Conformity during the English Reformation’, Sixteenth Century Journal 30/1 (Spring, 1999), pp. 113-133.
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