HST2107 - The Myth of Venice

20 credits (Semester 1)

Module Leader: Dr James Shaw (2024-25)

Module Summary

Historians typically debunk fabrications, but myths can themselves be the focus of historical study. During this module you will explore the Myth of Venice, its production, diffusion, and reception. On the one hand, Venice was celebrated as the ideal republican government, a bulwark in defence of Christendom, but it was also the city of state terror, secret police, and seductive ‘oriental’ luxury, famous for its libertine pleasures. The course also considers how these myths have endured and influenced the academic writing of Venetian history, as a city that was somehow unique and ‘outside time’.

Across the module you will examine a wide variety of sources relating to the myth, and develop the skills required for their interpretation, including descriptions of the city by Venetians and foreigners; political tracts, histories and satire; paintings, sculpture and architecture; theatre and literature. (All sources are provided in English translation.) The close focus on a single city allows us to cover a broad period of time, from the leading centre of Mediterranean trade in the fifteenth century, to a growing sense of the city as a centre of tourism and idle pleasure in the eighteenth century, to the city as a symbol of a romantic past in the revolutionary era of the nineteenth century.

Throughout the module a lot of emphasis will be placed on interactive learning activities. During the lecture workshops, you will engage with materials through interactive exercises. In the seminars, you will be asked to take responsibility as part of a small team for leading the learning activities. As well as having the potential for being a lot of fun, this is also important for developing key transferable skills - my past students have commented how useful they found this for their development and how much they enjoyed doing it.

Teaching and Assessment

Teaching is through weekly lectures and seminars. Attendance at both is expected. The lectures will be recorded but, trust me, it’s never as good on a screen.

For the seminar, please make sure you do the Required Preparatory Reading (usually one or two articles and one primary source) in advance. I’ll provide copies of the primary sources. You can assume that articles are available online via STAR and that books are not, unless I’ve indicated otherwise.

When doing the reading, please do it ‘actively’. For the sources, ask yourself: what can we glean from them about eleventh-century Europe? For the historiography, ask yourself: what is the historian arguing? What sources are they relying upon? How does the article relate to other reading you’ve done on the course?

Assessment

Please see this page for assessment details: Level 2 assessment

Background Reading