WiSe 13/14: S-Culture-Gender-Media II: A Social and Cultural History of Early Modern England (1550-1760)
Peter Krahé
Comments
The early modern age covers the two centuries roughly between 1550 and 1760. Against the background of a broad working definition of culture, this course will present an introduction to the forces and institutions that shaped England between the age of the Tudors and the advent of the Industrial Revolution during the last third of the 18th century. Special emphasis will be laid on a variety of aspects of social and cultural history as well as changes of mentality in this period of transition. Themes to be dealt with in depth will include: patterns and developments of population, family life and gender roles, towns and villages, the growth of the state, social hierarchy and social mobility, religion and superstition, education and literacy, élite and popular culture.
Participants will have to meet the usual requirements. Regular attendance and a presentation in class are obligatory. Since all preliminary work will have to be sorted in the first week of the semester, prospective participants are expected to be present at the first session. In compliance with BA regulations, classes will be conducted in English. Assessment will be on the basis of regular attendance and the submission of a 4,000-word essay.
Please feel free to have a look at the following standard books:
Hibbert, Christopher, The English. A Social History 1066-1945, London 1988. Laurence, Anne, Women in England 1500-1760. A Social History, London, repr. 1996. Sharpe, J.A., Early Modern England. A Social History 1550-1760, London, 2nd ed. 1997. The New Oxford Book of Seventeenth-Century Verse, ed. by Alastair Fowler, Oxford, repr. 1992. close16 Class schedule
Regular appointments