The period from c.1450 to c.1700 witnessed the emergence of a range of remarkable and remarkably sophisticated creations in many genres (both visual and textual). Traditionally, this has been given the label of ’The Renaissance’ and regarded as the origin of ‘modernity’ in its various guises: such as the emergence of individualism, of religious scepticism, realpolitik and of the science of history itself. However, in this module such teleological narratives are eschewed in favour of less crudely evolutionary accounts that give due emphasis to what thinkers, writers and artists actually thought they were trying to achieve (as far, of course, as the evidence allows). This core module, taught each year by a selection of colleagues from several of the constituent departments of the faculty of arts and humanities, which include: Archaeology, English, History, History of Art, Music, Philosophy, Politics, and Theatre, Film and Television, offers a distinctive, exciting and exacting multi-disciplinary exploration of Renaissance and Early Modern Culture and Literature. Seminars draw upon and develop problems and ideas that fascinated writers, artists, and thinkers of the period, and are again at the cutting edge of research today.
On this module, students gain experience in working with diverse sources ranging from music manuscripts to paintings and from political theory to travel narratives. Students taking the course become familiar with a wide range of scholarly and methodological perspectives, and examine the strengths, weaknesses and possibilities of different ways of reading, interpreting and analysing texts and other sources from the period.
In the process, students develop their skills in source analysis and evaluation of secondary literature relevant to this broad range of material and gain an appreciation of the possibilities of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary analyses of the period, which will enrich future study and dissertation work.
Occurrence | Teaching period |
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A | Autumn Term 2022-23 |
Students who take this module will:
Students who complete this module successfully should:
Teaching Programme:
Students will attend eight weekly two-hour seminars in weeks 2-9.
The seminar programme may include the following themes (but not necessarily in this exact order):
Task | % of module mark |
---|---|
Essay/coursework | 100 |
None
Students will complete a 2,000 word essay for formative assessment, due in week 6, for which they will receive an individual tutorial.
Students taking the module as a core module will submit a 4,000 word assessed essay in week 10 of the autumn term. For those taking the module as an option module, a 4,000 word assessed essay will be due in week 2 of the spring term.
For further details about assessed work, students should refer to the Statement of Assessment for Taught Postgraduate Programmes.
Task | % of module mark |
---|---|
Essay/coursework | 100 |
Following their formative assessment, students will receive oral feedback at a one-to-one meeting with their tutor and written feedback consisting of comments and a mark within 10 working days of submission. Tutors are also available in their student hours to discuss formative assessment. For more information, see the Statement on Feedback.
For the summative assessment task, students will receive their provisional mark and written feedback within 20 working days of the submission deadline. The tutor will then be available during student hours for follow-up guidance if required. For more information, see the Statement of Assessment.
For term time reading, please refer to the module VLE site. Before the module starts, we encourage you to look at the following items of preliminary reading:
McKitterick, D. Print, manuscript and the search for order. Cambridge University Press, 2005 pbk
Marshall, Peter ed. The Oxford Illustrated history of the Reformation. Oxford University Press, 2017 pbk.
Greene, Roland. Five words: critical semantics in the age of Shakespeare and Cervantes. Chicago University Press, 2013.
Nandini Das, João Vicente Melo; Haig Smith and Lauren Working. Keywords of Identity, Race, and Human Mobility in Early Modern England. Amsterdam University Press 2021