Studying at York
Gender in Eighteenth-Century Britain - Semester 2 - HIS00134H
- Department: History
- Credit value: 20 credits
- Credit level: H
- Academic year of delivery: 2024-25
Module summary
In a century that witnessed the rise of a so-called ‘public sphere’ of ‘rational men’ in its opening decades and the publication of ‘feminist’ tracts at its close, how was gender perceived and portrayed and how did that change over the course of the century? Examining visual, textual and material representations from the long eighteenth century (c.1688-1832), this course explores contemporary ideas of masculinity, femininity and sexuality. It pays particular attention to the (often conflicting) ways in which women and men were represented and the ways they represented themselves. Who was the ‘ideal’ man and ‘ideal’ woman and who normalised or challenged those ideals? How inclusive or exclusive were eighteenth-century British societies of people of different ages, backgrounds and identities and what role did ideas of gender play in those histories of acceptance and exclusion? The course is structured to guide students through a large and still growing historiography, while also focusing on particular case studies to explore the extensive primary source materials available both online and within the university’s archival and library collections.
Related modules
Students taking this module must also take the first part in Semester 1.
Module will run
| Occurrence | Teaching period |
|---|---|
| A | Semester 2 2024-25 |
Module aims
The aims of this module are:
- To introduce students to in depth study of a specific historical topic using primary and secondary material;
- To enable students to explore the topic through discussion and writing; and
- To enable students to evaluate and analyse primary sources.
Module learning outcomes
Students who complete this module successfully will:
- Grasp key themes, issues and debates relevant to the topic being studied;
- Have acquired knowledge and understanding about that topic;
- Be able to comment on and analyse original sources;
- Be able to relate the primary and secondary material to one another; and
- Have acquired skills and confidence in close reading and discussion of texts and debates.
Module content
Students will attend a 3-hour seminar in weeks 2-4, 6-8 and 10-11 of semester 2. Weeks 5 & 9 are Reading and Writing Weeks (RAW). Students prepare for and participate in eight three-hour seminars in all. A one-to-one meeting between tutor and students will also be held to discuss assessments.
Seminar topics are subject to variation, but are likely to include the following:
- Theatre and gendered identities
- Histories and representations of the celebrity actor and actress
- Fine art and portraiture: painting an ideal
- Histories and representations of the celebrity artist
- Masculinity and Femininity in print - novels, newspapers and periodicals
- Secret comments: men and women’s manuscript writing and spoken words
- Politics and gender
- Gender, material culture and fashion
Indicative assessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100 |
Special assessment rules
None
Additional assessment information
For formative assessment, students submit an essay draft of 2000-words.
For summative assessment, students complete a 4000-word essay relating to the themes and issues of the module. This comprises 100% of the overall module mark. Summative assessments will be due in the assessment period.
Indicative reassessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100 |
Module feedback
Following their formative assessment task, students will receive a one-to-one meeting with the tutor to discuss the essay and their plans for the assessed essay.
Work will be returned to students with written comments in their tutorial and may be supplemented by the tutor giving some oral feedback to the whole group. All students are encouraged, if they wish, to make use of their tutor’s student hours. For more information, see the Statement on Feedback.
For summative assessment tasks, students will receive their provisional mark and written feedback within 25 working days of the submission deadline. For more information, see the Statement of Assessment.
Indicative reading
For semester time reading, please refer to the module VLE site. Before the course starts, we encourage you to look at the following items of preliminary reading:
- Anon, The Woman of Colour: A Tale (1808) - see new edition edited by Lyndon J Dominique (Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview, 2007).
- H. Barker and E. Chalus, Gender in Eighteenth-Century England: Roles, Representations and Responsibilities (London: Routledge, first published 1997, new edition 2014).
- L. Nochlin ‘Why have there been no great women artists?’ in A. Jones (ed.), The Feminism and Visual Culture Reader (London: Routledge, 2003), chapter 26.