Studying at York
Heroes and hero-worship in British Culture from the eighteenth to twentieth centuries - Semester 1 - HIS00201H
- Department: History
- Credit value: 20 credits
- Credit level: H
- Academic year of delivery: 2024-25
Module summary
The modules will explore the ways in which heroic reputations were constructed, and the political, social and cultural significance of these reputations in Britain from the later eighteenth to the later twentieth centuries. Admiration for heroic figures like Nelson, David Livingstone, Florence Nightingale and Captain Scott played a key role in mobilising public enthusiasm in support of military, imperia(list), religious or humanitarian causes; in articulating ideals of masculinity (and sometimes femininity); in stimulating a fascination with adventure; and in offering inspiring role models for citizens and new generations to look up to. The cult of heroes was closely linked to Victorian and Edwardian notions of patriotism, of moral character, of religion, gender identity and racial difference.
In analysing the making of heroes and the functioning of heroic cultures, we will be examining the role of ideology, but also the ways in which heroic images and reputations were disseminated, through text, through visual imagery, and through the proliferating mass media (newspapers, film, etc.). Our concern will be with the image and reputation of heroes in their own lifetimes - including their own role in building that image - but also with their ‘afterlives’, the and sometimes contradictory meanings they acquired for later generations - and with how conceptions of heroism were affected by, for example, the mass wars of the twentieth century, and the decline of European empires. Heroic reputations were often contested: we will think also about how heroes were criticised or debunked, and how cultural conceptions of the heroic were challenged. The module will focus especially on hero figures who were active in the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, taking the figures of Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), General Gordon (1833-1885), David Livingstone (1813-1873) and Captain Scott (1868-1912) as our central examples, but these will be placed in a longer context going back to the eighteenth century, and there will be scope to explore a range of other examples.
Module 1 will introduce the study of heroes and heroic cultures generally and will then concentrate principally on Florence Nightingale and General Gordon. Module 2 will expand the field by focusing particularly on the explorer heroes David Livingstone and Captain Scott and on twentieth-century developments.
Related modules
Students taking this module must also take the second part in Semester 2.
Module will run
| Occurrence | Teaching period |
|---|---|
| A | Semester 1 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 1-hour briefing in week 1 and a 3-hour seminar in weeks 2-4, 6-8 and 10-11 of semester 1. Weeks 5 & 9 are Reading and Writing Weeks (RAW). Students prepare for and participate in eight three-hour seminars in all.
Seminar topics are subject to variation, but are likely to include the following:
- Introduction: Concepts and Approaches
- Hanoverian heroes: the late-18th-early 19th century background
- Nineteenth century military heroes
- Florence Nightingale 1: The Crimea
- Florence Nightingale 2: Representations and Images
- Florence Nightingale 3: Afterlives
- General Gordon 1: to Khartoum
- General Gordon 2: Afterlives
Indicative assessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100 |
Special assessment rules
None
Additional assessment information
For formative work, students will produce a text commentary.
The summative assessment will consist of two parts, to be submitted together:
a) Two text commentaries of 500-750 words; and
b) One 1,500-word essay.
The commentaries comprise 50% and the essay 50% of the overall mark for this module. Summative assessments will be due in the assessment period.
Indicative reassessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100 |
Module feedback
Following their formative task, students will typically receive written feedback that will include comments and a mark within 10 working days of submission.
Work will be returned to students in their seminars and may be supplemented by the tutor giving some oral feedback to the whole group. All students are encouraged, if they wish, to discuss the feedback on their formative work during 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. The tutor will then be available during student hours for follow-up guidance if required. 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:
- Max Jones, “What should historians do with heroes? Reflections on nineteenth and twentieth-century Britain,” History Compass 5, no. 2 (2007).
- Barbara Korte, “On heroes and hero-worship: regimes of emotional investment in mid-Victorian popular magazines”, Victorian Periodicals Review 49, no. 2 (2016).
- Joanna Lewis, Empire of Sentiment: the Death of Livingstone and the Myth of Victorian Imperialism (2018)