Society and Culture in Britain, 1560-1640 (ES0034)

? Credit Points : 40 ? SCQF Level : 10 ? Acronym : HCA-3-S&C

The course is taught over two semesters in 48 class hours, made up of twice weekly 1.5 hour sessions over 16 weeks. The first session of each week is a relatively informal lecture and the second is based on a short student presentation followed by discussion. The course is concerned with popular mentalities, beliefs and attitudes in England and Scotland in the later sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Its aim is to examine the ways in which ordinary men and women lived their lives and conceived of their world. Though concerned with a study of society in the round, the main focus is on the experience of those people below the level of the wealthy and educated elite yeomen and husbandmen, craftsmen and women, tradespeople and artisans, labourers and paupers. The importance of political and economic processes in determining the structure of society is stressed, but the main concern will be with cultural life, that is the thoughts, feelings and values of people as well as their artefacts, rituals and utterances.

Entry Requirements

? Pre-requisites : Visiting students should normally have 3 to 4 History courses at Grade B or above.

Subject Areas

Home subject area

Economic and Social History, (School of History, Classics and Archaeology, Schedule E)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : 3rd year

? Delivery Period : Not being delivered

? Contact Teaching Time : 3 hour(s) per week for 16 weeks

All of the following classes

Type	Day	Start	End	Area
Lecture	Monday	14:00	15:50	Central
Lecture	Thursday	14:00	15:50	Central

? Additional Class Information : Sessions run 2-3.30pm, not standard teaching period

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

- At the end of the course, students should have a strong understanding of the early modern period as a formative and crucial one in shaping some of the developments with which they may be familiar from their study of later centuries.
- Students will gain an appreciation of the ways in which, and with what success, historians have reconstructed the experience of that majority of the population below the level of the social elite at a time when few of them had the ability to record their thoughts and feelings directly.
- Students will have been encouraged to consider some of the issues and the methods which currently concern historians of culture and which are now at the leading edge of research and writing.
- Student-led seminars are intended to develop the presentation and verbal skills of participating students.
- Written assignments are intended to develop the literary skills of students and their ability to construct coherent argument and analysis.

Assessment Information

Two essays of 3000 words (one per semester), the average of which will count as 25% of the final assessment.

One three-hour degree exam which will count as 75% of the final assessment.