Postgraduate Course: Eighteenth Century Cultural History 1 (PGHC11372)
Course Outline
| School | School of History, Classics and Archaeology |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | The MSc in Eighteenth-Century Cultures aims to deliver the academic, practical, and archival training required to undertake graduate-level research in eighteenth-century cultural history. This first yet independent part of the programme¿s core course responds to recent developments in eighteenth-century historical scholarship by focussing on the textual, visual, and material elements of individual and social creative expression (rather than, say, purely intellectual achievements) of the "age of improvement" that extended beyond the Scottish Enlightenment. It can be taken by MSc students within or outside the programme in Eighteenth-Century Cultures. |
| Course description |
In 2011 the University of Edinburgh marked the tercentenary of the birth of its great alumnus David Hume (1711-76). In July, scholars from across the Humanities and around the world met in Old College to celebrate this event. Meanwhile, Edinburgh's eighteenth century libraries, museums, galleries, royal colleges, and Royal Society, held commemorative exhibitions. Visiting speakers and local students, curatorial organisers and a keynote Nobel laureate, voiced their agreement: the great achievements of the Scottish Enlightenment can only be appreciated through study of the cultural life of Edinburgh across the eighteenth century, in the global context that emerged through the expanding British empire. Developed in the spirit of these tercentenary events, both parts of this course will examine textual, visual, and material expressions of "the age of improvement", in the contexts of its critical historiography. Pedagogically, the course combines 'in-house' seminar-style teaching by local experts in the history, literature, and art history of the period, with practical 'on-site' training modules and held at major neighbouring repositories of Scottish art and historical documents. Its view of the century extends through the long eighteenth century (i.e., from c.1688 to 1832). While it will examine cultural developments in England, Scotland, and the empire, it will do so from a cosmopolitan Scottish perspective, befitting its location.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate, through seminar discussion, an in-class presentation, and 3000-word research paper, a detailed and critical command of knowledge and scholarship concerning the development of eighteenth century culture, principally but not exclusively in Britain, from a cosmopolitan Scottish perspective
- Demonstrate, through seminar discussion, an in-class presentation, and 3000-word research paper, an ability to analyse and reflect critically upon relevant scholarship concerning eighteenth-century culture. This will include a selection of primary sources¿ including textual and visual sources¿that document this field. Students will also demonstrate a meaningful understanding of conceptual debates concerning the "rise" of cultural history in the West
- Demonstrate, principally through seminar participation and the written submissions, an ability to understand and apply specialised research or professional skills, techniques and practices considered in the course. These will be outlined and demonstrated during curatorial visits to various visual and archival repositories
- Demonstrate the ability to develop and sustain original scholarly arguments in oral and written form, by independently formulating appropriate questions and utilising relevant evidence considered in the course
- Demonstrate originality and independence of mind and initiative; intellectual integrity and maturity; an ability to evaluate the work of others, including peers; and a considerable degree of autonomy
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Reading List
Burke, P. What Is Cultural History? (Cambridge: Polity, 2004)
Anon, "Britain," Encyclopedia Britannica, ed. W. Smellie et al, (1771 edn).\
Allan, D. Virtue, Learning, and the Scottish Enlightenment (Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 1993)
Jordanova, L. Defining Features: Scientific and Medical Portraits, (London, 2000)
B. Benedict, "The 'Curious Attitude' in Eighteenth-Century Britain: Observing and Owning," Eighteenth-Century Life 14 (1990) 59-98
Berg, M. "New Commodities, Luxuries, and their Consumers in Eighteenth-Century England," Consumers and Luxury: Consumer Culture in Europe: 1650-1850, eds. M. Berg and H. Clifford (Manchester: Manchester UP, 1999) 63-86
West, S. "Libertinism and the Ideology of Male Friendship in the Portraits of the Dilettanti," Eighteenth Century Life 16 (May 1992) 76-104
Alasdair Raffe, 'Presbyterians and episcopalians: the formation of confessional cultures in Scotland, 1660¿1715', English Historical Review, 125 (2010), 570¿98
William Smart, A Short Discourse (after Sermon) recommending the Service and Prayers of the Church; delivered in a Meeting-House in Edinburgh, September 28th. 1712. (Edinburgh, 1712)
Adam Ferguson, A Sermon preached in the Ersh Language to His Majesty's First Highland Regiment of Foot, Commanded by Lord John Murray (London, 1746) |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Eighteenth 18th century 1 |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Adam Budd
Tel: (0131 6)50 3834
Email: adam.budd@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mrs Lindsay Scott
Tel: (0131 6)50 9948
Email: Lindsay.Scott@ed.ac.uk |
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