Postgraduate Course: Scottish Reformation Culture, c. 1540-c. 1640 (PGHC11604)
Course Outline
| School | School of History, Classics and Archaeology |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course title might for some time have been considered an oxymoron. The Scottish Protestant Reformation was in important senses iconoclastic, but scholars are now also keen to emphasise its distinctive cultural world and processes of reconfiguration as well as removal. This course explores this culture by focusing on a different source type, genre or cultural form each week, together with thematic explorations of issues such as emotion and gender in sixteenth-century Scotland. |
| Course description |
This course will explore the cultural world of the Scottish Reformation. Once seen as a straightforwardly iconoclastic shift from a sensual and communal faith to a cerebral and individualistic one, twenty-first century scholarship has suggested that Scotland's developing Protestantism involved a more complex set of processes of reconfiguration, adaptation, and continuity. The course will encourage you to engage with these debates, and will also enhance source analysis skills via a distinctive structure around different genres and source types. We will explore the culture of the Scottish Reformation by considering a series of forms of communication, and linked discussions of key themes such as emotion and the experience of Protestant life, the nature of religious argument, and the role of gender in these media.
Firstly, the course will explore oral culture, via the sermon and music, especially the psalms, respectively. We will then consider textual evidence, looking at the spiritual poetry of the Scottish Reformation, and the more controversial bodies of polemical literature produced in conflicts within and beyond Protestantism. Thirdly, we will consider material and physical culture, starting with architectural and decorative elements, before zooming into the smaller-scale but no less significant subject of manuscripts and personal items as material culture and devotional practice. Finally we turn to forms of communal and collective activity, both officially sanctioned and mandated (communion and covenanting) and more challenging and even subversive (popular festivities). Along the way, we will undertake thematic reviews in seminars where we step back to reflect on the various cultural forms and debate their significance for key current issues in cultural history such as emotion and gender. As well as enhancing source analysis and research skills across a wide range of evidence types, the course will also develop your confidence in advancing independent arguments and interpretations.
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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 | Visiting students should have at least 3 History courses at grade B or above (or be predicted to obtain this). We will only consider University/College level courses. Applicants should note that, as with other popular courses, meeting the minimum does NOT guarantee admission.
** as numbers are limited, visiting students should contact the Visiting Student Office directly for admission to this course ** |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2024/25, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 0 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 22,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
174 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Coursework:
1,000 word source commentary (25%)
4,000 word essay (75%) |
| Feedback |
Students will receive feedback on their coursework, and will have the opportunity to discuss that feedback further with the Course Organiser during their published office hours for this course or by appointment.
Following written feedback on the first summative assessment, students will be encouraged to discuss their plan for the final assessment in a 1:1 meeting with the course organiser in their drop-in hours. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate a detailed and critical understanding of debates and arguments concerning cultural aspects of the Scottish Reformation.
- Analyse and evaluate a diverse range of primary evidence relating to oral, textual, material, and collective culture in sixteenth and early seventeenth century Scotland.
- Communicate concisely in written form the context, significance, and utility of source evidence.
- Formulate and execute a research question, critically applying methodologies for the study of pre-modern cultural and religious history.
- Develop and sustain original scholarly arguments, demonstrating independence of mind and initiative.
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Reading List
Brock, M., 'Exhortations and Expectations: Preaching about the Ideal Minister in Post-Reformation Scotland', in Langley, C.R., McMillan, C.E., and Newton, R. (eds), The Clergy in Early Modern Scotland (Woodbridge, 2021)
Dawson, J.E.A., 'Covenanting in Sixteenth-century Scotland', Scottish Historical Review, 99:Suppl (2020), pp. 336-348
Gribben, C. and Mullan, D.G. (eds), Literature and the Scottish Reformation (Burlington, 2009)
Hamling, T., Decorating the Godly Household (New Haven, 2010)
Hazlett, I. (ed.), A Companion to the Reformation in Scotland, ca. 1525-1638 (Leiden, 2022)
Hood, N., 'Metrical Psalm-Singing and Emotion in Scottish Protestant Affective Piety, 1560-1650', Reformation and Renaissance Review, 23 (2021), pp. 151-69
McCallum, J., Exploring Emotion in Reformation Scotland (Cham, 2022)
S.J. Reid (ed.), Rethinking the Renaissance and Reformation in Scotland: Essays in Honour of Roger A. Mason (Woodbridge, 2024)
Ross, S.E., 'Elizabeth Melville and the religious sonnet sequence in Scotland and England', in S. Wiseman (ed.), Early Modern Women and the Poem (Manchester, 2016)
Todd, M., The Culture of Protestantism in Early Modern Scotland (New Haven, 2002)
Wormald, J., 'Reformed and godly Scotland?', in Devine, T.M. and Wormald, J. (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Modern Scottish History (Oxford, 2012).
Ziegler, Georgianna, 'Portraits of a Lady: the Self-presentation of Esther Inglis, Protestant Limner', Renaissance Quarterly, 76.2 (2023), pp. 542-88 |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
An ability to interpret and evaluate diverse and challenging forms of historical evidence
An ability to engage with the complexities of cultural norms and practices in very different societies
Independence of mind in shaping and developing original lines of historical enquiry
An ability to communicate concisely and persuasively in written form |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Prof Diana Paton
Tel: (0131 6)50 4578
Email: Diana.Paton@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | |
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