HST6857: Communities and Sociabilities in Early Modern Europe
15 credits (semester 2)
Module Leader: Professor Mark Greengrass
| Module Summary |
This module for students following the early modern pathway through the MA in historical research is intended to engage critically with the ways that historians have tried to understand the social fabric of early-modern Europe. Different seminars will explore different aspects of the sociabilities that existed within and around formal institutions such as the 'family', the 'state', the 'judiciary' or the 'court', concentrating on carnival and charivari, fraternal societies, processions and ceremonials, and friendship.
This module aims to enable students to confront and to assess critically the recent literature in early-modern history that seeks to understand the 'sociabilities' of early-modern Europe, i.e. the informal social relationships of one sort or another, those that existed over and above formal institutions such as the 'family', the 'state', the 'judiciary' or the 'court'. They undoubtedly played an important cultural role in people's lives. Students will be expected to undertake a structured programme of reading, presentation and discussion and emerge with an informed understanding of new developments in the study of community and sociabilities and also with an enhanced understanding of problems involving the interpretation of surviving sources that will assist their subsequent dissertation work.
| Teaching |
The module will be taught in five, two-hour classes. Each will focus on a particular theme and be located around its discussion in the primary and secondary historical literature, considered in broad context. Students will use a wide variety of textual and visual materials through which to explore communities and sociabilities. This is a field with a rich literature in which publication is continuing, one which feeds into wider debates in the English-speaking world as to the nature of historical investigation. Classes will enable students to share knowledge, debate controversial issues and listen and respond to the views of others in a structured environment.
| Assessment |
Students will complete one or more exercises (totalling a maximum of 3000 words) which explore one of the key themes raised by an in-depth study of this topic in early modern history. Students will be expected to demonstrate an ability to handle bibliographical resources, a critical understanding of different methodological approaches and available primary sources, and an independent engagement with current historiographical debate. Deadline to be confirmed.
| Intended Learning Outcomes |
By the end of the unit, a candidate will be able to demonstrate:
- A more detailed understanding of recent developments in the study of sociabilities in early-modern Europe.
- A knowledge of selected bodies of evidence relevant to the study of these issues, and of the problems of their interpretation.
- An ability to distinguish between the main schools of interpretation in the study of communities and sociabilities.
- An ability to engage critically and independently in current historiographical debates on these issues.
- An ability to elaborate and defend an intellectual position and to present scholarly arguments and historiographical debates both orally and in writing.