HIS-30127 - Module Specification
School of Humanities
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

Programme/Approved Electives for 2024/25

Available as a Free Standing Elective

Co-requisites

None

Prerequisites

None

Barred Combinations

None

Description for 2024/25

Georgian Britain presents us with a fascinating paradox. Satirical prints and novels from the period present spectacles of rumbustious, drunken and lusty lives but, at the same time, the United Kingdom was developing as a serious-minded imperial and trading power. In this module we will look at the way in which libertine and reformist traditions battled over the roles of men and women and the degree to which their identities and desires should be regulated in public and in private. Pioneering calls for women's rights and early justifications of proto-homosexual behaviour co-existed with vicious judicial enforcement of often antiquated moral legislation. This course provides an opportunity to study the century during which modern constructions of gender and sexuality, with which we live today, were taking shape.
Topics may include male libertinism, images of adultery and prostitution, legal punishment of sexual offenders such as sodomites, politeness, sentimentality and emotion, romanticism and radicalism, race, class and sexual desire, dandyism and fashion.

To consider and appreciate the changing ways that gender and sexuality were perceived in Britain during the Georgian period.

Intended Learning Outcomes

1,2
1,2
1,2
1,2

Study hours

20 hours seminars, 90 hours seminar preparation, 20 hours essay preparation and writing, 20 hours commentary preparation and writing

School Rules

None

Description of Module Assessment