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Gender, Society and Culture in Early Modern Europe

Module description

Gender was an important category of difference in early modern society and had significant impact on the lives of both men and women. Ideas about the nature of each sex affected all areas of men's and women's lives and could have both positive and negative consequences. The relationships between discourses about gender and the historical evidence about men and women's lives in the period will be explored both through reading in the extensive secondary literature of gender, women's history and masculinity as well as through the study of primary sources such as wills, court records, advice books, popular literature (ballads and pamphlets, for example), medical books, diaries and personal memoirs.

Module aims - intentions of the module

The aim of this module is to evaluate the nature, extent and importance of gender difference to society and culture in early modern Europe through the exploration of a wide range of subjects that may include: theoretical perspectives on gender and history; contemporary theory about the nature and roles of men and women in early modern society; marriage and the family; the household, work and economic lives; bodies, health, medicine and sexuality; masculinity and patriarchy; the law; religion and witchcraft; class, power, government and politics.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Locate and evaluate critically the relevant primary and secondary source materials required to investigate a specific historical or methodological question
• 2. Demonstrate a detailed knowledge of key themes and approaches in the study of gender, society and culture in early modern Europe

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 3. Demonstrate the ability to analyse and synthesise widely different types of historical material and evidence
• 4. Identify and understand the nature of original sources
• 5. Demonstrate a critical understanding of key historical concepts and debates
• 6. Research for themselves and present independent accounts and interpretations of different historical issues

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 7. Develop the capacity for independent critical study and thought
• 8. Apply key bibliographical skills (including the use of on-line finding aids)
• 9. Construct and defend a sustained argument, both in written form and orally, using primary and secondary materials
• 10. Work as an individual and with a tutor and peers in an independent, constructive and responsive way (e.g. lead a group discussion or task)

Syllabus plan

This will be a team-taught module and the syllabus will vary according to the composition of the module team and student choice. Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:

• Gender: history and theory, practical approaches
• Witchcraft: religion; urban development; education and social relations; medicine
• Masculinity: crime; government and politics; power and patriarchy; class and social hierarchies
• Marriage and the family: reproduction, pregnancy and childbirth; sexuality; parents and children; health and medicine
• Religion:
  • Reformation Europe
  • Parish life
  • The holy household
• Education: reading and writing/print culture; court culture; ‘the arts’/drama and the stage

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Instead of reflecting on the delivery of the presentation and its reception, as in the original assessment, the reflective commentary will explore the objectives and intended delivery methods of the presentation.

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 50%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of referral will be capped at 50%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Susan Amussen, An Ordered Society: Gender and Class in Early Modern England, (New York, 1988).
• Patricia Crawford and Sara Mendelson, Women in Early Modern England, (Oxford, 1998).
• Natalie Zemon Davis and Arlette Farge (eds), A History of Women: Renaissance and Enlightenment Paradoxes, (Cambridge, Mass. and London, 1993).
• Elizabeth Eisenstein, The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe (1993).
• Anthony Fletcher, Gender, Sex and Subordination in Early Modern England (New Haven and London, 1995).
• Louise Fradenburg and Carla Freccero (eds), Premodern Sexualities, (New York and London, 1996).
• Beatrice Gottlieb, The Family in the Western World From the Black Death to the Industrial Age, (Oxford, 1993).
• Robert Allan Houston, Literacy in Early Modern Europe: culture and education 1500-1800 (Harlow, 2002).
• Olwen Hufton, The Prospect Before Her: A History of Women in Western Europe, Vol 1, 1500-1800, (London,1995).
• Lisa Jardine and Jerry Brotton, Global Interests: Renaissance Art Between East and West (2000).
• F.W. Kent and Patricia Simons (eds), Patronage, art, and society in Renaissance Italy (1987).
• James J. Murphy, Latin Rhetoric and Education in the Middle Ages and Renaissance (Aldershot, 2005).
• Rowlands, Alison (ed.), Witchcraft and Masculinities in Early Modern Europe, (Basingstoke,2009).
• Alexandra Shepard, Meanings of Manhood in Early modern England (Oxford, 2000).
• Robert Shoemaker, Gender in English Society 1650-1850: The Emergence of Separate Spheres? (London, 1998).
• M.R. Sommerville, Sex and Subjection: Attitudes to Women in Early Modern Society (London, 1995).
• Merry Wiesner-Hanks, Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge, 2008).
• Arzu Öztürkmen  and  Evelyn Birge Vitz (eds), Medieval and Early Modern Performance in the Eastern Mediterranean (Turnhout, 2014).
• Dieuwke van der Poel, Louis Peter Grijp and Wim van Anrooij (eds), Identity, Intertextuality, and Performance in Early Modern Song Culture (Leiden, 2016).
• Ulinka Rublack, Reformation Europe (Cambridge, 2005).
• Alec Ryrie, Being Protestant in Reformation Britain (Oxford, 2013).

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE – https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=11609 
• Early English Books Online
• Eighteenth Century Collections Online
• Burney Collection of Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Newspapers

Indicative learning resources - Other resources

Any other primary source material as provided.

Key words search

Gender, culture, society, women, masculinity, manhood