• Home
• Study
• Study Information
• Modules
• Module Information

The Body in Early Modern England: Sources

Module description

This module will provide a detailed analysis of the sources available for a study of the body in early modern England. Topics covered will include: anatomy; sex and gender; sex and sexuality; medicine and midwifery; life-stages from conception to old age; illness and disease; death and dissection; regulating the body (including morality, size, behaviour); deformed, disabled, foreign and monstrous bodies. Seminars will focus on exploring the sources, enabling you to develop your skills and knowledge of the subject and to discuss issues about interpretation.

If you have not previously studied the period you will be expected to do some general reading to familiarise yourself with the early modern world.

The co-requisite module – HIH3133 The Body in Early Modern England: Context – will complement this one with a close analysis of the modern historiography of the period and the subject.

Module aims - intentions of the module

• To provide a detailed study of the sources available in English for a history of the body in early modern England.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

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

• 1. Analyse closely the main sources readily available in English (both originally in English and translations of continental texts) for a study of the body in early modern England, both as stand-alone texts or images and in comparison with each other
• 2. Analyse the source material and to assess its value as historical evidence in the wider context of the histories of sexuality, medicine and scientific development

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

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

• 3. Focus on and comprehend a wide range of texts and of varying complexity
• 4. Understand and interpret the unfamiliar beliefs and practices of this historical period

ILO: Personal and key skills

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

• 5. Independently and autonomously study and also work within a group, including presentation of material for group discussion
• 6. Digest, select and organise material to produce, to a deadline, a coherent and cogent argument
• 7. Present complex arguments both orally and in writing

Syllabus plan

The syllabus will include some, or all, of the following topics:

• Anatomy
• Sex and gender
• Medicine, health and disease
• Body functions
• Life-stages from infancy to old age
• Death and dissection
• Clothing and nakedness
• Conception, pregnancy and childbirth
• Sex, sexuality and sexual regulation
• Pornography and prostitution
• Deformity, disability and ‘other’ bodies

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

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

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

Re-assessment notes

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 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Anon., Aristoteles Master-piece, or The Secrets of Generation displayed in all the parts thereof (1684).
• Barrough, Phillip, The Methode of Phisicke (1583).
• Cuffe, Henry, The Differences of the Ages of Mans Life (1607).
• Crooke, Helkiah, Microcosmographia: Or, The Whole Body of Man (1615).
• Lemnius, Levinus, The Secret Miracles of Nature: In Four Books (1658).
• Riverius, Lazarus. The Practice of Physick, Etc. Trans. Nicholas Culpeper, Abdiah Cole and William Rowland (1655 [1640]).
• Sharp, Jane, The Midwives Book: or the whole art of midwifry discover’d (1671).

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE – https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=2140 
• Early Modern English Books Online (EEBO) 
• Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) 
• Old Bailey Online 
• Burney Collection of Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Newspapers Online 
• English Broadside Ballad Archive – http://ebba.english.ucsb.edu/  
• The Proceedings of the Old Bailey – http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/ 
• London Lives – http://londonlives.org/ 

Indicative learning resources - Other resources

• Clark, Anna, The History of Sexuality in Europe: a Sourcebook and Reader (New York: Routledge, 2010).
• Davis, Lloyd (ed), Sexuality and gender in the English Renaissance: an annotated edition of contemporary documents (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998).
• McCormick, Ian, Secret Sexualities: A Sourcebook of 17^th and 18^th century writing (London: Routledge, 1996).
• Phillips, Kim M. and Barry Reay, Sexualities in History: A Reader (New York and London: Routledge, 2001).
• Ragan, Bryant T., Jr. (eds), Homosexuality in Early Modern France: A Documentary Collection (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001).
• Printed collection of Roxburghe Ballads.
• Other material from module lecturer(s) as needed.

Key words search

Body; bodies; sex; sexualities; gender; medicine; health; anatomy; pregnancy; childbirth; prostitution; pornography; deformity; disability.