description

Cultural historians seek to understand how people have attached meaning to their lives through the expression of ideas, art, science, performance, consumption, sport and other cultural forms. This course examines various aspects of British, Irish and British imperial cultural history. In other words, we will concentrate in this course on understanding identities, or how British subjects have used various kinds of self-expression to give meaning to their lives.
       The topic for Spring 2004 is the early modern age (1485-1689), also known as the Tudor-Stuart period because of the monarchies that ruled England then. During this period, England transformed itself from a cultural backwater into a thriving world of public spectacle, print, drama, religious conflict and trade. We will focus on two tensions that were central to English life in this period: the tension between order and disorder and that between artificiality and reality. Our examination of these two tensions in early modern culture will include a running discussion of gender, race, ethnicity, and class issues.
       This course will help you to achieve the following goals: (1) to learn how to see past the basic facts of history to understand their meaning and how they shaped identity – in other words, to see how history shapes who we are and what matters; (2) to find personally meaningful ways to connect with the past and a different culture; (3) to develop skills such as effectively reading long texts; reading for meaning and analysis, not just information; working closely with texts in group discussion; effectively developing a research project from conception to final paper.
       No specific prior knowledge of British history is expected, but students should realize that this course is upper-level, and as such involves intensive reading (about 120-150 pages a week) and an original research paper. Students are encouraged to take this course after having taken a course in British or early modern history or culture, such as 16-523 British History since 1688, 10-613 Renaissance Literature, 10-553 Women’s Literature I, or 16-203 Early Modern Europe – but none of these courses is a prerequisite. The Feminist Studies Program recognizes this class as an allied course.

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I encourage you to contact me by e-mail, rather than voice mail. Come see me during my office hours for issues that are better discussed face-to-face.
 

office	Mood-Bridwell 216
e-mail	greenmue@southwestern.edu I do not generally check e-mail between 10 a.m. Friday and 1 p.m. on Sunday.
telephone	512.863.1595
office hours	M, F 11 a.m.-noon in Mood 216 T 2:30-3:30 p.m. in the Cove or by appointment

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In this course, you must complete the following assignments. To calculate your final grade, I will multiply each of your assignment grades by the percentage given for each assignment, and add those numbers together. See the policies section for more information about grading.

1. response papers (30% of final grade):

You will write a 1–1 1/2 page, focused response paper for five of the seven units in the course (all but units 3 and 7). You do not need to do additional research to write these papers; rather, they are designed to encourage you to think closely about – and to keep up with – our assigned readings.
       You may experiment with the content and form of your response papers, but in each of your papers you must make a focused argument about one or more of the week’s texts, and support that argument with significant evidence from those texts. In other words, I am asking you for your opinions in these papers, but these must be opinions that are informed and well-supported by our assigned texts, not groundless speculations or gut feelings. If you have knowledge from outside the course that seems relevant, please do incorporate it into your response papers, but always cite that material appropriately as well.
       A response paper is not a summary of the readings. Rather, in your papers you should do one or more of the following: examine the consequences, strengths, and/or weaknesses of an author’s argument; compare the perspectives of two or more authors; discuss an interesting, admirable, appalling, or contradictory aspect of English cultural identity as revealed by our texts; analyze how the course themes of order/disorder and artificiality/reality are illuminated by our texts. Your papers should be very focused, not off-hand musings or diary entries.
       I encourage you to discuss your ideas about the readings with others – especially with other students in the class and peer consultants at the Debby Ellis Writing Center. However, you must ensure that what you submit as your response paper is your own work. In other words, if you borrow an idea from someone else (even an idea given to you in conversation), you must indicate to whom you owe the idea in a footnote. If you do not acknowledge your intellectual debts, you are plagiarizing.
       Criteria for grading this assignment: depth and originality of analysis (do you really try to think carefully about the implications of the readings, or do you merely summarize or state the most obvious points about the texts?); ability to synthesize insights from a variety of different texts (especially as the course progresses, do you note how a point that arises from one text reinforces or challenges something we have read in another text?); quality of your writing (does the paper have a logical organization? do you carefully choose your words in order to communicate clearly? is your writing free of grammatical, spelling, and typographical errors?).

Half the class will complete the first assignment, and half the class will complete the second:
       Assignment option 1: Three or four of you as a group will write a 750-1000 word features article for the Megaphone on Playhouse Creatures, a modern play about Restoration actresses that the Southwestern theater department is producing this semester. The article should focus on providing historical background to the play and its performance at Southwestern. In other words, the article will not be a straightforward review, though some evaluation of the script, performances, sets, costumes, and historical accuracy are welcome.
       As research for the article, each student must read the play, visit at least one hour of rehearsal, and attend the opening night performance. The following required research should be divided up fairly within the group: interviewing the director, interviewing the lead performers, interviewing the set designer, interviewing the costume designer, interviewing the dramaturg, reviewing required readings for our course for material that will help to put the play in historical context, looking up additional historical information and perspectives in the library that will further help to put the play in historical context, editing and proofreading the article before handing it in, making the Megaphone features editor’s editing suggestions if he makes any. Every student must contribute to the initial writing of the article, though you may approach this collaborative writing process in whatever way the group finds most effective.
       Closer to the due date, I will give you style guidelines for writing a newspaper features article.
       Attach to the article a bibliography of texts that you used to write the article.
       On the day the article is due, each individual student should also hand in an evaluation of how much you and each of the other students contributed to this collaborative project. I will use these evaluations to help me decide which students deserve full credit for the assignment, and which deserve a lower grade because they did not contribute equally to the project. For this and other reasons, in advance of turning in the article, you should communicate with each other clearly and regularly about what you are doing toward the project.
       Criteria for grading this assignment: rich picture of historical background for the play (can the reader better understand after reading the article what historical circumstances define the motivations and tensions in this play?); historical accuracy (do you accurately represent history by checking your claims against reliable sources? are you careful not to bend the truth just to sound dramatic?); logical and compelling organization (do you begin the article with a bang? would the reader understand how each sentence and paragraph follows from the previous one?); attention to style required for newspaper features section (do you follow the guidelines I gave you in class? did you respond effectively to the features editor’s comments, if he made any?); clarity and compelling quality of the writing for a Southwestern student audience (do you make the reader want to know more? would your peers understand the article without having taken this course?).
       Assignment option 2: The other 3-4 of you will give a group presentation on the Restoration playwright and novelist Aphra Behn, one of the earliest successful women authors in England. Your presentation must include a brief biographical account of Behn’s life and career, a dramatic presentation of a scene from one of her plays, and an analysis of what this scene reflects about early modern English history. The total length of the presentation must be no shorter than 20 minutes and no longer than 30.
       Your research process should begin with some reading on the life and career of Behn. See the Southwestern library catalog and the extensive reference bibliography below for sources. Do not use internet sources. Use this research to decide with which play you want to work.
       Most of Behn’s plays are available in the Southwestern library. Just make sure you choose a play, and not one of her novels. Select a scene that you find compelling and rich with possibilities for historical interpretation.
       Then research what historians and literary critics have written about that play in particular and its historical context. Determine what the play, and particularly that scene, meant to Behn and the audiences who saw it. What contemporary debates, morals, events, and relationships does this scene discuss?
       Finally, organize your presentation. Decide which students will deliver which portions of the presentation. Practice the presentation, including rehearsing reading the scene together. Type up a bibliography of texts that you used to research the presentation to hand in.
       As with the above assignment, you must divide the work as fairly as possible between the group members. On the day the presentation is due, each individual student should also hand in an evaluation of how much you and each of the other students contributed to this collaborative project. I will use these evaluations to help me decide which students deserve full credit for the assignment, and which deserve a lower grade because they did not contribute equally to the project. For this and other reasons, in advance of turning in the article, you should communicate with each other clearly and regularly about what you are doing toward the project.
       Criteria for grading this assignment: rich picture of historical background for the scene (can the reader better understand after hearing your presentation what historical circumstances define the motivations and tensions in this scene?); historical accuracy (do you accurately represent history by checking your claims against reliable sources? are you careful not to bend the truth just to sound dramatic?); logical and compelling organization (do you begin the presentation with a bang? would the reader understand how each part of the presentation follows from the previous one?); staying within the time constraints.

At the end of the semester, you will turn in a 10-12 page original research paper on some aspect of early modern English, Scottish, Irish, or English colonial cultural history. At earlier points in the semester, you will submit various elements of that paper for smaller portions of your grade. These early assignments are designed partly to push you to keep making progress on your research, and partly so that I can give you feedback on that progress.
       An original research paper in history answers a significant question and offers evidence for its arguments from primary and secondary sources. Primary sources are texts produced by people living in the period under study. For early modern history, then, primary sources are texts produced by people living during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Secondary sources are texts produced by people living after the period under study. In our case, secondary sources are texts produced by people living from the eighteenth century on. An original research paper involves serious consideration and analysis of printed sources, as opposed to (the worst-case scenario) a haphazard patchwork of undigested facts and quotes from the internet.
      The citations and bibliography in your paper should follow MLA style.

a. paper topic & research question (3% of final grade):

Early in the semester, you will indicate to me the topic of your research paper and the question that you will seek to answer in your paper. Ultimately, the answer you give to your research question will be the thesis of your paper.
       Make sure that your question asks about early modern cultural history. For example, suppose you selected the bubonic plague as your topic. Some good cultural history research questions would be:

• How did the plague challenge English identity in the early modern period?
• What cultural beliefs did the early modern English use to interpret the plague?

By contrast, here are some questions that are not appropriate (with the reasons they are not appropriate given in parentheses):

• How did the plague influence early modern culture? (Much too broad. Better: How did the plague influence early modern theater?)
• How many people died from the plague in the British Isles, and what areas were hit hardest? (Seems more interested in social history than in culture. Better: What meaning did early modern people attach to death from the plague?)
• What caused the plague, and what did the early modern English think caused the plague? (Potentially too much about disembodied ideas, not enough about the life of ideas in the culture. Also, the answer to this question would not be a very interesting thesis if you just listed and described the causes of the plague. Better: How did early modern English beliefs about the plague’s causes reflect their cultural attitudes?)

       The more preliminary research you have done before writing your question, the more focused your question will be. I therefore recommend that you peruse several sources on your topic before writing your research question.
       You will almost certainly subtly shift your topic and research question as you proceed with your research. However, you must consult with me before making a radical change to your topic/question.
       Criteria for grading this assignment: specificity and feasibility of your question (do you demonstrate enough preliminary knowledge of the subject to be able to ask a focused research question that you can reasonably answer in a semester of research?); clarity of your topic and question (is it clear from what you have written what you plan to research?); appropriateness of your topic and question for early modern cultural history.

b. thesis statement & annotated bibliography (7% of final grade):

The next stage of your research process will be to commit (at least tentatively) to a thesis statement, and compile an annotated bibliography of the most important sources you are using in your research.
       Though it may seem crazy, one of the most valuable steps you can take early in your research process is to write a thesis statement. At this stage of your research, what do you believe will be your main argument in your final paper? In other words, given the research question you set out for yourself and now that you have conducted more research, how do you think you would answer your own question? Your thesis statement should be only a brief paragraph. Before writing your thesis statement, read this brief document, which defines clearly what a good thesis statement looks like and how to write one.
       Your annotated bibliography must include at least six sources, none of which may be internet sources. (See my internet policy below.) At least one of your sources must be a primary source of some significant length.
       In compiling your bibliography, you must attempt to locate sources on each of the four on-line databases listed in the resources section below. If you do not include a source from one or more of these databases, attach a printed example of a relevant source from this/these database(s) and write a brief note on this print-out about why you did not include this/these source(s) in your bibliography. For example, if your annotated bibliography includes sources that you found in the SU library catalog, WorldCat, and JSTOR, you would need to attach a print-out of one relevant source that you found in Historical Abstracts.
       In brackets [ ] at the end of each citation, indicate how you located this source, e.g., which database, browsing the shelves, research librarian, recommendation by a faculty member, etc.
       For guidelines about what an annotated bibliography is and how to write one, see this useful web site. In your annotations, use the “combination” and “complete sentence” styles that this site describes. Your bibliography should follow the rules of MLA style.
       Bring three copies of your thesis statement and annotated bibliography to class with you on the due date.
       Criteria for grading this assignment: focus and clarity of your thesis statement; scope and completeness of your bibliography and the research you used to compile it; evidence in your annotations that you have a good understanding of your sources and how they can aid your research; following the guidelines for writing thesis statements and annotated bibliographies in the sites linked above.

c. draft of research paper (15% of final grade):

Writing a draft of your research paper gives you the opportunity to make a rigorous first attempt at your final paper. You should make this draft as complete and polished as you possibly can; the more complete and polished it is, the more your fellow students and I can give you focused, useful feedback, and the less work you will have to do at the very end of the semester.
       length: Your draft must be no shorter than 8 pages, and no longer than 14.
       components: Your draft must include a clearly stated thesis, MLA in-text citations, analysis of at least one substantial primary source, conclusion, and updated bibliography (do not include annotations).
       completeness: If you discover in the process of writing your draft that you are missing information that you need to make your argument complete, you may leave a gap and indicate to me in brackets [ ] what you plan to insert in the final version of the paper. However, you may only do this in a limited way; do not leave major gaps or numerous minor gaps in your argument. This provision also does not change the fact that you need to write 8-14 pages in your draft.
       audience: Write your paper as though your audience were all the members of our course. Think to yourself as you write what you would and would not need to explain to them, what they might and might not find compelling and plausible.
       Criteria for grading this assignment: clarity and focus of thesis; all claims that are not common knowledge supported by correctly cited evidence; relative completeness of draft; clarity of organization; quality of writing; presence of all the basic components described above; suitability for an audience of fellow students in this course.

d. research paper (15% of final grade):

When working on this final version of your paper, I expect you to seriously revise, not just edit, your draft. If you make only surface-level changes, you will simply receive the same grade on the final paper that you received on the draft. Consider these wise words on revision from Mark Hellstern, Gregory M. Scott, and Stephen M. Garrison in their History Student Writer’s Manual (Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1998):

Revising is one of the most important steps in assuring the success of your paper. Unpracticed writers often think of revision as little more than making sure all the i’s are dotted and the t’s are crossed, but it is much more than that. Revising is reseeing your work, looking at it from other perspectives, trying always to read your work through the eyes of your audience. Subjecting your entire, hard-fought draft to cold, objective scrutiny is one of the toughest activities to master, but it is absolutely necessary. You must make certain that you have said everything that needs to be said clearly and logically (33).

They also give the following tips for revision:

1. Give yourself adequate time for revision.
2. Read the paper carefully.
3. Have a list of specific items to check.
4. Check for unity, the clear and logical relation of all parts of the thesis.
5. Check for coherence.
6. Avoid unnecessary repetition (33-34).

When you hand in your final research paper, you must attach your marked-up draft.
       Criteria for grading this assignment: all of the qualities listed under criteria for grading draft + thoroughness of revision (based both on my comments and your own careful re-reading of your draft).

This is a fundamentally discussion-based course, so not only does much of your grade depend on your prepared participation, but so does the entire success of the course. You do not need to say fantastically clever and insightful things whenever you open your mouth; all I ask is that you be willing to take some risks and try out some ideas with the rest of the class. 
       I will give unannounced quizzes if it becomes clear that much of the class is not keeping up with the reading. If you are absent on a day that a quiz is given, you cannot make it up (unless you have a documented excuse for your absence).
       Criteria for grading this assignment: frequency of your participation (this includes asking intelligent questions); quality of your comments; your ability to get other students talking by raising questions or debating other students directly; constant and alert attendance; extra quizzes, if necessary.

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1. attendance: I expect you to attend every class except for those days on which you have a documented medical or other legitimate emergency. Every absence will harm your final grade, since you will not have participated fully in discussions and will not have heard all the lectures. I also factor multiple, unexcused absences into your participation grade.

2. lateness: Do not arrive late to class. Lateness is disrespectful not only to me, but also to your fellow students.

3. grading: The maximum percentages awarded for course assignments add up to 100. I use a standard grading scale:

If your grades consistently improve over the course of the semester and if your class presence is consistent and attentive, I will consider shifting your final grade up to the next level. For example, if your final course grade worked out to an 86, but your grades had consistently improved during the semester and you were a consistent and attentive class participant, I would consider shifting your final grade up to a B+.

4. late assignments: I do not accept late assignments except under the following limited circumstances. If you have a documented medical excuse or other genuine emergency, you may discuss special arrangements with me as long as you do so in a timely fashion. If you know in advance that you will be away for a legitimate reason (e.g., a university-sponsored trip), you must notify me in a timely way of your pending absence and turn in your assignment in advance of the due date. All other late assignments will receive a 0.

5. honor code issues: You must write and sign the full honor code on each assignment in this class. That means writing out the following full text: I have neither given nor received aid on this examination [paper, etc.], nor have I seen anyone else do so. You may not write P.I.F. or any other variant of the honor code.      
       On all assignments for this class, you may consult your course materials (including books, notes, journals); other scholarly sources (though this is discouraged for response papers); and the Debby Ellis Writing Center. On all assignments, you may also discuss ideas with others, but you must do the actual research and writing yourself. If you borrow someone else’s idea—including a fellow student’s idea heard in conversation—cite it appropriately.
       See the following sites on quoting and paraphrasing and MLA style for information about proper citation of sources.

6. internet sources: You may not cite internet sources in any of the written assignments in this course. The following are exceptions to this rule and may be used, since they are clearly of a scholarly nature: articles from full-text databases like JSTOR and Project Muse; online primary sources (texts written by historical actors that have been re-published on the web); internet pages that I have approved well in advance of your turning in the assignment.

7. disabilities: Southwestern University will make reasonable accommodations for persons with documented disabilities. Students should register with the Office of Academic Services, (3rd floor Cullen, 863-1286). Professors must be officially notified by the Academic Services Coordinator that documentation is on file at least two weeks before the accommodation is needed.

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You will find the following at the university bookstore.

• Bucholz, Robert, and Newton Key. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishing, 2003.
  
• More, Thomas. Utopia. Trans. Clarence H. Miller. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2001.
  
• Topics in British Culture: Early Modern England Reader [This course packet will be available at the SU bookstore no later than 16 January.]

Each date listed below tells you what topic we will discuss in class, and what you need to have read in preparation for that day’s class. 
= a date on which part of the research paper assignment is due; = a date on which another assignment is due.

T Jan 13: Introduction to the course and to cultural history

Unit 1: Tudor stability?

Th Jan 15: Introduction to Tudor England, Scotland, Ireland

read:

1. Bonnell and Hunt, “Introduction” [handed out 13 January] 2. Bucholz & Key, introduction and ch. 1

T Jan 20: What do the “simple folk” do?: popular political culture in Tudor times

read:

1. Wood, “‘Poore Men Woll Speke One Daye’” [Reader] 2. Ford, “A View from a Village” [Reader] 3. “An Exhortation concerning Good Order and Obedience to Rulers and Magistrates” [Reader]

Th Jan 22: Discussion of paper topics and research strategies

read:	[Though we will not discuss More’s Utopia in class today, you should read about half the book by today, as we will discuss the entire book on 27 Jan.]
note:	Today we meet in the library, where librarian extraordinaire Carol Fonken will guide us through research strategies and tools.
due:	paper topic and research question

T Jan 27: More’s utopian vision

read:	1. More, Utopia
due:	response paper for unit 1

Unit 2: Reformation

Th Jan 29: Introduction to Reformation culture

read:

1. Bucholz & Key, chs. 2 & 3 (read these chapters more quickly) 2. Muir, “The Reformation as a Revolution in Ritual Theory” [Reader]

T Feb 3: She’s a witch! Burn her!

read:

1. Reay, “Witchcraft” [Reader] 2. Rushton, “Texts of Authority: Witchcraft Accusations and the Demonstration of Truth in Early Modern England” [Reader] 3. “The Persecution in Scotland” and “The Confessions of the Chelmsford Witches, England” [Reader]

Th Feb 5: How much did the Reformation really change religious practice?

read:	1. McClendon, “A Moveable Feast” [Reader] 2. Todd, “Profane Pastimes and the Reformed Community” [Reader] 3. “Of Ceremonies,” from the Book of Common Prayer (1552) [on-line reading]
due:	response paper for unit 2

Unit 3: Performance

T Feb 10: Elizabethan performance

read:

1. Bucholz & Key, chs. 4 & 5 (read these chapters more quickly) 2. Levin, “Elizabeth as King and Queen” [Reader] 3. Howard, “Crossdressing, the Theatre, and Gender Struggle in Early Modern England” [Reader]

Th Feb 12: Class does not meet today – attend the Brown Symposium

read:	[Though we will not discuss Playhouse Creatures in class today, you should read about half the play by today, as we will discuss the entire play on 19 Feb.]
note:	It is very important that you attend the Brown Symposium events. Why? Because a university, and your education, can only thrive if you critically engage the most important issues of our time, both inside and outside the classroom. Make the most of this exciting event!

T Feb 17: Restoration performance

read:

1. Bowers, “Players, Puritans, and ‘Theatrical’ Propaganda, 1642-1660” [Reader] 2. Howard, “Women as Spectators, Spectacles, and Paying Customers” [Reader] 3. King, “‘As If (She) Were Made on Purpose to Put the Whole World into Good Humour’” [Reader]

Th Feb 19: Restoration performance as seen from our own time

read:

1. De Angelis, Playhouse Creatures [Reader]

F Feb 20: Attend opening of Playhouse Creatures

required event:

As a class, we will attend the opening performance of April de Angelis’ Playhouse Creatures at Southwestern’s Jones Theater. The performance begins at 8 p.m., so arrive in the lobby no later than 7:45.

T Feb 24: Post-Playhouse Creatures presentations

due:	Megaphone features article on Playhouse Creatures turned in today Aphra Behn presentation made in class

Th Feb 26: Fashion

read:	1. Banner, “The Fashionable Sex, 1100-1600” [Reader] 2. Jones and Stallybrass, “‘Rugges of London and the Diuell’s Band’” [Reader] 2. Hentschell, “Treasonous Textiles: Foreign Cloth and the Construction of Englishness” [Reader]
for further exploration:	Elizabethan sumptuary laws

Unit 4: The life course

T Mar 2: Childbirth

read:

1. Bucholz & Key, ch. 6 (read this chapter more quickly) 2. Gowing, “Childbed Conflicts” [Reader] 3. Cressy, “Agnes Bowker’s Cat: Childbirth, Seduction, Bestiality, and Lies” [Reader]

Th Mar 4: Love and marriage

read:

1. Amussen, “The Gendering of Popular Culture in Early Modern England” [Reader] 2. Fumerton, “Not Home: Alehouses, Ballads, and the Vagrant Husband in Early Modern England” [Reader] 3. Traub, “The Renaissance of Lesbianism in Early Modern England” [Reader]

T Mar 9: Illness and death

read:	1. Sawday, “The Renaissance Body: From Colonization to Invention” [Reader] 2. Cressy, “Funerals and Burials” [Reader]
due:	response paper for unit 4

Th Mar 11: Thesis statement and annotated bibliography workshop

due:	thesis statement and annotated bibliography (bring 3 copies)
in class:	You will share and discuss your thesis statement and annotated bibliography with other students in a small group. We will also have a whole-class discussion of successful strategies for moving forward with your research paper.

T Mar 16 & Th Mar 18: Spring break – class does not meet

T Mar 23: Ireland

read:

1. Bucholz & Key, ch. 7 (read this chapter more quickly) 2. Armitage, “The Empire of Great Britain: England, Scotland and Ireland c. 1542-1612” [Reader] 3. Moryson, “An Itinerary....” [Reader]

Th Mar 25: The Americas
 

read:

1. Kupperman, “Mirror Images” [Reader] 2. Knapp, “Elizabethan Tobacco” [Reader]

T Mar 30: Asia

read:	1. Marshall, “The English in Asia to 1700” [Reader] 2. Cartwright, description of travels in west Asia [Reader]
due:	response paper for unit 5

Unit 6: Civil war and Restoration

Th Apr 1: Introduction to civil wars and Restoration

read:

1. Bucholz & Key, ch. 8 & 9

T Apr 6 & R Apr 8: Class does not meet so that you can complete your research paper draft.
You can find me in the Cove during class time if you want to discuss your paper with me.

T Apr 13: Research paper draft workshop

due:	draft of research paper Please bring 3 copies to class. Only one copy needs to have the signed honor code.
in class:	post-mortem on draft writing

Th Apr 15: The meanings of the civil wars

read:

1. Wheeler, “Sense of Identity in the Army of the English Republic” [Reader] 2. civil war documents: (a) statement by the Levellers; (b) radical women [on-line readings]

T Apr 20: Restoration and English identity

read:	1. Jacob, “Restoration, Reformation, and the Origins of the Royal Society” [Reader] 2. Sprat, excerpts from History of the Royal Society (1667) [Reader] 3. Hudson, “Samuel Johnson, Urban Culture, and the Geography of Postfire London” [Reader]
due:	response paper for unit 6

Unit 7: What early modern England means now: a look at film

Th Apr 22: Begin watching either A Man for All Seasons (1966) or Elizabeth (1998)
Today, and on 27 April, class meets in the media room just inside the door of the Cove.

in class:

research papers handed back with comments If you have comments on the draft you read, please type them up and bring them with you to class today.

T Apr 27: Complete film

Th Apr 29: Film discussion and paper revision workshop

read:	my comments on your research paper draft Come to class prepared with questions and concerns about how to revise your draft into a polished final paper. Also come prepared to discuss the film we watched. In preparation for our discussion, think about why early modern England has been so meaningful for our own time.
in class:	You will complete course evaluations in class today.

 M May 3: Final version of research paper due

due:	final version of research paper due by 5 p.m. in Dr. GM’s office (Mood 216)

The following is an extensive, but certainly not exhaustive, list of topics from which you might choose for your research paper. For each topic, you would need to find a cultural historical angle. In other words, ask yourself, “How can I investigate this topic in a way that tells me something about the meaning of British lives and/or British identity?”
       See the list of books below for more ideas for research topics.

• Henry VIII’s or Elizabeth I’s self-presentation and performance as monarch
• portraiture and what it said about identity
• domestic rituals: e.g., reading, prayer, cooking, childbirth, funerals, meals, gardens, and their meanings
• architecture, furniture and/or home design, and what they tell us about identity
• styles of religious worship, and why people found them meaningful
• “polite” pastimes: e.g., hunting, painting, natural philosophy (science)
• public events and spaces: e.g., plays, festivals, hangings, alehouses, coffeehouses; the rituals that happened there and their meanings
  
• dress: e.g., sumptuary laws, crossdressing/transvestism, theatrical costume, court dress
• children’s books, games, toys; meaning of childhood in the course of human life
• how the early moderns understood their relationship to nature, the landscape, animals (including pets)
• how the human body was understood: e.g., what different body parts or diseases meant; how bodies were gendered and/or raced
  
• funerals and/or mourning
• romanticizing the past: e.g., ancient Greece/Rome, Arthurian Britain
• how the English (mis)understood other cultures they encountered: e.g., Ireland, Scotland, Americas, India, other European cultures like the French
  
• culture’s effects on major authors: e.g., Christopher Marlowe, Thomas More, William Shakespeare, Aphra Behn
• sexuality: e.g., what marriage (or same-sex relationships or prostitution or bachelorhood or spinsterhood) meant in this period; how these meanings differed between classes

The following resources will aid you in the research for your paper.

On-line databases
Your research process must include the use of each of the following. Descriptions are based on those given on the SU library page.

• SU library catalog
• Historical Abstracts [Indexes the world’s periodical literature in non-US history and the related social sciences and humanities from 1450 to the present. Articles in Historical Abstracts derive from over 2,100 scholarly journals published in more than 50 languages.]
• WorldCat [Lists complete holdings of library collections worldwide including the SU library. I would recommend using this database early in your research process so that you can have plenty of time to order through interlibrary loan any books you want that are not in SU’s collection.]
• JSTOR: Journal Storage Collection Online [An electronic archive of scholarly journals from the humanities, social sciences, and the natural sciences. Each of the 100+ titles is an essential or primary one for its field. The JSTOR database is unique because the complete backfiles of core scholarly journals (excluding the most recent five years) have been digitized, starting with the first issues, many of which date back to the 1800s. Users can browse the complete table of contents for every volume and issue, or search for words or phrases in the full text of the article, author and abstracts. JSTOR displays articles in page-image format.]

1. Reference works

• Arnold, Bruce. The Art Atlas of Britain and Ireland. London and New York: Viking, 1991. [REF 1st floor 708.2 Ar64a]
• Bayly, C. A., ed. Atlas of the British Empire. New York: Facts on File, 1989. [REF 1st floor 909.0971 At65]
• Biedermann, Hans. Dictionary of Symbolism: Cultural Icons and the Meanings behind Them. New York and Oxford: Facts on File, 1992. [call #302.222 B475k]
• Bindman, David, ed. The Thames and Hudson Encyclopaedia of British Art. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1985. [REF 1st floor 709.41 T329]
• Boylan, Henry. A Dictionary of Irish Biography. 3rd ed. Niwot, Colo.: Roberts Rinehart, 1998. [REF 1st floor 920.0415 B696d 1998]
• Canny, Nicholas, ed. The Origins of Empire. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. [909.0971 Ox2 v.1]
  
• Chambers, Robert. The Book of Days; A Miscellany of Popular Antiquities in Connection with the Calendar, including Anecdote, Biography and History, Curiosities of Literature, and Oddities of Human Life and Character. 1862-64. Reprint. Detroit, Gale Research Co., 1967.
• Crawford, Anne, et al., eds. The Europa Biographical Dictionary of British Women: Over 1000 Notable Women from Britain’s Past. Detroit, Mich.: Gale Research Co., 1983. [REF 1st floor 920.72 Eu74]
• Dictionary of Literary Biography series. [REF 1st floor 928.1 D561]
• Eagle, Dorothy, Hilary Carnell, and Meic Stephens, eds. The Oxford Illustrated Literary Guide to Great Britain and Ireland. 2nd ed. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. [REF 1st floor 820.9 Ox25 1992]
• Ford, Boris, ed. The Cambridge Cultural History of Britain, vols. 2-4. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992. [700.941 C144c]
• Gardiner, Juliet, and Neil Wenborn, eds. The Columbia Companion to British History. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997. [REF 1st floor 941.003 H629]
• Gascoigne, Bamber. Encyclopedia of Britain. New York: Macmillan, 1993. [REF 1st floor 941 G211e]
• Gilbert, Martin. Atlas of British History. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. [REF 1st floor 911.42 G374a]
• Haigh, Christopher, ed. The Cambridge Historical Encyclopedia of Great Britain and Ireland. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985. [REF 1st floor 941 C144]
• Isaacs, Alan, and Jennifer Monk, eds. The Cambridge Illustrated Dictionary of British Heritage. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1986. [REF 1st floor 941 C1445]
• Loades, David, ed. Reader’s Guide to British History. 2 vols. New York: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2003. [REF 941.007 R227]
  
• Reaney, Percy H. A Dictionary of English Surnames. 3rd ed. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. [REF 1st floor 929.4 R231d1]
• Schlueter, Paul, and June Schlueter, eds. An Encyclopedia of British Women Writers. New York: Garland, 1988. [REF 1st floor 820.992 En19]
• Scott-Kilvert, Ian, ed. British Writers. New York: Scribner, 1979 and 1984. [REF 1st floor 820.9 B7776, esp. vols. 5 & 6]
• Spicer, Dorothy Gladys. Yearbook of English Festivals. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1954. [398.33 Sp41y]
  
• Todd, Janet, ed. British Women Writers: A Critical Reference Guide. New York: Continuum, 1989. [REF 1st floor 820.992 B777]
• Treasure, Geoffrey, ed. Who’s Who in British History: Beginnings to 1901. 2 vols. London and Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1998. [REF 1st floor 920.041 W62]

• Baxter, Richard. A Holy Commonwealth; or, Political Aphorisms, Opening the True Principals of Government for the Healing of the Mistakes, and Resolving the Doubts, That Most Endanger and Trouble England at This Time.... London: T. Underhill and F. Tyton, 1659. [Special Collections 274.2 B336h J/G]
• Blakeley, Brian L., and Jacquelin Collins, comp. Documents in British History. Vol. 1: Early Times to 1714. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1993. [942 D659 v.1]
  
• Byrne, Muriel St. Clare, ed. The Lisle Letters: An Abridgement. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983. [942.05 L689]
• Cerasano, S. P., and Marion Wynne-Davies, eds. Renaissance Drama by Women: Texts and Documents. London and New York: Routledge, 1996. [822.3 R29]
• Church of England. The Booke of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments, and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England. London: Bonham Norton and John Bill, 1629. [Special Collections 264.03 C473b 1629 Brown; a 1640 edition is also available in Special Collections 264.03 C473b 1640]
  
• Coldham, Peter Wilson. The Complete Book of Emigrants, 1607-1660. Baltimore: Genealogical Pub. Co., 1987. [304.87041 C673c]
• DiCaprio, Lisa, and Merry E. Wiesner, eds. Lives and Voices: Sources in European Women’s History. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000. [305.4094 D547l]
  
• Dickens, A. G., and Dorothy Carr, eds. The Reformation in England: To the Accession of Elizabeth I. London: Edward Arnold, 1967. [274.2 D554r]
• Duke, Alastair, et al., eds. Calvinism in Europe, 1540-1610: A Collection of Documents. Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 1992. [284.24 C1392]
  
• England’s Black Tribunal: Containing, I. The Complete Tryal of King Charles the First, by the Pretended High Court of Justice in Westminster-Hall, Begun Jan. 20, 1648.... 7th ed. (1st ed. published 1660.) London, A. Freeman, 1747. [Special Collections 941.062 En34 J/G]
  
• England’s Remembrancer: Being a Collection of Farewel-sermons, Preached by Divers Non-conformists in the Country. London, 1663. [Special Collections 272.6 En34]
• Farrell, Kirby, Elizabeth H. Hageman, and Arthur F. Kinney, eds. Women in the Renaissance: Selections from English Literary Renaissance. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1990. [820.992 W8423]
• Foxe, John. Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. Springdale, Pa.: Whitaker House, 1981. [272.0922 F836a; originally published 1563.]
• Hamilton, Anthony. Memoirs of the Court of Charles II, by Count de Gramont. New York: P.F. Collier & Son, 1910. [941.066 H18m]
  
• Isham, Thomas. The Diary of Thomas Isham of Lamport (1658-81), Kept by Him in Latin from 1671 to 1673 at His Father’s Command. Trans. Norman Marlow. Farnborough: Gregg, 1971. [828.4 Is3Y]
• Keeble, N. H., comp. and ed. The Cultural Identity of Seventeenth-Century Woman: A Reader. London and New York: Routledge, 1994. [305.4094 C899]
  
• Keel, Frederick, ed. and comp. Elizabethan Love-Songs. London and New York: Boosey & Hawkes, 1909-1913. [783.3 El59]
• Kendall, Elizabeth Kimball, ed. Source-book of English History, for the Use of Schools and Readers. New York and London: Macmillan, 1900. [942 K332s]
• Kors, Alan C., and Edward Peters, eds. Witchcraft in Europe, 400-1700: A Documentary History. 2nd ed. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001. [133.43 W77]
  
• Lee, Guy Carleton. Source-book of English History; Leading Documents, Together with Illustrative Material from Contemporary Writers and a Bibliography of Sources. New York: H. Holt, 1900. [942 L512s]
  
• Martin, Randall, ed. Women Writers in Renaissance England. London and New York: Longman, 1997.
• Oster, Malcolm, ed. Science in Europe, 1500-1800: A Primary Sources Reader. Basingstoke, Hampshire, and New York: Palgrave, 2002. [509.4 Sci274]
  
• Otten, Charlotte F., ed. English Women’s Voices, 1540-1700. Miami: Florida International University Press, 1992. [820.8 En36]
• Parker, Kenneth, ed. Early Modern Tales of Orient: A Critical Anthology. London and New York: Routledge, 1999. [915.604 Ea76]
  
• Pinciss, Gerald M., and Roger Lockyer, eds. Shakespeare’s World: Background Readings in the English Renaissance. New York: Continuum, 1989. [822.3 Sh15]
• Sharp, Jane. The Midwives Book: Or the Whole Art of Midwifry Discovered. Ed. Elaine Hobby. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. [618.2 Sh23m; originally published in 1671]
• Smith, Lacey Baldwin, and Jean Reeder Smith, eds. The Past Speaks: Sources and Problems in English History. Vol. 1: To 1688. 2nd ed. Lexington, Mass., and Toronto: D. C. Heath, 1993. [941 P268 v.1]
  
• Taylor, Jeremy. Selected Works. Ed. Thomas K. Carroll. New York: Paulist Press, 1990. [283 T215s]
  
• Trill, Suzanne, et al., eds. Lay by Your Needles Ladies, Take the Pen: Writing Women in England, 1500-1700. London and New York: Arnold, 1997. [820.8092 L451]
  
• Trinterud, Leonard J., comp. Elizabethan Puritanism. New York: Oxford University Press, 1971. [285.9 T737e]
• Tyler, S. Lyman. Two Worlds: The Indian Encounter with the European, 1492-1509. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1988. [972.902 T971t]
• Worger, William H., et al., eds. Africa and the West: A Documentary History from the Slave Trade to Independence. Phoenix, Ariz.: Oryx Press, 2001. [967 Af832]
  

• Amussen, Susan Dwyer. An Ordered Society: Gender and Class in Early Modern England. Oxford and New York: B. Blackwell, 1988. [306.85 Am95o]
  
• Andersen, Jennifer, and Elizabeth Sauer, eds. Books and Readers in Early Modern England: Material Studies. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002. [028.9 B644]
• Archer, John Michael. Sovereignty and Intelligence: Spying and Court Culture in the English Renaissance. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1993. [820.9358 Ar23s]
• Ashelford, Jane. The Art of Dress: Clothes and Society, 1500-1914. London: National Trust, 1996. [391.00941 As35a]
• ———. Dress in the Age of Elizabeth I. New York: Holmes & Meier, 1988. [391.00942 As35d]
• Backscheider, Paula R. Spectacular Politics: Theatrical Power and Mass Culture in Early Modern England. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993. [822.4 B128s]
• Bailyn, Bernard, and Philip D. Morgan, eds. Strangers within the Realm: Cultural Margins of the First British Empire. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991. [941.06 St81]
  
• Benson, Pamela Joseph. The Invention of the Renaissance Woman: The Challenge of Female Independence in the Literature and Thought of Italy and England. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1992. [820.9352 B443i]
• Breitenberg, Mark. Anxious Masculinity in Early Modern England. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996. [820.9353 B748a]
  
• Bristol, Michael D. Carnival and Theater: Plebeian Culture and the Structure of Authority in Renaissance England. New York: Methuen, 1985. [822.309 B776c]
  
• Burnett, Mark Thornton. Masters and Servants in English Renaissance Drama and Culture: Authority and Obedience. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1997. [822.3093 B934m]
  
• Burt, Richard, and John Michael Archer, eds. Enclosure Acts: Sexuality, Property, and Culture in Early Modern England. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1994. [820.9003 En17]
• Carroll, William C. Fat King, Lean Beggar: Representations of Poverty in the Age of Shakespeare. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1996. [820.9355 C236f]
  
• Cerasano, S. P., and Marion Wynne-Davies, eds. Readings in Renaissance Women’s Drama: Criticism, History, and Performance, 1594-1998. London and New York: Routledge, 1998. [822.3 R227]
• Cliffe, J. T. The World of the Country House in Seventeenth-Century England. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1999. [942.06 C611w]
• Cole, Mary Hill. The Portable Queen: Elizabeth I and the Politics of Ceremony. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1999. [942.055 El48c]
• Cook, Ann Jennalie. Making a Match: Courtship in Shakespeare and His Society. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1991. [822.33 DCoo]
  
• Cox, John D., and David Scott Kastan, eds. A New History of Early English Drama. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997. [822.009 N42]
• Cressy, David. Birth, Marriage, and Death: Ritual, Religion, and the Life-Cycle in Tudor and Stuart England. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. [942.05 C864b]
• ———. Literacy and the Social Order: Reading and Writing in Tudor and Stuart England. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1980. [306.4 C864l]
  
• Crockett, Bryan. The Play of Paradox: Stage and Sermon in Renaissance England. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995. [822.3 C872p]
• Dawson, Anthony B., and Paul Yachnin. The Culture of Playgoing in Shakespeare’s England: A Collaborative Debate. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001. [792.0941 D323c]
  
• Diehl, Huston. Staging Reform, Reforming the Stage: Protestantism and Popular Theater in Early Modern England. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1997. [822.0512 D563s]
• Dillon, Janette. Theatre, Court and City, 1595-1610: Drama and Social Space in London. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000. [822.3093 D587t]
  
• Erickson, Peter, and Clark Hulse, eds. Early Modern Visual Culture: Representation, Race, Empire in Renaissance England. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000. [700.942 Ea76]
• Ferguson, Arthur B. The Chivalric Tradition in Renaissance England. Washington, D.C., and London: Folger Shakespeare Library, 1986. [942 F381c]
  
• Findlay, Alison. A Femin