Unit information: Writing the City: London 1550-1740 in 2020/21

Unit name	Writing the City: London 1550-1740
Unit code	ENGL20069
Credit points	20
Level of study	I/5
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
Unit director	Dr. John McTague
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of English
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

This unit looks at how writers and other practitioners imagined and interpreted London as it grew and changed at dizzying speed through the early modern period, and drew to it people from all walks of life. We will ask how writers imagined and interpreted urban geographies, and how those geographies in turn shaped the drama, poetry, and novels that were written there. We will read literary texts alongside sermons, pamphlets, advertisements, court records and other kinds of evidence. The unit examines the ways in which literature interacted with the city’s changing economic and material cultures, and how writers represent crime, the urban underworld and the market for illicit sex. It asks how aesthetic and other values were influenced by new tastes in fashion and luxury goods, and by the city’s new places and forms of exchange. The unit will also examine literature’s role in the construction and negotiation of urban identities and the city’s boundaries, how literature represents the place of men and women in the city, and how the city interacts with the stage and an emerging public sphere of print culture. The unit is explicitly designed to introduce students to high-level literary and historical research skills, both in the assessments (a group research project culminating in a research poster, as well as an exam), and in the weekly hands-on sessions where students will use research databases and other materials in order to answer questions or solve problems. Core literary texts may change from year to year. Works studied in previous years include Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders; Isabella Whitney, ‘Last Will and Testament’; Ben Jonson, The Alchemist; Alexander Pope, The Dunciad; Eliza Haywood, Fantomina. Students curious about which texts will feature on the unit in a given year should contact the unit convenor.

Intended Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:

1. demonstrate knowledge and understanding of a range of texts which, and authors who, represent London in the period 1550-1740;
2. demonstrate an ability to use electronic and physical research resources to solve particular problems and answer particular questions
3. discriminate between and evaluate different critical perspectives on the primary material studied;
4. identify and critically assess pertinent evidence to develop a cogent argument;
5. demonstrate skills in textual analysis, argumentation, and critical interpretation using evidence from primary texts and secondary sources appropriate to level I/5.

Teaching Information

Teaching will involve asynchronous and synchronous elements, including long- and short-form lectures, group discussion, research and writing activities, and peer dialogue. Students are expected to engage with the reading and participate fully with the weekly tasks and topics. Learning will be further supported through the opportunity for individual consultation.

Assessment Information

• 1 x bibliography (formative) [ILOs 1,6]
• 1 x group project (40%) [ILOs 1-5]
• 1 x timed assessment (60%) [ILOs 1,3,4,5]

Reading and References

Early English Books Online

Old Bailey Online

The Grub Street Project

Map of Early Modern London

Laurence Manley, Literature and Culture in Early Modern London (CUP, 1995)

Miranda Kaufman, Black Tudors (London: Oneworld, 2017)