Module Catalogue 2024/25

Pre Requisite Comment

N/A

Co Requisite Comment

N/A

Aims

The pursuit of the ‘ideal constitution’ has occupied political theorists throughout the centuries, and one of the most regularly invoked and most powerful visions of this elusive ideal has been the Roman Republic. As a historical precedent, it represented a form of government which had overseen the creation of an empire that exerted power over an immense swathe of land, yet which had eventually declined into civil war and ultimately failure. In theoretical terms, the Republic also generated works of philosophical and historical reflection, as those who lived as observers of its achievements and witnesses of its collapse sought to understand both its success and its failure. This module will introduce the theory of republicanism, and the particular elements of ‘Roman Republicanism’, examining Roman Republicanism in its original context, and evaluating the legacy left by both the Republic and the political literature it generated. We will analyse how Roman Republicanism was read, reinterpreted, and reapplied to different historical circumstances from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, encompassing Machiavelli, the English Civil Wars, and the development of the American constitution.

Outline Of Syllabus

Our survey of Republican thought will include:
•An introduction to the origins and development of Roman Republicanism, focussing on the works of Polybius and Cicero
•The rediscovery of ancient Republicanism by Leonardo Bruni and the Civic Humanists of Renaissance Florence
•Machiavelli and the Florentine Republic
•The Classical Republicans and the English Civil War (including John Milton and James Harrington)
•English political thought in the aftermath of the Glorious Revolution
•A look forward to its importance to the key figures of the French Enlightenment (Montesquieu and Rousseau) and the Founding Fathers in America

Intended Knowledge Outcomes

1.Understanding of the intellectual tradition identified by ‘Roman Republicanism’, the set texts, and the fate of Roman Republicanism in the defined period.
2.Analysis of how writers in different historical and political contexts engage with the tradition of the Roman Republic.
3.Understanding of how the different approaches to this classical idea shaped its fate in Western culture.
4.Comprehension of the debates in secondary literature, and the different demands involved in studying intellectual history, and the particular approaches and benefits of the discipline.

Intended Skill Outcomes

1.The ability to engage in textual analysis, including evaluating texts according to their historical and cultural contexts, while also situating those texts in a broader intellectual narrative.
2.To develop independent research and self-management capabilities
3.To communicate ideas and learning effectively, both in oral and written contexts
4.To analyse and evaluate the available evidence critically, and produce an argument from that analysis.
5.To critically assess the available modern scholarship, and engage with the discipline of intellectual history.

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

Weekly two-hour seminars will balance lecture and small-group teaching, with each session involving an overview of the historical context, key authors, and central themes; discussion of the form of the set text, and the intellectual culture in which it was produced; and guided reading of excerpts of the set texts. Weekly one-hour seminars will then allow students to apply the knowledge from the first seminar session to particular passages. Students will be expected to prepare at least one gobbet for each session, and to read the items of secondary literature identified for them.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

The examination will assess:
•The Intended Knowledge Outcomes
•Skill outcomes 1, 3 and 4.
The essay will assess:
•All the Intended Skill Outcomes
•All Intended Knowledge Outcomes

All Erasmus students at Newcastle University are expected to do the same assessment as students registered for a degree.

Study-abroad, non-Erasmus exchange and Loyola students spending semester 1 only are required to finish their assessment while in Newcastle. This will take the form of an alternative assessment, as outlined in the formats below:

Modules assessed by Coursework and Exam -
The normal alternative form of assessment for all semester 1 non-EU study abroad students will be one essay in addition to the other coursework assessment (the length of the essay should be adjusted in order to comply with the assessment tariff); to be submitted no later than 12pm Friday of week 12. The essays should be set so as to assure coverage of the course content to date.

Modules assessed by Exam only -
The normal alternative form of assessment for all semester 1 non-EU study abroad students will be two 2,000 word written exercises; to be submitted no later than 12pm Friday of week 12. The essays should be set so as to assure coverage of the course content to date.

Modules assessed by Coursework only -
All semester 1 non-EU study abroad students will be expected to complete the standard assessment for the module; to be submitted no later than 12pm Friday of week 12. The essays should be set so as to assure coverage of the course content to date.

Study-abroad, non-Erasmus exchange and Loyola students spending the whole academic year or semester 2 are required to complete the standard assessment as set out in the MOF under all circumstances.

General Notes

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