Module Catalogue 2025/26

Pre Requisite Comment

N/A

Co Requisite Comment

N/A

Aims

This module explores the eighteenth-century 'consumer revolution' through the widening commercialisation of leisure and how increasing accessibility to shared experiences, goods, and spaces impacted social, racial, and gendered hierarchies in Georgian London and beyond. It will be of particular interest to students who are interested in engaging with a wide range of sources, from print culture to material culture and art history. It is taught largely via small-group seminars which build on a series of weekly themed topics, which may include:

-The Luxury Debates
-The Consumer Revolution
-Britain, Empire, and 'Other'
-Politeness and Taste
-Gender Expectations and Subversion
-Costume and Conspicuous Consumption

A number of key lectures by the module leader also introduce critical theories and themes (possibilites include ‘Landscaping Pleasure Spaces and Environmental History' or 'Racial Impersonation: Seeing the Empire on Stage'). There is also the opportunity to engage directly with residential sites of pleasure spaces of Georgian England via a field trip to National Trust sites such as Gibside or Seaton Delaval.

The main aim of the module is to provide an opportunity to acquire a sound general knowledge of the specialist subject, reading widely and critically in the primary and secondary literature associated with it.
Other aims are to:
•practise written communication skills (with the opportunity to gain individual feedback by writing an assessed essay and receiving a one-to-one tutorial);
•practise oral communication skills in seminars via small group working;
•practise a range of study skills via in-depth engagement with a variety of primary sources and interdisciplinary methodologies;
•develop the capacity for independent study.

Outline Of Syllabus

Two lectures at the start of the module will introduce key concepts or theme in relation to the module outline, with weekly seminars building upon this introduction and the weekly topic. This is an outline syllabus, intended as a guide only; week-by-week topics may be slightly different to the following:

1. What and Where is the 'Long 18th Century'?: Historiography, Geography, Chronology
2. Who's Who: The Elite, Middling Sorts, and 'Others'
3. Buying and Shopping: Making Fashion and Pleasure
4. Eighteenth-century Influencers: The Beau Monde
5. Fashionable Display: Conspicuous Consumption and Dress
6. Performing Gender: Macaronis, Castrati, and the Molly Houses
7. Impersonating & Appropriating Race: Opera, Plays, and Masquerades
8. Pleasurable Stuff: Intoxicants and Luxury Consumables
9. The Places of Pleasure: Brothels, Clubs, and Pleasure Gardens
10. The Impact of Commercialised Leisure: Then and Now

Intended Knowledge Outcomes

By the end of the module participants will have:
- Advanced their knowledge of the impact of the commercialisation of leisure and 'consumer revolution' in British society during the eighteenth century and how these changes influenced social, racial, and gender hierarchies.
- Acquired an understanding of the different analytical approaches and methodologies historians have used to uncover the production and consumption of goods, experiences, and spaces in past societies.
- Comprehended key historical interpretations relating to the rise of a consumer society, conceptions of gender, and the significance of material literacy in shaping and subverting societal norms.

Intended Skill Outcomes

By the end of the module participants will have:
- Increased their proficiency at interpreting a range of primary sources such as manuscripts, account books, and newspapers as well as working with sources beyond traditional text. These include objects, dress, art, and printed ephemera.
- Raised their capacity for independent thinking by finding and commenting on a material object of their own choice, and by potentially formulating and answering their own research question.
- Developed their teamwork and written/oral communication skills through participation in seminars.
-Improved their competence in engaging with historiography and analysing continuities and change over time.

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

The combination of lectures, seminars, and fieldwork is designed to encourage an active and student-led approach to learning. Lectures provide foundational knowledge of core themes and are active learning experiences that use technology-enhanced learning to introduce new material to students through a combination of visual, textual, and oral presentation.

Seminars encourage independent study and promote improvements in oral presentation, interpersonal communication, problem-solving skills and adaptability. Preparation for seminars will require students to undertake a programme of private reading, requiring good time management and personal responsibility for learning. Small group work and general discussion will develop the oral communication skills of students. Seminar preparation will require the student to read and analyse a wide range of primary source material and secondary literature.

The fieldtrip provides students with the opportunity to physically study material objects and spaces and supports their preparation of the material/visual culture essay. Lectures, seminars, and the fieldtrip support students’ ability to interpret qualitative data and material objects.

In the event that on-campus sessions need to be reduced, there is the capacity to hold live seminar discussions online and retain timetabled slots.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

The material/visual culture essay assesses students’ ability to critically analyse and contextualise a primary source and to situate it within relevant historiographical debates. It requires students to write concisely and since students choose their own object to comment on, the commentary encourages participants to think independently.

The research essay evaluates the acquisition of a clear general knowledge of the subject, as well as the ability to locate and synthesise relevant information and express complex ideas in written form using appropriate scholarly sources. The essay assesses students’ capacity to interpret material objects and quantitative data, and their ability to use such evidence to construct a compelling argument. Students have the freedom to set their own research question for the essay (with guidance), which further assists their proficiency to work independently and increases their investment in the module. Work submitted during the delivery of the module forms a means of determining student progress. All submitted work tests intended knowledge and skills outcomes and develops key skills in research, reading, and writing.

The presentations will, while developing the relevant skill-set for presenting ideas, build up knowledge of how to analyse primary sources.

All Study-abroad, non-Erasmus exchange and Loyola students spending semester 1 only are required to finish their assessment while in Newcastle. Where an exam is present, an alternative form of assessment will be set and where coursework is present, an alternative deadline will be set. Details of the alternative assessment will be provided by the module leader.

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

N/A