Intimate Britain: Family, Society and Culture, 1832-1918
Overview
- Credit value: 30 credits at Level 6
- Convenor: Dr Sean Brady
- Assessment: a 1000-word written assignment (20%) and 3000-word essay (80%)
Module description
In this module we introduce you to the study of Victorian family life, and examine themes such as:
- childhood
- old age
- the Victorian way of death
- education
- married life
- developments in gender expectations
- feminism and the family
- the franchise and masculinity
- the state and motherhood
- housewifery and the male breadwinner wage
- suffrage and women
- the First World War and the family.
We will also look at the family and its discontents, exploring themes such as:
- divorce
- homosexuality
- the 'new life' of the 1880s
- the 'New Woman' and the 'crisis in masculinity'
- bastardy
- birth control
- bachelorhood
- the spinster and her enemies.
The module will involve study of documentary evidence, and the historiography of the family, gender, class and sexuality.