MO3034 Picturing Politics and Society in Early Modern England: Images of Power and Corruption from Van Dyck to Gillray, c.1630-c.1800
   
Lecturer Dr Grant Tapsell  
   
Credits 30
   
Availability 2007-2008 - Semester 2
   
Class Hour view timetable
   
Description This course will investigate how early modern English men and women saw politics and society in prints and paintings. Pictures were potentially accessible to all social groups, from the illiterate poor to the wealthiest aristocrats. Although it has been argued that ‘iconophobia’ – the hatred of images – was a distinguishing characteristic of the English Reformation, visual representations of social trends and political events were an increasingly important part of life in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Through the semester we will look at key themes through visual sources, and consider the benefits and pitfalls of such an art-based approach.
   
Basic Reading
  • A. Griffiths, The Print in Stuart Britain 1603-1689 (1998)
  • T. Clayton, The English Print, 1688-1802 (1997)
  • J. Brewer, The Pleasures of the Imagination: the emergence of English culture in the eighteenth century (1997), pts. I, III
  • K. Morgan (ed.), The Oxford History of Britain (3rd edn., 2001), chs. by Morrill (the Stuarts) and Langford (the 18th C.)
   

Course Structure
  1. Introduction
  2. How early modern Englishmen ‘read’ images
  3. Sources I. Popular Print: appealing to a mass audience
  4. Sources II. The Development of Graphic Satire: Hogarth to Gillray
  5. Politics I. Stuart Monarchy: a successful ‘brand’ image?
  6. Politics II. Hanoverian Politics: jacobites and mobs
  7. Politics III. The Role of Religion: Anglicans and their critics
  8. Society I. Hierarchy: nobility and its images
  9. Society II. Rich and Poor: a ‘polite and commercial people’?
  10. Society III. Gender: women on top?
  11. Conclusions  
   
Assessment

60% examination – 3 hour paper
40% coursework

   

Learning Outcomes
  • Understanding the role of art and artists in social and political commentary
  • Assessing the reliability of visual sources
  • Understanding change and continuity in society and political life between the reigns of Charles I and George III
   
Restrictions None