UNIVERSITY OF KENT – CODE OF PRACTICE FOR QUALITY ASSURANCE
MODULE SPECIFICATION TEMPLATE
1
2
The title of the module Early Modern Women in the History of the Book
The Department which will be responsible for management of the module Centre for Medieval &
Early Modern Studies
3
The Start Date of the Module January 2005
4
The number of students expected to take the module Approx. 3-5
5
Modules to be withdrawn on the introduction of this proposed module and consultation with other
relevant Departments and Faculties regarding the withdrawal N/A
6
The level of the module (eg Certificate [C], Intermediate [I], Honours [H] or Postgraduate [M]) M
7
The number of credits which the module represents 30 credits
8
Which term(s) the module is to be taught in (or other teaching pattern) Autumn or Spring
9
Prerequisite and co-requisite modules ‘Palaeography and Manuscript,’
10
11
12
13
The programmes of study to which the module contributes Taught MA in Medieval & Early
Modern Studies
The intended subject specific learning outcomes and, as appropriate, their relationship to programme
learning outcomes
The module aims to:
 introduce and examine key critical debates in ‘the history of the book’;
 develop the bibliographical and analytical skills to conduct research in the history of the
book;
 introduce and examine key critical debates in the field of early modern women’s literary
production;
 apply the techniques deployed in ‘the history of the book’ to case studies of early
modern women’s literary production;
 enable and develop research opportunities in the study of early modern women’s
literary culture.
 recognise and understand the bibliographic dimensions and histories of early modern
texts;
 become acquainted with the history, and historical difference and specificity, of early
modern modes of literary production, particularly with a view to gender;
 understand the inherently interdisciplinary nature of the scholarship required to study
pre-modern literatures;
The intended generic learning outcomes and, as appropriate, their relationship to programme learning
outcomes
Students will:
 develop their capacity for rigorous critical analysis and close reading of early modern
texts;
 develop communication and presentation skills through seminar discussion and written
work.
A synopsis of the curriculum
This course aims to engage with (and produce) cutting-edge research by bringing together two
innovative fields of scholarship: the history of the book and early modern women’s literary
production. The ‘history of the book’ is one of the most exciting areas of new research in early
modern literary studies – not only prompting scholars to rethink assumptions about the nature
of literary production but opening up new fields of enquiry. This course explores key critical
UNIVERSITY OF KENT – CODE OF PRACTICE FOR QUALITY ASSURANCE
debates in the history of the book -- print ‘versus’ manuscript culture; the ‘material’ text,
textual apparatus and transmission; stationers and the book trade; scribal publication and the
miscellany; authors and authorship, readers and reading; the work of literary coteries -- in the
context of early modern women’s literary production. Through a series of case studies we will
develop and apply the critical and analytical skills deployed by the history of the book to
women’s literary production. Topics and texts studied may include: the emergence into print
culture of Kent noblewomen Mary Sidney and Lady Mary Wroth (Penshurst); the
representation of reading in the diary of Kent noblewoman Lady Anne Clifford (Knole); the
early printing of Isabella Whitney’s landmark poems about life and work in London (1567 and
1573); the presentation of women’s literary and non-literary writing in print (such as prefaces
by Margaret Tyler and Dorothy Leigh); the marketing of provocative work on and by women
(the querelles des femmes); and the work of women in manuscript culture (such as Lady Anne
Southwell or Constance Anne Fowler). Where possible, original materials in the Templeman
library and Cathedral archives will consulted; similarly, electronic copies of original printed
works may also be made available through WebCT technology.
14
Indicative Reading List
Possible Primary Reading
Reading Early Modern Women: An Anthology of Texts in Manuscript and Print, 1550-1700 eds. Helen
Ostovich et al (London: Routledge, 2003)
Anne Vaughan Lock. The Collected Works of Anne Vaughan Lock. Ed. Susan Felch. Medieval and
Renaissance Texts and Studies, v. 185. Tempe, Arizona: Arizona Center for Medieval and
Renaissance Studies; Renaissance English Text Society, 1999.
Isabella Whitney, Mary Sidney and Amelia Lanyer: Renaissance Women Poets ed. Danielle Clarke
(Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2001)
The Diaries of Lady Anne Clifford ed. D.J.H. Clifford (Far Thrupp: Alan Sutton, 1990)
The Southwell-Sibthorpe Commonplace Book. Folger MS V.b.198 ed. Jean Klene (Tempe, AZ:
Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 1997)
Constance Aston Fowler, The Verse Miscellany of Constance Aston Fowler: A Diplomatic Edition
edited by Deborah Aldrich-Watson Klene (Tempe, AZ: Medieval and Renaissance Texts and
Studies, 2000)
Selected Bibliography
Bennett, H. S., English Books and Readers, 1558-1603 (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1965) and English
Books and Readers, 1603-40 (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1970)
Chartier, Roger, ed., The Culture of Print: Power and the Uses of Print in Early Modern Europe
(Cambridge: CUP, 1989)
Chartier, Roger, ed., The Order of Books: Readers, Authors and Libraries in Europe between the
Fourteenth and Eighteenth Centuries (Cambridge: Polity P, 1994)
Crane, Mary Thomas, Framing Authority: Sayings, Self, and Society in Sixteenth-Century England
(Princeton: Princeton UP, 1993)
Darnton, Robert, ‘What is the History of Books?’, Daedalus 3 (1982): 65-83 and chapter 1 of The Kiss
of Lamourette: Reflections in Cultural History (London and Boston: faber and Faber, 1990)
Hannay, Margaret P (ed), Silent But for the Word: Tudor Women as Patrons, Translators, and Writers
of Religious Works (ent, OH: Kent State UP, 1985)
Hobbs, Margaret, Early Seventeenth-Century Verse Miscellany Manuscripts (Aldershot: Scolar P, 1992)
Finkelstein, David and Alistair McCleery (eds), The Book History Reader (London: Routledge, 2001)
Johns, Adrian, The Nature of the Book: Print and Knowledge in the Making (Chcago and London: U
Chicago P, 1998)
Justice, George L. and Nathan Tinker, Women’s Writing and the Circulation of Ideas: Manuscript
Publication in England, 1550-1800 (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2002)
Lamb, Mary Ellen, Gender and Authorship in the Sidney Circle (Madison: U Wisconsin P, 1990)
Love, Harold, Scribal Publication in Seventeenth Century England (Oxford: Clarendon, 1993)
UNIVERSITY OF KENT – CODE OF PRACTICE FOR QUALITY ASSURANCE
Lewalski, Barbara Kiefer, Writing Women in Jacobean England (London and Cambridge, MA:
Harvard UP, 1993)
Malcolmson, Cristina and Mihoko Suzuki (eds), Debating Gender in Early Modern England, 1500-1700
(Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002)
Marottie, Arthur F., Manuscript, Print, and the English Renaissance Lyric (Ithaca and London:
Cornell UP, 1995)
Pacheco, Anita, A Companion to Early Modern Women’s Writing (Oxford: Blackwell, 2002)
Raven, James, Helen Small and Naomi Tadmor, eds., The Practice and Representation of Reading in
England (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1995)
Roberts, Sasha, ed. ‘Reading in Early Modern England’, special issue of Critical Survey 12:2 (2000)
Rose, Jonathan, ‘The History of Books: Revised and Enlarged’, in The Darnton Debate: Books and
Revolution in the Eighteenth Century ed. Hayden T. Mason (Oxford: Voltaire Foundation,
1998): 83-104
Sauer, Elizabeth and Jeffier Anderson, eds., Books and Readers in Early Modern England: Material
Studies (Philadelphia: U Pennsylvania P, 2001)
Schleiner, Louise, Tudor and Stuart Women Writers (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana UP, 1994)
Sharpe, Kevin, Reading Revolutions: The Politics of Reading in Early Modern England (New Haven
and London: Yale UP, 2000)
Wall, Wendy, The Imprint of Gender: Authorship and Publication in the English Renaissance (Ithaca:
Cornell UP, 1993)
15
16
17
18
Learning and Teaching Methods, including the nature and number of contact hours and the total study
hours which will be expected of students, and how these relate to achievement of the intended
learning outcomes
The course is taught by seminar with provision for close supervision of individual students as
necessary. There will be 26 hours total, divided between 2-hour weekly seminars and individual
tutorials. Alongside the primary texts, a selection of secondary critical reading (drawn from
books and periodicals) will be required reading, and these will be provided in a booklet form.
Total study hours 300.
Assessment methods and how these relate to testing achievement of the intended learning outcomes
One 5-6000 (article-length) essay. An oral presentation is a required part of the course, and
should contribute to the essay, but is not assessed as an independent piece of work. The final
mark will rest on the quality of individual research and its presentation in written form, and the
test of high quality will be whether work is up to publishable standard.
Implications for learning resources, including staff, library, IT and space
Students will be required to consult specialist journals, and they will be encouraged to use the
Canterbury Cathedral Archives and Library.
A statement confirming that, as far as can be reasonably anticipated, the curriculum, learning and
teaching methods and forms of assessment do not present any non-justifiable disadvantage to students
with disabilities Agreed. Cathedral Library has a lift for wheelchair access.