HI4312 Eighteenth-century Dublin
Module Organiser: Professor David Dickson
Duration: Hilary term
Contact hours: 2 hours per week
Weighting: 10 ECTS
Assessment: 20% Essay; 80% Examination
This semester-long module encourages students to explore the transformation of the city of Dublin between the 1690s and the 1790s, spanning the time that it functioned as the parliamentary capital of the country and as a centre of upper-class resort, rivalled only by London within the English-speaking world. The module serves as an introduction to the comparative study of urban history, but the focus remains firmly on the city itself, on its problems of growth, on the development of the public sphere and on the opening out of politics from Parliament House to guild-hall, tavern and the street itself.
The module is organized around a close analysis of some ten moments in the history of the eighteenth-century city -- political, architectural, literary and scandalous. These ten signal events have been chosen as starting-points from which to explore broader themes and processes of change, and hopefully they will also provide inspiration for major essay topics.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
- Analyse the political, socio-economic, cultural and topographic history of eighteenth-century Dublin
- Identify and search for relevant secondary literature
- Engage with relevant theoretical and critical approaches to the history of towns in general and Dublin in particular
- Apply different techniques of evaluation and interpretation to relevant primary sources
- Critique relevant historiography in the light of study of primary sources
- Present and discuss analysis of questions relating to the history of Dublin during the eighteenth century
- Analyse the impact on Dublin of different aspects of contemporary politics, society and culture.