This module (and its co-requisite) will allow students to study a historical theme or area in great depth, under the guidance of an individual member of staff drawing on both secondary sources (i.e. books and articles) and primary sources (documents, newspapers etc), both published and unpublished. The module will allow students to study an aspect of history in detail and gain a fuller understanding of how different types of source material inform the historical process.
Module Summary “The one duty we owe to history is to rewrite it,” wrote Oscar Wilde in 1891. Less than a decade later, the Irish poet and playwright was dead, having never recovered from his prison term for gross indecency with men. This Special Subject takes up Wilde’s challenge and explores the queer history of the modern British world. It traces the evolution of identities and practices in subcultural communities, medical debates, and legal codes. It covers the politics of liberation and activism in the 1970s and 1980s and the development of modern identity categories, often grouped in the acronym LGBTQI+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex), and now protected, in the UK, by the 2010 Equalities Act. Ranging across Britain, Ireland, and the British Empire, it considers colonialism shaped queer historical experience and how the intersections of race, class, and gender within the worlds of sexual and gender minorities. Queer history challenges us to read between the lines and to unsettle established categories. Ultimately, the module considers how the tools and methods of queer studies can help us to rewrite the history of modern Britain.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the module students should be able to:
analyse and critically appraise key events and historical processes relevant to the subject under scrutiny;
analyse and critically evaluate a wide range of relevant primary source material;
critically evaluate the historiographical context and trends of the subject under exploration;
Summarise, synthesise and evaluate the subject material in a sophisticated written form
