Module overview
Aims and Objectives
Learning Outcomes
Transferable and Generic Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- engage in independent study and research.
- gather and digest relevant primary and secondary source materials including via electronic and web resources
- develop orally and in writing sound and well supported arguments.
- put forward your ideas and arguments in group discussions, and consider the arguments put forward by your fellow students
- elaborate and express your ideas and critical reflections in essays, using primary and secondary sources.
Subject Specific Practical Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- Evaluate and compare different genres of source text
- Work confidently with library, archival and virtual sources as appropriate
Cognitive Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- Demonstrate a critical understanding of the histories of witchcraft and witchcraft accusations.
- Evaluate differences in historiographical understandings of witchcraft in the early modern era
- Make analytical connections between different types of sources and theories in explaining why there were so many witchcraft prosecutions in the early modern period.
Knowledge and Understanding
Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
- The primary sources and testimonies that provide historical evidence for stories of witchcraft in the early modern period.
- The historiographies of witchcraft in early modern England
- The variety of witchcraft narratives in the period 1542-1736 and the factors determining those variations
Syllabus
Learning and Teaching
Teaching and learning methods
Type | Hours |
---|---|
Lecture | 12 |
Preparation for scheduled sessions | 36 |
Wider reading or practice | 12 |
Seminar | 12 |
Revision | 24 |
Completion of assessment task | 54 |
Total study time | 150 |
Resources & Reading list
Journal Articles
D. Purkiss (1997). ‘Desire and its Deformities: Fantasies of Witchcraft during the English Civil War’. Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 27(1).
Textbooks
P. Elmer (2016). Witchcraft, Witch-Hunting and Politics in Early Modern England.
B. Rosen (1991). Witchcraft in England, 1558-1618.
M. Stoyle (2017-18). Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart Exeter.
K. Brigges (1962). Pale Hecate’s Team: An Examination of the Beliefs on Witchcraft and Magic among Shakespeare’s Contemporaries.
A.Macfarlane (1970). Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart England.
J. Sharpe (1996). Instruments of Darkness: Witchcraft in England, 1550-1750.
M. Stoyle (2011). The Black Legend of Prince Rupert’s Dog: Witchcraft and Propaganda during the English Civil War.
C. Ewen (1929). Witch-Hunting and Witch Trials.
J. Sharpe (2002). ‘The Witch’s Familiar in Early Modern England’, in G.W. Bernard and S.J. Gunn (eds), Authority and Consent in Tudor England.
B.P. Levack (2006). The Witch-Hunt in early Modern Europe.
M. Gaskill (2005). Witchfinders: A Seventeenth-Century English Tragedy.
H. Trevor-Roper (1947). Four Centuries of Witch-Belief.
C. Hole (1986). Witchcraft in Britain.
O. Davies (1999). A People Bewitched: Witchcraft and Magic in Nineteenth-Century Somerset.
R. Poole (ed.) (2000). The Lancashire Witches.
Assessment
Summative
This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.
Method | Percentage contribution |
---|---|
Essay | 60% |
Written assignment | 40% |
Referral
This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.
Method | Percentage contribution |
---|---|
Resubmit assessments | 100% |
Repeat Information
Repeat type: Internal & External