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Individual, Polis and Society
Mark Philp
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course plan Lectures and classes – glitzes Bibliography
Primary texts and multiple texts Preparation Written assignments Fieldwork trip Office hours
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Assessment The assessment for this second-year module is as follows: 4,500 word essay (50%) two-hour exam (50%) For details of examination and assessment, please see 'All students (except visiting international students) taking second year options, Advanced Options, or Special Subjects should complete three pieces of formative assessment over the course of the academic year. All first year assessment is summative. The types of assessment are set by the module directors and may include essays, reviews, practice gobbet questions, document analyses or mock examination questions. The deadlines for the formative pieces of assessment are set by the individual module directors. Requests for extensions on formative work should be made to the module director. Feedback on formative work will be received within twenty working days of submission (unless submitted late). Individual tutorials will be provided if requested to support written feedback.' The deadlines for formative pieces are 9.00 Monday morning week 7; 9.00 Monday Morning week 1 of term 2; and 9.00 Monday morning of week 7 term 2. The first formative piece will look at one of the diaries or autobiographies we have identified and discuss the way the work engages in a process of self-construction. The second will involve an analaysis of a particular text on political thought - to be negotiated. The third will examine the ways in which we can use texts and other sources to understand the social experience of men and women in the eighteenth century.
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Autobiography Diaries and journals Retrospective accounts
Private vs publication Precursors
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Augustine But I still postponed my renunciation of the World’s joys, which would have left me free to look for that other happiness, the very search for which, let alone its discovery, I ought to have prized above the discovery of all human treasures and kingdoms or the ability to enjoy all the pleasures of the body at a mere nod of the head. As a youth I had been woefully at fault…I had prayed to you for chastity and said ‘Give me chastity and continence, but not yet.’
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Montaigne Of Experience (Book III)
But is there anything so sweet as that sudden change, when from extreme pain, by the voiding of my stone, I come to recover as if by lightning the beautiful light of health, so free and so full, as happens in our sudden and sharpest attacks of colic? Is there anything in this pain we suffer that can be said to counterbalance the pleasure of such sudden improvement? How much more beautiful health seems to me after illness, when they are so near and contiguous that I can recognize them in each other’s presence in their proudest array, when they vie with each other, as if to oppose each other squarely!
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Medieval autobiography as the search of the soul for sin
John Flemming: ‘…modern autobiography is grounded in subjectivity (the writer’s consciousness and individuality) and expression(the artistic presentation of subjectivity). …Early autobiography, on the other hand is generally grounded in exemplarity (a demonstration of the generalized meaning of a particular life in its illustration of a broad human or transcendental truths..’
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Comparative self-examination
Does Pepys think like us? Does he think like his predecessors? How do we tell? Varieties of self as other: detachment, control, fascination; disgust; shame; guilt Varieties of self expression: I am what I am What is admitted, what not? What is hidden from them?
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Women’s autobiography and diaries
Teresa of Avila Bernini, St. Maria della Vittorio
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The four stages of the ascent of the soul: 1. mental prayer 2
The four stages of the ascent of the soul: 1. mental prayer 2. devotion of peace – surrender to God 3. ecstatic state of absorption in God 4. Devotion to God – consciousness of body disappears
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Self and not self
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Web-page resources Dudley Ryder Benjamin Franklin James Boswell
David Hume William Upcott Montaigne, Montesquieu, Rousseau
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Benjamin Franklin’s Virtues
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Franklin’s 13 Virtues Temperance. Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation. Silence. Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation. Order. Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time. Resolution. Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve. Frugality. Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing. Industry. Lose no time; be always employ'd in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions. Sincerity. Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly. Justice. Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty. Moderation. Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve. Cleanliness. Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, cloaths, or habitation. Tranquillity. Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable. Chastity. Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another's peace or reputation. Humility. Imitate Jesus and Socrates.
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Changing imaginaries, changing self-fashioning
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Masculinity
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Macaroni
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Wigs
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amour de soi/amour propre the social construction of identity
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Godwin Diary
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Sleeping Beauty Sun Moon and Talia,by Giambattista Basile, published in 1634 (the wife). Calvino’s Sleeping Beauty and her children. Perrault (the mother); Grimm’s Briar Rose (Happily ever after) Adult or Child orientated – neither? Dangers to children Illustrations (Langrish)
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Seminar Assignment for August/September
Before the start of term all students should read three months of Pepys's diary - it is available online (see below). Take the year of your birth - eg and replace the first three numbers with producing Then take the month of your birth and read that month and the two subsequent months. And also try and read a month of either Dudley Ryder, or Boswell, or one Book of Rousseau's Confessions. Then keep a Diary for a week using the style of one of those that you have read - albeit in a way that makes you willing to share some part of it, at least, with your colleagues. We will use this material in the first week of term (and teaching does start in the first week of the Autumn Term!). Samuel Pepys: see The Diary of Dudley Ryder, (1939) DA 483.R9 see short extract here James Boswell, London Journal (3 copies in the Library PR3325) see extract including brief sections from Montaigne, Montesquieu, Hume and Rousseau here Rousseau's Confessions: see short extract in Boswell extract William Upcott - transcription of a ms Diary in the BL see here Sharon Turner - transcription of diary of a ms in the BL see here The following are items that, if you are interested in autobiography and self-analysis, might form the basis for essay work. Franklin Autobiography: see short extract here Laurence Sterne, Sentimental Journey - Henry Mackenzie, The Man of Feeling -
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Next week Women’s self analysis – Wollstonecraft’s Vindication; Memoirs of Emma Courtney History of sexuality vs history of female sociability
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