Intimate Britain: Family, Society and Culture, 1832-1918

• Credit value: 30 credits at Level 6
• Convenor: Dr Sean Brady
• Assessment: two essays of 3000 words (25% each) and a three-hour examination (50%)

In this module we introduce you to the study of Victorian family life, and examine themes such as:

• childhood
• old age
• the Victorian way of death
• education
• married life
• developments in gender expectations
• feminism and the family
• the franchise and masculinity
• the state and motherhood
• housewifery and the male breadwinner wage
• suffrage and women
• the First World War and the family.

We will also look at the family and its discontents, exploring themes such as:

• divorce
• homosexuality
• the 'new life' of the 1880s
• the 'New Woman' and the 'crisis in masculinity'
• bastardy
• birth control
• bachelorhood
• the spinster and her enemies.

The module will involve study of documentary evidence, and the historiography of the family, gender, class and sexuality.