The Enlightenment saw the creation of a secular intelligentsia and public opinion with a belief in reason, freedom of thought, and the pursuit of progress. In the French Revolution there was an unprecedented overthrow and dismantling of Absolutist royal authority, and the attempt by the revolutionaries to create a new society based on 'liberty, equality, and fraternity'. The module will use the concepts of culture and power to consider topics such as Popular cultures in C18 France; Enlightenment cultures and power; Women and nature in the Enlightenment; The making of political cultures in the French Revolution; Justice and Punishment - the guillotine and the Terror; Gender and sexuality in the French Revolution; Festivals, space and time in the French Revolution; Rousseau, the Enlightenment and the French Revolution.

Topic assignment of 2,200 words and Sources assignment (commenting on source extracts) of 800 words

The lectures will introduce the main themes and arguments of the module content including video extracts and slides. The seminars will provide for follow-up discussion of the themes from the lectures and some analysis of primary source extracts and video extracts and guidance on research. The independent study element should be used for background reading, reading for the seminars, and research and preparation of the written assignments.

Recommended library books, journals and videos and on-line resources.
University networked computers for internet research.
E-mail module discussion list, or VLE component if set up by tutor.
The Blackboard virtual learning environment will be available (where relevant) to support this module. Details will be supplied in the module handbook.

Andress, David French Society in Revolution 1789-1799, M.U.P., Manchester, 1999
Baker, Keith M. The Old Regime and the French Revolution [Document Collection], Univ. Chicago Press, Chicago & London, 1987
Blanning, T.C.W. The Culture of Power and the Power of Culture: Old Regime Europe 1660-1789, O.U.P., Oxford, 2002
Blanning, T.C.W. The French Revolution: Class War or Culture Clash?, Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2nd Edn. 1998
Censer, Jack R. & Hunt, Lynn Liberty, Equality and Fraternity: Exploring the French Revolution, Penn Univ. Press, Pennsylvania, 2001 [with cd-rom]
Doyle, William The Oxford History of the French Revolution, O.U.P., Oxford, 2nd Edn. 2002
Fara, Patricia Pandora?s Breeches: Women, Science and Power in the Enlightenment, Pimlico, London, 2004
Hunt, Lynn The Family Romance of the French Revolution, Routledge, London, 1992
Hyland, Paul et. al (eds. ) The Enlightenment: A Sourcebook and Reader, Routledge, London, 2003
Jones, Colin The Great Nation: France from Louis XV to Napoleon, Allen Lane, London, 2002
Jones, P.M. The French Revolution 1787-1804, Pearson Longman, Harlow, 2003
Kennedy , Emmet A Cultural History of the French Revolution, Yale Univ. Press, New Haven & London, 1989
Kramnick, Isaac (ed) The Portable Enlightenment Reader, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1995
Melton, James Van Horn The Rise of the Public in Enlightenment Europe, C.U.P., Cambridge, 2001
Munck, Thomas The Enlightenment: A Comparative Social History 1721-1794, Arnold, London, 2000
Outram, Dorinda The Enlightenment, C.U.P., Cambridge, 1995
Roche, Daniel France in the Enlightenment, Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge Mass., 1998