Eighteenth-Century Studies (Paris)

Course Structure

1. extend and deepen through coursework and research your understanding of eighteenth-century literary, visual and material culture and its political and cultural contexts
2. develop your understanding of, and engagement with, the critical and methodological paradigms that inform the field of eighteenth-century studies today
3. develop your independent critical thinking and judgement.
4. introduce you to the research methods that facilitate advanced study in the field
5. provide a basis in knowledge and skills for those intending to teach eighteenth-century studies, especially in higher education
6. provide an interdisciplinary context for the study of eighteenth-century literary, visual and material culture.
7. develop your ability to argue a point of view with clarity and cogency, both orally and in written form
8. provide teaching which is informed by current research and scholarship and which requires you to engage with aspects of work at the frontiers of knowledge
9. develop your research skills to the point where you are ready to undertake a research degree.
10. primary sources and recent scholarship concerning literary, visual, material, and political culture in the period
11. how the ‘new’ eighteenth century differs from the ‘old’, and how the canon of works to be studied changes and is constructed
12. grasp of intellectual categories and debates relevant to this period (eg Enlightenment, public sphere, global eighteenth century, taste, the polite, the sublime, revolution, sensibility, political economy) within and across disciplinary boundaries
13. theoretical challenges presented by researching a past historical moment, spectre of ‘presentism’ versus more discontinuist approaches
14. archival procedures, available resources, theoretical questions, approaches to popular and public interest in the period.
15. the application of the skills needed for academic study and enquiry at graduate level
16. the evaluation of research findings
17. the ability to synthesise information from a range of primary and secondary sources in order to gain a coherent understanding of theory and practice
18. the ability to make discriminations and selections of relevant information from a wide range of sources in a large body of knowledge
19. the ability to think conceptually and to criticise analytically.
20. advanced skills in the close critical analysis and discussion of eighteenth-century literary, visual and material culture
21. a developed, critical understanding of a variety of scholarly approaches to the study of literature and other cultural forms in this period
22. an ability to articulate knowledge and understanding of various kinds of text and their political, cultural and historical contexts
23. a developed scholarly practice in the presentation of formal written work, of bibliographic and annotational practices, and of structuring and developing an argument over an extended piece of written work.
24. developed powers of communication and the capacity to argue a point of view in extended oral and written form, with clarity, organisation, cogency and sophistication
25. the ability to think independently, analytically, critically and self-critically
26. the ability to assimilate and organise substantial quantities of complex information of diverse kinds
27. an advanced level of competence in the formulation, planning and execution of extended written projects
28. an advanced level of competence in the formulation, planning and formal oral presentation of research papers
29. the experience of collaborative intellectual work
30. the ability to understand, interrogate and apply a variety of theoretical positions and weigh the importance of alternative perspectives
31. trained research skills, including scholarly information retrieval skills
32. IT skills: word-processing, email communication, the ability to access electronic data and evaluate online resources.