Dr Allan Chapman, M.A., D.Phil., D.Sc., D.Univ., F.R.A.S., University of Oxford

Modern England, Europe and North America were formed, in may respects, from the series of changes that took place between 1660 and 1780. With the accession of the House of Stuart in 1603, England faced the prospect of a near-bankrupt royal dynasty trying to rule an increasingly rich and powerful people whose power base lay in Parliament. This period not only created massive political upheavals, but also laid the basis for a modern libertarian political tradition. In the eighteenth century, many European intellectuals came to admire not only the English political achievement, but also the work of geniuses like John Locke, Francis Bacon, and Isaac Newton, while at the same time reading authors like Shakespeare and Milton. Reason and science, not absolute authority, were seen as the only laws, because they were rooted in nature; and when the Americans and French strove to create new freedom, it was, ironically, England and the "Age of Reason" to which they looked for inspiration and guidance. Though the course will be taught from an English historical perspective, it will contain a great deal about what was going on in Europe and the wider world.

Additional Lectures

There will be a lecture on the origins, history, and present-day workings of Oxford University, and on student life within it.  Before each field trip there will also be a full lecture; in addition, there will be a background talk on the Shakespeare play to be seen in Stratford-upon-Avon.


CLASSES

The following classes are offered.  Each student must register for TWO classes for credit, though all classes are open for audit. Book lists will be provided to participants during fall semester.

1. English Art and Architecture, 1600-1800  

This course will cover the development of British art and architecture from the Baroque period, with reference to the work of Inigo Jones and Van Dyck, to the onset of the French Revolution. The course will include as particular areas of study the establishment of the Royal Academy of Arts, the classification of the genres of painting as an aspect of Enlightenment, the development of the history of art as an academic discipline, the role of portraiture in society, the role of the print as a vehicle of social comment, and the status of women artists during this period.

2. Music in England in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries

Included in this course will be an outline of music for drama, dance, and church, together with a particular consideration of music's place in the society of the time. The course will make full use of the richness of Oxford University's unrivaled teaching collections of musical instruments at the Pitt Rivers Museum and the Bate Collection of the Faculty of Music. Visits will be made to both of these, and students will have the opportunity of hearing some of the period instruments on display.

3. The Politics of Revolution

Between the end of the Tudor age in 1603 and the American Revolution, the politics of the modern world was born. The period saw the end of the doctrine of the Divine Rights of Kings, and the growth of constitutional and popular government. The Radicals of the 1640's, the writings of Hobbes and Locke, and the constitutional lawyers of the eighteenth century, such as Blackstone, made a profound impression upon their own and later ages. This tradition drew upon and fed into the European ideas of the "Enlightenment", and it was from this source that the American revolutionaries drew their inspiration.

4. Science, Exploration, and Discovery

It was the seventeenth century that really made us look at the world of nature in the way we do today. With figures like Isaac Newton, Robert Boyle, and Robert Hood, the new science transformed mankind's worldview, as experimental evidence replaced speculation. The eighteenth century went on to create the "Enlightenment" and develop the applied technology of the Industrial revolution. Navigation was also transformed, and the foundations of modern medicine were laid. Science was also a field in which America was to make its first major contributions, with such figures as Benjamin Franklin and David Rittenhouse.

5. The Epic Revived

Milton's Paradise Lost begins with Satan plotting how to wreck God's new creation on earth, and so get revenge for his own casting into hell. In this opening, Milton not only gives a good beginning to the Christian and Old Testament story, but starts it in medias res: in the middle of things, the classical way to begin a classic epic. In this class we will examine the ancient world culture in which the story of Genesis grew up, and also the Greek culture in which Homer established the epic genre. In the eighteenth century Alexander Pope because famous for his translations of Homer, and we shall study his own mock epic, The Rape of the Lock, which lampoons the epic style in a story of eighteenth-century beaux and belles fighting over a game of cards.

6. The Theatre Established

When Don Giovanni (or Don Juan) climbs into Donna Anna's bedroom in an attempt to seduce her, and ends up fighting her father and unwillingly killing him, the incident sets off a tale which features strongly in European theatre. The story was firstly a Renaissance Spanish play, then a Neoclassical French comedy, then an eighteenth-century opera, and the theatrical progress of this story illustrates the way in which between 1600 and 1800 theatre established itself to become the traditional theatre of today. This class will study how Moliere's Don Juan takes up the traditions of a Renaissance comedy, best seen in his own The Miser, and how Mozart's Don Giovanni embodies the style of the opera. But we will also investigate Moliere's The Would-Be Gentleman, since this play includes the third great type of theatre established in this period and still surviving: ballet.

7. Women and the English Novel

The eighteenth century saw the birth of the novel, which is now perhaps the dominant literary form in English. Right from the start, women participated in the development of the novel, both as authors and heroines. These heroines in turn influenced the depiction of male heroes in the novel. The course will look at eighteenth-century writers such as Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding, Daniel Defoe, Fanny Burney, Mrs. Radcliffe, and others.

Field Trips

1. Avebury, Stonehenge, & Salisbury
2. City of Bath & the Roman Baths, via Burford & the Cotswolds
3. Portsmouth Dockyard Museum
4. Anne Hathaway’s cottage & walking tour of Stratford-upon-Avon, performance at the Royal Shakespeare Company in the evening

Each of the main field trips will take place on a Saturday except that to Stratford. Students have a mini “spring holiday” March 29 – April 1 inclusive.  During this break students can travel and explore for themselves. Students must attend classes and lectures through mid-afternoon on Thursday, March 28, and should not book holiday reservations that require them to leave Wycliffe Hall before 3:00 PM on that day.

Grand Tour

The three-week study tour this year will include Paris, Rome, Siena, Florence, Venice, Milan, Vienna, Prague, Rothenburg, and Amsterdam.  Guided sightseeing tours will be planned and group entrances are sometimes included in the cost, but students will also be expected to visit other important historical sites on their own.  Transportation to and around Europe will be via train, airplane, and bus.