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ESH288

Representing London: Writing the Eighteenth Century City

Level 5 (30 credits)

London in the eighteenth century was the first recognisably 'modern' city, the metropolitan centre of a global trading empire, the `Emporium of the World'. There had never been a city like it. For this reason, poets, artists, novelists, playwrights, travel writers, satirists, and essayists were drawn persistently to London as a fascinating and complex subject for literary representation. There were few established precedents for how cities might be imagined through text. Solving the problem of how to represent the diverse, enigmatic, ever-changing city of London is one of the core literary questions that we ask on this module. But the city also sponsored its own local textual forms. Some of these were rooted in folk traditions reaching to time immemorial: ballad-singing, the pop-up theatres of the city's fairs. Others emerged in response to the demands of the new city: criminal biography, spy literature, the newspaper press, the satirical essay, the novel itself. Representing London gives you the opportunity to think about the way in which the diverse urban experience of the metropolitan populace finds expression in literature. Assessment tasks include an opportunity to write creatively about the city. Weekly teaching sessions combine close analysis of set texts with the study of visual material, the theoretical interrogation of the idea of the city, and field-trips to important urban sites.

Preparing for this Module and Approximate Costs

You can prepare for this module by engaging actively and intellectually with any aspect of the literary, cultural, social, or material history of London (particularly during the eighteenth century). This might be a matter of visiting sites within the city and reflecting upon their historical dimensions, or reading/watching fictions, dramas, or documentaries about London's past.

View our recommended playlist for Representing London on Box of Broadcasts (QMUL log-in required)

If you want to get ahead with your weekly workload for Representing London, read one or more of the longer texts that we will study:

Note that out of these longer texts, we will probably study Moll Flanders soonest in class. In general we prefer you to read these in paper copies, but electronic editions are available, and you are welcome to use those. (It may indeed prove difficult to locate a paper copy of John Gay's Trivia.)

More specifically, you could familiarise yourself with the social and cultural history of London during the long eighteenth century, by reading relevant chapters from:

  • Stephen Inwood, A History of London (2000)
  • Lawrence Manley (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to the Literature of London (2011)
  • Roy Porter, A Social History of London (2000)

Primary texts costing around £30 if purchased new in recommended editions. These costs can usually be reduced by purchasing items second-hand or borrowing them from Queen Mary or Senate House Libraries (physical access permitting). Some online editions are available for nothing. Other texts will be made available free-of-charge in a module reading pack. Return tube travel to Zone 1 on no more than two occasions for field trips. No additional costs are anticipated for this module.

 
Why take
Representing London: Writing the Eighteenth Century City
?

  • Learn how literature was transformed by a city on the cusp of modernity.
  • Uncover the secret literary histories of London, an emerging World City.
  • Investigate the cultural resonances between London's past, present, and future.
Learning Context Long Seminar + Workshop (or equivalent)
Semester Two
Assessment
  1. Written Assignment 1 (2250 words), 30%
  2. Written Assignment 2 (3000 words), 60%
  3. Participation, 10%

Mode of reassessment Standard
Contact