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2016/17 Undergraduate Module Catalogue

HIST3686 The Tudor Discovery of Russia, 1553-1603

40 creditsClass Size: 16

Module manager: Professor Stephen Alford
Email: s.alford@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun) View Timetable

Year running 2016/17

This module is not approved as a discovery module

Objectives

On completion of this module, students should be able to demonstrate:

a deep and informed understanding of the Tudor discovery of Russia between the years 1553 and 1603;

an understanding of the different kinds of sources historians use to investigate early modern European exploration, trade, diplomacy and cultural encounter;

a sophisticated and critical knowledge of the secondary literature on English exploration, trade, diplomacy and cultural encounter with Russia;

the skills to read and interpret both written and non-written primary sources;

an ability to express their ideas and arguments effectively and persuasively on paper and in scholarly discussion.

Skills outcomes
The sources are in early modern English, which, with practice, students will quickly master. Any sources from manuscripts shall be typed out for the group. The secondary literature is in English.


Syllabus

This special subject will look at Russia through the lens of Tudor exploration, trade and diplomacy. That lens was most certainly a distorting one, for English travellers, diplomats and merchants in the later sixteenth century found in Russia a country so disturbingly alien from their own that they were both fascinated and repelled by it. Students who study this module will be able to examine the documents that tell us how Elizabethans came to understand the politics, society, religion and people of Russia, and also how Elizabethans conducted diplomacy and trade and wrote travel accounts of foreign lands.

In the seminar classes we will investigate early written accounts of Russia; the voyages of the first Englishman to reach the tsar’s court in 1553, Richard Chancellor; the business of the powerful London Muscovy Company; how Elizabethans mapped Russia; the work of the geographer Richard Hakluyt; travel writing and cultural encounter; the exchange of letters and gifts between Queen Elizabeth I and the tsars; the many travels through Russia and beyond of the merchant Anthony Jenkinson; the embassy to the tsar’s court of Thomas Randolph in 1568-9; the career of Jerome Horsey between 1572 and 1585; Giles Fletcher’s embassy (1589) and his influential and controversial book Of the Russe Common Wealth (1591); and the difficulties of Anglo-Russian politics, trade and diplomacy in the years after Fletcher, 1591-1603.

Teaching methods

Delivery typeNumberLength hoursStudent hours
Seminar222.0044.00
Private study hours356.00
Total Contact hours44.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)400.00

Private study

To prepare for seminars students will be expected to study some articles, books and documents. These will be set out clearly in the module handbook.

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

Students will be monitored on class contributions and the quality of the non-assessed work that they will be required to complete for each seminar.

Methods of assessment


Coursework
Assessment typeNotes% of formal assessment
Essay4,000 word essay to be submitted by 12 noon on Monday of exam week 2 in January40.00
Oral PresentationFormat to be determined by tutor10.00
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)50.00

Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated


Exams
Exam typeExam duration% of formal assessment
Standard exam (closed essays, MCQs etc)3 hr 00 mins50.00
Total percentage (Assessment Exams)50.00

Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated

Reading list

The reading list is available from the Library website

Last updated: 27/04/2016

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