4.4 Manchester Literary & Philosophical Society and Board of Health In the meantime Owen joined the town's social and intellectual elite, which like its politics was largely dominated by Dissenters. They were prominent in the Manchester Literary & Philosophical Society which Owen joined in 1793. There he associated with some significant reformers, heard papers on a wide range of intellectual, industrial and social topics, and himself presented papers dealing with such issues, including one on education. The society was founded in 1781, the co-founders b
4.3 Business and enlightenment: Manchester 1789–99 Manchester's dynamic business environment, particularly that of the new cotton industry, presented many opportunities for enterprise, even to those with modest capital. By 1790 Owen had joined John Jones, probably another Welshman, making spinning machinery. The next logical move was into cotton spinning itself, and very quickly Owen had established a reputation as a manufacturer of fine yarn, selling as far afield as London and Scotland. When in 1792 one of the town's leading merchant capita
4.1 Environment and education: Wales 1771–c.1782 Owen had a remarkable career even before he reached New Lanark. His kin and upbringing at Newtown in mid-Wales were highly influential. His parents were shopkeepers and his father was also the postmaster and a churchwarden. So the Owens possessed practical retailing and administrative skills, which they passed on to their offspring, including Robert, a precocious and clever boy. Newtown was located in one of the most profoundly rural parts of southern Britain, yet beginning to be touched by e
Learning outcomes By the end of this unit you should be able to understand: the Enlightenment ideas that underpinned Robert Owen's social reform agenda; how Owen's background and experience at New Lanark fed through into his thinking in the essays in A New View of Society; the main proposals in the essays; New Lanark's role as a model for social reform during this period.
Introduction Robert Owen (1771–1858) (see Figure 1) was one of the most important and controversial figures of his generation. He lived through the ages of Enlightenment and Romanticism and was personally touched by the ideas and dramatic changes that characterised that era. Profiting enormously during the first half of his life from the prog
Acknowledgements This unit was written by "Dr Mary-Catherine Garden (Battlefields) and Dr Rodney Harrison (Old and New Towns of Edinburgh)" Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following sources for permission: Figures 1, 2, 3 and 4 © Mary-Catherine Garden Figures 5, 6 and 7 © Tim Benton.
Figures
2.7 Conclusion: Culloden in its wider context Moving back out to look at Culloden in its wider context, what can we say that we have learned about the site and its meanings? For international visitors with few or no connections to the battle or to Scotland, it appears to be a site of pilgrimage that is functioning as a place to begin to decode the Scottish identity and the Scottish nation. At home, the major narrative of Culloden for Scots for more than two centuries has been one of tragedy, grief and loss. Once a signifier for the state
2.5 Scottish identity Although Bannockburn has figured recently as a mark of ‘Scottishness’ (in part because of the 1995 film Braveheart, which popularised William Wallace and was prominent in nationalist discourse in the years leading to Scottish devolution), Culloden has had a place in the minds and memories of Scots for over two centuries. In that time it has become a signifier of an invented Scotland of mountain scenery, castles and tartan. It is closely tied to the evocative tale of Bonnie Prince C
1 Case studies The first case study in this unit, ‘Battlefields as heritage sites’ by Mary-Catherine Garden, involves public memories of two significant historical events, the battles of Bannockburn and Culloden. They have helped to forge national consciousness in Scotland but have little visible archaeological evidence to inform the viewer. Intangible heritage, linked to a physical site, presents problems of its own. The second study examines the old and new towns of Edinburgh, its designation as
6.4 The Edinburgh professorship Whytt, the Edinburgh professor of medicine, died in 1766 and Cullen was chosen to succeed him, largely with the aim of freeing the chemistry chair for Black. Black's transfer to Edinburgh was well received, and he fulfilled these expectations by being an excellent and popular lecturer. However, the Edinburgh chair also marked the end of his active research. One looks in vain for any sequel to his research on magnesia or his work on heat. With hindsight, foreshadowings of this change can be se
References 2.4.5 Philosophy This is yet another essentially literary source, so we can be brief. In fact, as in the case of history, its distinction from literature is anything but cut and dried. The only reason we mention it here separately is because we want to make it explicit that almost everything we have said for literature holds for philosophy too. Many varieties of philosophy aim to find absolute truths. In this respect, philosophy is less concerned with particular periods and places than is, for instance, histo Acknowledgements This unit was written by Dr Derek Neale Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Licence Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following sources for permission to reproduce 5 Conclusion: you know many things ‘Writing what you know’ is a large and rich project, one that provides an endless resource, and one that can be undertaken in all the types of writing discussed in this unit – poetry, fiction and life writing. The skill lies in reawakening your senses to the world around you, and then using what you find with discrimination. By realising the potentials of your own life experience, you will be collecting the materials necessary in order to write. ‘Writing what you know’ can amount to 3.1 Involving all of the senses Becoming more aware of the everyday world around you involves more than just looking. If writing is a perceptual art then perception should involve all of the senses, not just the visual. You must also start to smell, feel, taste and hear the world you are trying to realise. So, in the made up scenario, when you see the man with the Scottie dog you might be too fearful to stroke his dog, but perhaps you could touch the cold metal bar where the dog was tied up – after he is gone, of course! 5.2 Sardanapalus – passion and futility For many of Delacroix’s Romantic contemporaries, versed in Byronic despondency and melancholic ruminations on the futility and transitory nature of worldly pleasure, Sardanapalus expressed the condition of ennui, (melancholy or listlessness) – a kind of inner emptiness, languor, stultification and world-weariness. (The term ennui had been used in medieval French to signify profound sadness, disgust and personal anguish from the seventeenth century onwards it was used 3.9 Delacroix’s early career – exercise In order to sum up your work on this section, jot down some notes on how Delacroix's early career might be seen as moving away from a respect for the classical tradition and for the reason and order demanded of classical com Learning outcomes After studying this unit you should: have some understanding of developments in Goya's career as an artist; begin to understand Enlightenment aspects of his work and the ways in which these were later challenged by a more Romantic approach charaterised by a uniqueness of vision and a focus on darker forces; understand some of the ways in which the impact of the Napoleonic invasion of Spain found artistic expression. Acknowledgements This unit was written by Dr Emma Barker
Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Licence Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following sources for permission to reproduce 3.1.1 Bonaparte Visiting the Plague-Stricken of Jaffa First and foremost, Jaffa (like Eylau) contributed to the personality cult of Napoleon, which formed the core of the regime's propaganda. In this respect, however, it is important to note that this painting, exhibited in the Salon of 1804, was actually one of the first military scenes commissioned by the regime to exalt Napoleon in this way. This was largely because it took some time before the propaganda machine needed to organize a large-scale system of official patronage was
Exercise 3
