Course module - Culture and Conflict
Code : ENGL30262 Credit rating: 20 Semester : 2
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Aims |
Objectives |
Assessment |
Information
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Course Content |
Course Materials |
Tutors |
Timetable |
Teaching Methods |
Keywords
Aims
- To introduce students to a range of Marxist/materialist cultural theory;
- To deploy this theoretical work in the analysis of aspects of British culture in the period in which neo-liberalism achieved hegemony (the period of Thatcher onwards);
- To encourage close reading of various forms of cultural production in relation to the larger ideological context of this period;
- To develop analyses of individual works in relation to the institutional contexts for cultural production in this period.
Objectives (Learning Outcomes)
By the end of this course, the successful student should have:
- An understanding of a range of Marxist/post-Marxist Cultural Theory;
- The ability to deploy this theoretical material in the analysis of aspects of British culture of the period under consideration;
- An enhanced ability closely to analyze various forms of cultural production in relation to larger ideological contexts;
- An ability to discuss individual works in relation to their institutional contexts, and to relate both to dominant forces.
Assessment
One 3,000-word essay (50%); one 2-hour unseen written examination (50%)
The use of dictionaries in the examination is prohibited. This rule applies to all categories of students, including all Visiting Students.
Information
THIS COURSE IS NOT AVAILABLE AS FREE CHOICE.
Course Content
Britain’s experience of the transition to the kinds of neoliberal (ie. market-driven) policies which now dominate government agendas globally was one characterized by intense conflict, over economic organization (resulting in open class struggle), over Britain’s national and postcolonial identity, and in relation to the value of subcultures. This period therefore witnessed both revolutionary change advanced by the political right and forms of resistance which posited alternative social possibilities. Culture and Conflict will look at the roles played by culture in relation to these conflicts, and will critically examine Marxist and post-Marxist theories which have attempted to make sense of such conflicts. In considering the ideological specificities of forms of cultural dissidence, attention will also be paid to the nature of the cultural institutions (eg. theatre, television, film production) in which that dissidence was developed.
Course Materials
Tutor(s)
Alderson, Dr David
Timetable
PROVISIONAL TIMETABLE FOR 2013-2014
Lecture: Friday 2-3
Seminars:
Group 1: Friday 10-12
Group 2: Thursday 3-5
Teaching Methods
One 1-hour lecture, plus one 2-hour seminar per week.
Preliminary reading
Primary Reading:
Martin Amis, Money
Caryl Churchill, Serious Money in Plays Two (Methuen)
Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses
Alan Hollinghurst, The Swimming Pool Library
Film:
Another Country (1984)
Billy Elliot (2000)
Brassed Off (1996)
My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)
Contextual Reading:
Jane Ashley et. Al., Breaking the Nation: A Guide to Thatcher’s Britain, London: Pluto, 1985
Michele Barrett, Women’s Oppression Today: Problems in Marxist Feminist Analysis, London: New Left Books, 1980
Eric J. Evans, Thatcher and Thatcherism (2nd ed.), Abingdon: Routledge, 2005
Paul Gilroy, There Ain’t No Black in the Union Jack: The Cultural Politics of Race and Nation, London: Routledge, 1992
Stuart Hall, The Hard Road to Renewal: Thatcherism and the Crisis of the Left, London: Verso, 1988
Andrew Milner, Class, London: Sage, 1999
David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity: An Inquiry Into the Origins of Cultural Change, Oxford: Blackwell, 1990
__________, A Brief History of Neoliberalism, Oxford: Blackwell, 2005
Alan Sinfield, Literature, Politics and Culture in Postwar Britain, Oxford: Blackwell, 1989 (new editions in 1997 and 2004)