| "MEDIA, CULTURE AND SOCIETY DISSERTATION" | PSIPM20X | 80 |
| For students taking the MA in Media, Culture and Society. Students are required to write a dissertation of a length as specified in their MA Course Guide on a topic approved by the Course Director or other authorised person. |
| 'PAINTING THE CITY: AMERICAN ARTISTS AND THE URBAN SCENE, 1900-1930' | AMSAM040 | 20 |
| This module examines an important moment in the history of American visual culture. From the 1880s on Lower Manhattan was transformed as building technology made possible a dynamic competition to build higher. By the years around 1900 the cityscape created mingled historic structures and sites with buildings that define modernity for the period. We will examine the ways in which visual artists responded to this situation over the first three decades of the twentieth century. Our discussions will be informed by reference to literature, film, and photography of the time, but the central focus will be on the fine arts and the ways in which American artists sought to represent and interrogate the complexities of the evolving cityscape. In doing so we will ask questions about the representation of modernity in America, about the connections between the images we examine and the heritage of a predominantly rural culture with a strong landscape tradition in painting, and about the development of visual languages to tackle a transformed environment. Among the artists considered will be Robert Henri and the Ashcan School (George Bellows and John Sloan in particular), Charles Sheeler, Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Edward Hopper. |
| AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY | PSIIM032 | 20 |
| This module will use case studies of Southeast Asia, Central America and the Middle East to explore the reasons for American interventions and to assess their success or failure. It will offer an historical understanding of the assumptions and practices which lie behind contemporary US foreign policy-making. The module will introduce students to the institutions and processes involved in the making of American foreigh policy. |
| AMERICAN HISTORY DISSERTATION | AMSAM06X | 90 |
| Students are required to write a dissertation of a length as specified in their MA Course Guide on a topic approved by the Course Director or other authorised person. |
| AMERICAN LITERATURE DISSERTATION | AMSAM04X | 90 |
| Students are required to write a dissertation of a length as specified in their MA Course Guide on a topic approved by the Course Director or other authorised person. |
| AMERICAN STUDIES DISSERTATION | AMSAM03X | 90 |
| Students are required to write a dissertation of a length as specified in their MA Course Guide on a topic approved by the Course Director or other authorised person. |
| ANALYSING MEDIA DISCOURSES | PSIPM015 | 20 |
| This module examines the relationship between language, images and social meaning. Media products from film and advertising to newspaper articles and even music are examined as ‘texts’ that shape and are shaped by the socio-political reality. After discussing some of the main theories of textual analysis like semiotics, psychoanalysis and discourse analysis, we will adopt a hands on approach in order to demonstrate how the visual and linguistic techniques can advance our understanding of the processes of representation and communication of meaning. |
| BETTER WORLDS? UTOPIAS AND DYSTOPIAS | PSIPM002 | 20 |
| Would an ideal society have no more crime? Who would be wealthy or powerful? Would politics be outlawed? Do utopians try to impose their views on the rest of humankind? Do the flaws in human nature justify the pessimism of dystopian writers? This unit compares selected utopian and dystopian texts produced during the last six centuries. Themes will include property, social control, gender, morality and politics. Another dimension of the course is to consider the purpose of utopian thinking and the historical role of utopian ideas in social theory and social reform. |
| BODY SPACES | AMSAM043 | 20 |
| Central to post-war American avant-garde aesthetics and poetics is an investigation of the constructedness of the space we inhabit and of the bodies we occupy. By close and detailed analysis of a range of experimental American texts - painting and especially, poetry - from 1950 to the present day, this module explores the ways in which ideas of the postmodern in America can be seen to 'work' through such politicised constructions of the body as gender, sexuality and subjectivity. Running alongside its reading of poetic and artistic texts, the module will also consider the ways in which theories and theorists of the postmodern reflect the concern of America's experimental arts with an aesthetics of 'process' rather than of 'product'. It thereby questions the extent to which a poetics of the postmodern challenges the cultural space that America has inhabited in the late-twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. |
| BROADCAST JOURNALISM | PSIPM038 | 40 |
| This 40 credit module gives students a wide and detailed grounding in all aspects of television journalism and news production. Core topics include editing, camera work, sound and interviewing. Students produce a magazine-style TV show that is built around the video reports that they shoot and edit themselves. Students work both in the studio and on location. |
| CASE STUDIES | LDCEM002 | 20 |
| This seminar looks at ways in which specific authors/works/genres pass into other cultures through translation. We will look at three genres – children’s literature, drama, and crime fiction – and for each one, we will analyse the genre, identify challenges in translating it, discuss strategies, and examine examples of relevant works, using close textual analysis to see how translators can tackle problems of linguistic, stylistic, and cultural difference. We will then practice translating texts from that genre. |
| CELEBRITY CULTURE | FTMFM069 | 20 |
| The module will explore the phenomenon of celebrity and fame from its origins to the present day, moving across a range of different media, including film, television, print media and the internet. In the process, it will examine key areas in the study of celebrity, including historical analysis, the reading of celebrity ‘images’, questions of ideology (e.g., gender, class), the political economy of celebrity, audience and celebrity, and the impact of new technologies. It will feature a range of case studies that will include celebrity in the 19th century, Classical Hollywood cinema, the coming of television, the celebrity gossip magazine and questions of gender, the birth of Reality TV, the growth of the celebrity scandal and the relationship between celebrity and the internet |
| CERTAINTY AND UNCERTAINTY IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND POLICY | PHI-M015 | 20 |
| This module is concerned with questions about certainty and uncertainty in environmental science and about the role of environmental science for political decision-making. The module investigates epistemological questions about the possibility of gaining scientific insight into the sources and solutions of environmental problems; and it examines the relationship of such epistemic concerns to ethical and political questions about how to act in the face of environmental problems. |
| CIVIL RIGHTS AND AMERICAN POLITICS | AMSAM029 | 20 |
| This module offers an in-depth exploration of the history of the Civil Rights movement in the years after World War II. It delves into the rich and ever growing historiography of the subject to take in, among other things, the southern freedom movement and Martin Luther King, Jr; the life and times of Malcolm X; Black Power politics and culture; the political controversies surrounding Lyndon B. Johnson’s attempt to mobilize the federal government behind the cause of black equality; the “long, hot summers” of urban riots, 1964-1968; and the still contested legacy of this most turbulent period of American history. |
| CLASSICAL PHILOSOPHY WORKSHOP | PHI-M018 | 20 |
| The module explores a more challenging area of Classical Philosophy with detailed attention to selected texts and issues. The topic will be chosen by the lecturer from the following: (a) Mind and Perception; (b) Language and Reality; (c) Image and Illusion. Syllabus: for (a) Plato "Republic"; "Phaedrus"; Aristotle "De Anima"; for (b) Plato "Cratylus"; "Sophist"; Augustine "Confessions" 1; Aristotle "Categories"; for (c) Primary/secondary qualities in Democritus; Plato "Republic" 10, "Sophist"; Epicurean perception theory. This module is linked to the advanced undergraduate module, Classical Philosophy Special Subject. |
| CREATIVE-CRITICAL WRITING | LDCEM008 | 20 |
| A CORE MODULE FOR STUDENTS ON THE MA WRITING THE MODERN WORLD. Too often, academic critical writing seems to bring pre-packaged language to bear on works whose whole essence and aim is to change the ways in which we see and describe our world. And too often such writing fails to acknowledge the ways in which it itself necessarily participates in the literary ‘creativity’ it is also about. How, then, to write criticism? Criticism which responds inventively to the literature which it analyzes? Criticism which registers, in its own form, language, method and thinking the ways in which it has been transformed by the work(s) of art it encounters? Criticism which recognizes that it cannot rest on received concepts and categories? This module aims to explore those questions. Over the course of the semester will consider – and experiment with – a broad range of possible ways of practising creative-criticism, including the ‘essay’ form, auto-commentary, aphorisms, écriture féminine, conceptual writing, criticism as performance, inventive ‘theoretical’ writing, camp, and diaristic writing. The module covers creative-critics as different from one another as Anne Carson and Jacques Derrida, Geoff Dyer and Hélène Cixous, Maurice Blanchot and T. J. Clark, Theodor Adorno and Eve Sedgwick. |
| CREATIVITY AND DEVELOPMENT IN FILM AND TELEVISION PRODUCTION | FTMFM058 | 20 |
| The module is designed to introduce students to key skills in film and television development practice. It will provide an understanding of the processes of creative script and project development, including film and TV business, the activities of the market and dealing with bodies responsible for commissioning films and television programmes. Priority for places on this module will be given to students taking the MA in Film Studies. |
| CRITICAL THEORIES OF THE WESTERN SELF | LDCEM011 | 20 |
| The course introduces students to the major shifts in philosophical thinking about the Western self from Descartes to the twentieth century. The course will provide students with a training in theoretical debate through the analysis and discussion of a selection of the important thinkers on this list: Descartes, Rousseau, Hegel, Kant, Marx, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Bakhtin, Sartre, Foucault, Derrida, Irigaray, Deleuze and Butler. Through acquaintance with different theoretical traditions, students will have the opportunity to reflect critically on the processes and implications of cultural change; and to relate their understanding of the self and philosophy to other fields such as literature. |
| CROSSING BOUNDARIES: WOMEN WRITERS IN MODERN EUROPE | LDCEM028 | 20 |
| This module will explore some of the issues and obstacles encountered by women writing in a range of European traditions during the "long twentieth century" - continuing into the 21st with the award of Nobel Prizes for Literature to the controversial Austrian writer Elfriede Jelinek (2004 and the Romanian-German writer Herta Müller (2009). Taking a broadly chronological approach, the focus will be primarily on the impact of the two "women's movements" of the twentieth century on perceptions of writing and subjectivity as they affect women writers in a range of European countries. Within this chronological context and under a number of themed headings, examples will be taken primarily from Western Europe, in particular the German-speaking, French and English literary traditions. Students are however encouraged to make connections with the work of other writers beyond those on the reading list and to make comparisons with the position and role of women's writing in other literatures with which they may be familiar. Seminar discussions will thus consider not merely geographical and physical boundaries but the wider social and textual frameworks within and against which, arguably, a distinctive women's voice (or voices) may be said to emerge. |
| CULTURE AND ITS DISCONTENTS | LDCEM049 | 20 |
| From trauma theory and Holocaust Studies to critical human rights and refugee studies, thinking about culture’s profound discontents motivates much of the most innovative work in the theoretical humanities today. This module focuses on two key theorists of modern experience: Sigmund Freud, for whom the unconscious registered the trauma of modern living, and the political philosopher Hannah Arendt, for whom the horrors of totalitarianism opened up holes of oblivion in the way we think and judge. Reading them together, we will examine the way Freud and Arendt open up a new space to think about the relation between the psyche and the political. Core reading will include: The Portable Hannah Arendt, ed. Peter Baehr (Penguin) The Freud Reader, ed. Adam Phillips (Penguin) The Holocaust: Theoretical Readings (Edinburgh UP) |
| DEMOCRATIC THEORY | PSIPM010 | 20 |
| This module draws on normative political theory and contemporary political science to consider how the concept of democracy has changed since it originated in ancient Greece and looks at the critiques of democracy advanced by critics and opponents especially in the 20th century. The ideas and values underpinning democracy will be interrogated and some recent solutions for today's 'democratic deficit' including electronic democracy and cosmopolitan democracy will be evaluated. |
| DISSERTATION - LITERARY TRANSLATION | LDCEM04X | 90 |
| The dissertation is a compulsory requirement for all taught MA programmes. Work on the dissertation is begun at the end of the 2nd teaching semester for full-time students, or earlier for part-time students. Dissertations may take the form of either (i) a critical essay about an aspect of translation or (ii) a translation with commentary. The choice of research topic for the dissertation is made by the students in consultation with their course convenor. Supervision normally functions on the basis of one contact hour with the supervisor every three weeks throughout the summer. |
| EAST ANGLIAN LITERATURE | LDCEM006 | 20 |
| CORE MODULE FOR STUDENTS ON THE MA MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN TEXTUAL CULTURES. This module has as its focus ideas of place and regional cultures. It introduces key subjects relating to regional literature, religious geographies, visual and verbal relationships, attitudes to gender and family, landscape and alternative cultures. Approaches will involve genre study, interdisciplinary enquiry, and theoretical study. We are spoilt for choice in relation to texts and authors to select from the region, including: John Bale, Osbern Bokenham, Thomas Browne, Meir ben Eiljah, John Capgrave, Robert Greene, Gabriel Harvey, Margery Kempe, John Lydgate, John Metham, Julian of Norwich, the N-Town plays, the Pastons and John Skelton. There will be the opportunity to visit a number of archives, specialist libraries and material culture from the period, including a visit to Norwich Cathedral, which has an extensive 17th-century library with material from the 15th century onwards, Norfolk's heritage collection housed in The Forum's Millennium Library which holds documents from the 13th century onwards, and the Julian of Norwich Centre and Shrine. |
| EFFECTS, AUDIENCES AND THE MEDIA | FTMFM046 | 20 |
| The module is designed to explore the debates over media effects. In the process, it will challenge the effects tradition, which motivates many of the concerns with media censorship and regulation, and suggests alternative ways of understanding the ways in which audiences consume contemporary media. In the process, it will examine a range of approaches to the understanding of media consumption. |
| ENGLISH LITERATURE DISSERTATION | LDCEM03X | 90 |
| Students are required to write a dissertation of a length as specified in their MA Course Guide on a topic approved by the Course Director or other authorised person. |
| EUROPEAN UNION: POWER, POLITICS AND POLICY | PSIIM003 | 20 |
| This module studies the integration process in Europe. It introduces the evolution of political and economic co-operation in the continent through the analysis of each EU treaty reform including the latest constitutional initiative. The main political actors and their role are identified and the workings of the European Union as a polity are assessed in the light of relevant theoretical discourses and interpretations. |
| EVALUATING NATURE | LDCEM058 | 20 |
| This module aims to equip students with a historically informed understanding of the emergence of different theories and modes of evaluation, focusing in particular on the economic, aesthetic, and moral questions arising from the evaluation of nature in particular. Is it, for example, ethically defensible to value nature as a resource? Is a genuinely ‘ecological’ or, indeed, ‘green’ economics conceivable – and, if so, what would that involve in practice? How sure are we that art in general and writing in particular are good ways to articulate the value of the natural? And is a genuinely ‘ecological’ or ‘green’ poetics conceivable? Addressing these questions will involve exploration both of the history of ideas and of contemporary understandings of natural capital, resource allocation, and moral evaluation. |
| FICTION AFTER MODERNISM | LDCEM023 | 20 |
| ‘Fiction After Modernism’ responds to the current reassessment of critical narratives about twentieth century fiction by restoring significance to a critically awkward phase of twentieth-century writing. Focusing roughly on the years between 1930 and 1980, we examine what it meant for mid-century writers to work in the wake of modernism. By thinking about mid-century fiction in terms of its own historical and aesthetic awkwardness, we will challenge the formalist distinction between experimental and realist fiction that has dominated the most influential work on the mid-century novel, and which has also stamped many post-war writers as irretrievably minor. In a similar spirit, we will explore how writers worked in the 'between' of modernism and postmodernism. Rather than produce a cohesive narrative about the period, we will examine how our writers engage with, and disturb, their own literary, historical and critical inheritances. This module is an opportunity to participate in an emerging critical conversation that is carving out new directions in literary study. Working through the period with special attention to previously marginalized (and in some cases forgotten) writers, alongside a selection of critical and theoretical texts, we will examine the ways our writers accede to, challenge, and disrupt our critical understanding of fiction after modernism. |
| FILM AND TELEVISION PRODUCTION | FTMFM041 | 20 |
| The module is designed to introduce students to key skills in film and television practice. It will provide an understanding of the processes of screenwriting, camerawork, editing and direction. In the process, it will focus students less on the simple technical elements but also in ways of seeking creative solutions to practical problems. This module will focus the students on how to deliver within the normal constraints of media production, ie, students will have to think about working to a brief rather than simply imagining themselves as independent artists. Priority for places on this module will be given to students taking the MA in Film Studies. |
| FILM STUDIES DISSERTATION | FTMFM60X | 60 |
| This module involves the production of a 12,000-15,000 word piece of work, which focuses upon a suitable topic of your own choosing. You will be assigned a supervisor to advise you on your research and writing of the dissertation. |
| FILM STUDIES: HISTORY, THEORY, CRITICISM | FTMFM023 | 20 |
| This unit aims to provide key terms of reference and research skills in the study of film; to identify key objects, theories and methods in the analysis of film; and to provide a sense of historical development of film. Intended learning outcomes: a) Knowledge and Understanding. By the end of the unit should: have some of the key skills for the study of film at M level; have an awareness of the debates between different approaches to the study of film; be familiar with the key objects, theories and methods in the analysis of film; have some familiarity with the historical development of film. b) Intellectual Skills. By the end of the unit students should be able to: apply the key approaches to the analysis of film; assesses the debates between these different approaches; construct coherent and independent arguments. c) Professional Skills. The unit will develop students’ ability to: select, sift and synthesize information from a variety of primary and secondary materials; write accurately and grammatically and present written material suing appropriate conventions. d) Transferable Skills. The unit will also develop students’ ability to: manage a large and disparate body of information; use IT to word process assessed work; speak and write cogently about a chosen subject area. |
| GENDER AND CULTURE | FTMFM064 | 20 |
| Providing a conceptual overview of feminist research approaches, this module examines the role of culture in the construction of contemporary gender relations. Exploring a range of case studies, such as film, television, food and sport, it provides an interdisciplinary perspective on cultural texts, their audiences, markets and regulation. The module explores both theoretical and methodological issues and covers a range of theoretical approaches, including media studies, cultural studies, gender studies history, law and economics. By the end of the module students will have developed understanding of: • a variety of feminist approaches to the analysis of cultural texts, their audiences, markets and regulation. • the relationship between cultural texts and their socio-economic and political contexts and the importance of gender in analysing culture. Additionally students will be able to • critically reflect on the place of gender in media research • apply feminist research methodologies to the analysis of cultural texts and audiences |
| GOOD GOOD GIRLS AND GOOD BAD BOYS? AMERICAN FICTIONS OF INNOCENCE | AMSAM022 | 20 |
| Oscar Wilde wrote that 'The youth of America is their oldest tradition; it has been going on now for three hundred years'. IIs this true? If so, why? This module will seek to account for the preoccupation with youth in America by focusing particularly on the concept of 'innocence', and by examining how various models of innocence are invoked and questioned in American literary texts. Drawing on a wide array of fictional and theoretical works, we will consider the following questions: What is at stake in America's investment in innocence? Major cultural events - such as the Vietnam War and 9/11, for example - are often described as representing a 'loss of innocence' in American culture. What power interests and ideologies are maintained by repeatedly describing America as 'innocent'? How is this investment in innocence revised in different historical moments? How is it challenged? With particular reference to fictions of growing up in America, how is innocence (and loss of innocence) depicted differently for male and female protagonists? |
| HISTORY OF POLITICAL THOUGHT: SOCIAL CONTRACT THEORY | PSIPM005 | 20 |
| This module examines in depth selected works of political thinkers who are seminal to the Western tradition of political thought, including Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau. Their work will also be compared thematically, with a focus on ideas such as the social contract, political obligation, property, individual rights and freedom. The approach is analytical rather than historical and contextualist. The module's focus on the study and interpretation of key texts enables students to develop skills of textual analysis and critique. |
| INTERNATIONAL HISTORY OF THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION | PSIIM007 | 20 |
| This module looks at the history of the region, including the involvement of the superpowers in the politics of the cold war in Asia. Conflict in the region as well as the rise and fall of the regional powers are reviewed. The development of multipolarity and the importance of the Asia-Pacific region in the post-cold war world is also covered. The aftermath of the Second World War, the onset of the Cold War, conflict in Korea and Vietnam, the changing relationship between the US, USSR and China are covered, as is the development of Southeast Asia in the modern world. We also assess the major issues contemporary to the region. |
| INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS AND PUBLIC POLICY | PSIIM006 | 20 |
| The module aims to enable students to develop an understanding of the role of international organisations and their impact on public policy at the domestic and international levels. Students successfully completing the module will be able to discuss critically the theories, models and concepts used in the analysis of international cooperation, competing perspectives in international politics and demonstrate the role they play in key public policy domains. The UN, NATO, IMF, WTO, World Bank and EU will be examined and why sovereign states decide to establish these and other international organisations. Their role in security, trade, finance, gender and environmental policy will be considered in particular. The factors which determine their design and evolution and the extent to which their operation reflects underlying power and interest will also be evaluated. |
| INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS: CONFLICT AND DEVELOPMENT | PSIIM009 | 20 |
| This unit introduces to students the basic concepts of integration/ disintegration, globalisation, regionalism and the purpose of the existence and inter-relationship of international regional organisations. It then goes on to examine the structure and functions of several major international organisations such as the United Nations, NATO, the EU, NAFTA, ASEAN, LAIA, the OAU, etc, and their role in international conflict resolution, focusing on the Middle East, Yugoslavia, Iraq, Western Sahara, etc, through a series of lectures, seminars, class presentations, video showings and workshops. |
| INTERNATIONAL POLITICS SINCE 1945 | PSIIM015 | 20 |
| After studying the origins, nature and demise of the cold war, this module focuses on the post-cold war system. Through a number of case studies, including the Gulf War, the wars in Yugoslavia and international terrorism, the unit considers Western responses to these challenges. It also considers different models of the post-cold war system, from Fukuyama to Huntington. |
| INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS THEORY | PSIIM011 | 20 |
| This module concerns the history and theories of inter-state relations, classical, modern and post-modern, with special attention to problems of war and peace. It is intended both for further study of international relations and as an introduction to those who have not studied it before. |
| INTERNATIONAL SECURITY | PSIIM020 | 20 |
| This course examines the study of security in the international system, through its roots in Cold War strategic studies to the development of the more broadly focused field of security studies today. The course critically analyses contemporary security issues and provides a sound theoretical base for considering practical issues of security, including new wars, intervention and terrorism. Themes explored include security and the nation state, war and peace, new wars, alliances, democratic peace, securitisation, human security, the arms industry, and terrorism. |
| INTRODUCTION TO INTERDISCIPLINARY ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES | PHI-M07Y | 20 |
| This year-long module is designed to support students on the MA/MSc in Environmental Sciences and Humanities by providing the necessary context for reflecting on interdisciplinary approaches to environmental studies. It encompasses a number of key steps in the degree, covering pre-arrival preparation, an intensive induction week, reflection on interdisciplinary work throughout the year, and preparation for the dissertation. |
| ISSUES IN MEDIA AND CULTURAL POLITICS | PSIPM03Y | 20 |
| This module explores key issues within media and cultural politics. The module is divided into separate blocks and spread over two semesters. Each block deals with different aspects of media and cultural politics, including identity and power, communication and culture. |
| JAPANESE FILM: NATIONAL CINEMA AND BEYOND | FTMFM032 | 20 |
| This module explores the concept of Japanese cinema in relation to national, transnational and global discourses and seeks to reframe discussions of modern and past Japanese filmmaking. We will examine a variety of Japanese films and the ways in which they interact with the history, techniques and culture of Japan. We will also consider the social and commercial nature of Japanese filmmaking, including the ways in which Japanese films circulate the globe. |
| JOURNALISM: PRACTICE AND ETHICS | PSIPM031 | 20 |
| The module will demystify the closed world of the professional journalist and enable students to understand what gets into the news (and what does not), and why. It will help students develop practical skills and techniques and the knowledge of how to apply them in a professional, ethical context. Weekly practical exercises will teach them to produce good, clean, readable copy. All of this will greatly enhance the students’ employability within the media industry. |
| LANGUAGE AND MIND | PHI-M023 | 20 |
| The module will explore the philosophy of Noam Chomsky, the leading linguist of the last century. The module will be taught via a small tutorial group that will explore a central theme in the development of Chomsky's position each week. Topics will include: the refutation of behaviourism, the computational basis of language, the creativity of linguistic performance, internalism vs externalism, the concept of human nature. As well as the tutorial, students are encouraged to attend the lectures for the undergraduate module, Language in Mind, that will cover some of the same issues. |
| LITERARY TRANSLATION RESEARCH AND METHODOLOGY TRAINING SEMINAR | LDCEM06Y | 10 |
| All MALT students are enrolled on a Research Methods module. The assessment for this is a pass/fail viva in May or early June (date will be given in the course of the Autumn semester). This module is not taught separately, but consists of a number of generic sessions and also a number of specific MALT sessions within the seminars, such as “Essay Writing”, “Reading as an Academic”, “Doing Glosses” and so on. |
| LIVING MODERNISM | LDCEM017 | 20 |
| A CORE MODULE FOR STUDENTS ON THE MA WRITING THE MODERN WORLD. The word modernism was applied only retrospectively to the texts written at the beginning of the twentieth century; and that retrospective naming has worked to define an ever-shifting field of cultural activity. This course aims to introduce students to ‘living modernism’, a phrase that highlights the mutually informing relationship of contemporary writing and modernism. In the first 5 weeks, students will be asked to read James Joyce’s Ulysses and Franz Kafka’s The Trial. The course then considers the ways in which Joyce’s and Kafka’s writing continues to animate critical and creative knowledge. In weeks 6-12, critical and literary questions of law, justice, exile, and narrative voice will be posed out of modernism. The living legacy of modernism will be considered in different ways; as literary influence, (Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go as a Kafkaesque meditation on exile, for instance), as critical quotation and interpretation, (Jacques Derrida’s claim, for example, that Kafka’s ‘Before the Law’ is a staging of justice and literary interpretation), and linguistic or thematic interaction (Lolita as Nabokov’s Joycean writing of exile in America). There will be a particular focus on how Joyce and Kafka write law, justice and exile as global, rather than state-based, categories, and the importance of these transnational visions for their continuing influence. Authors explored will include James Joyce, Franz Kafka, Samuel Beckett, Walter Benjamin, Theodor Adorno, Vladimir Nabokov, J. M. Coetzee, Kazuo Ishiguro, Jacques Derrida, Giorgio Agamben, Mladen Dolar, Denise Riley and W. G. Sebald. |
| LUDIC LITERATURE | LDCEM016 | 20 |
| Play, or the ludic, is often listed as one of the main characteristics of postmodernist art, but what is meant by play is usually left no more clearly defined than what is meant by postmodernism. This course seeks to trace the evolution of leading postmodernist styles and themes, especially ludic ones, back to their origins in Borges and Nabokov. Using these enormously influential authors as a starting point, we will read a range of ludic authors, passing back and forth between languages, nations, and genres. Authors studied will include some though not all of: Calvino, Queneau, Perec, Barthes, Barthelme, Pynchon, Foster Wallace, Grass, Carter, Rushdie, Bolano, Muldoon, Simic, and Ashbery. We will examine these authors in relation to one another, to Borges and Nabokov, and to their major pre-postmodernist sources: Sterne, Mallarmé, Dostoevsky, Chesterton, Stevenson, Joyce, and Kafka. We will also be looking at visual art related to ludic literature, including Duchamp’s readymades, Steinberg’s cartoons, and Cornell’s boxes. Themes we will explore will include aestheticism, doubt, vagueness, jokes, freedom and constraint, mixed styles, parody and pastiche. There will be an opportunity for students to play with the texts by re-writing them under the sorts of rules advanced by Queneau and Oulipo, Koch and Ashbery. |
| MA IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS & EUROPEAN STUDIES EXAMINATION | PSIIM202 | 20 |
| This is a generic exam for students registered on the MA in International Relations and European Studies based around the core units. |
| MA IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS EXAMINATION | PSIIM200 | 20 |
| This is a generic exam for students registered on the MA in International Relations based around the core unit, International Relations Theory. |
| MEDIA AND SOCIETY | PSIPM09Y | 40 |
| This module is intended to provide all students studying media related postgraduate degrees with a broad, current and inter-disciplinary understanding of the media today. The guiding philosophy informing this module is the belief that in order properly to understand the media, whether as a lawyer, economist, development studies professional, media studies specialist or political scientist, it is essential to have a wide-ranging and multi-disciplinary understanding of the modern media. What we shall be doing over the year therefore is looking at the structure of the media industry today in the UK and globally. We will consider, from several different academic perspectives, how media content is constructed, what factors and influences go to shape content and how content may be controlled and even censored. We will also look at the media industry, examining how it is currently organised and managed, what factors influence its current organisation and consider how it might develop. We will also examine how media affects people and society and consider also the assumptions that are made about the impact of the media. Finally, we will seek to draw together key aspects of modern media. |
| MEDIA, CULTURE AND SOCIETY DISSERTATION | PSIPM40X | 60 |
| For students taking the MA in Media, Culture and Society. Students are required to write a dissertation of a length as specified in their MA Course Guide on a topic approved by the Course Director or other authorised person. |
| METHODOLOGY AND EPISTEMOLOGY OF PHILOSOPHY | PHI-M019 | 20 |
| The module provides commencing graduate students with the methodological foundations for independent philosophical research. Through practical exercises complementing theoretical discussion and philosophical case studies, the module examines nature, structure, and genesis of key problems and theories from different areas of philosophy; on this basis, it discusses the scope, strengths, and weaknesses of both well-established and innovative philosophical methodologies as well as key questions about the nature of philosophy. Methods covered include different forms of conceptual and linguistic analysis, ways of explaining and assessing philosophical intuitions, naturalist approaches, and competing hermeneutic approaches to the interpretation of philosophical texts from different periods and traditions. Meta-philosophical questions addressed include: What are the proper aims and purposes of philosophy (theoretical vs. elucidatory vs. therapeutic conceptions)? In what ways is philosophy similar to, and different from various sciences? In what ways can methods and insights from other disciplines (sciences, literature, and the arts) be put to use for philosophical purposes? The module is taught through a weekly lecture and seminar (total 3 hours/week). Topics of the two 3000-word essays are individually agreed. This module is intended primarily for students on the MRes in Philosophy and the MA in Philosophy and Literature. Students on other MA/MSc programmes can participate with the consent of the module organiser, who will expect substantive prior exposure to philosophy (ca. 6 undergraduate modules in philosophy). |
| METHODS OF SOCIAL ENQUIRY | PSIPM11Y | 40 |
| The module offers a basic training in social research methods, provided flexibly to meet different needs and interests. There are opportunities to learn skills in use of SPSS for statistical analysis of large datasets, interviewing, transcription, document analysis, research uses of electronic media, devising a research proposal, writing a research report and oral presentations. Students will learn to evaluate research methods from the perspectives of ethics, methodology and practicality. |
| MIDDLE EAST POLITICS | PSIIM030 | 20 |
| This module introduces students to the government and politics of one of the most interesting and frequently misunderstood regions in world politics – the Middle East. The module examines the evolution of the modern Middle Eastern political system over the past century. Students will acquire the skills to analyse key issues in the politics of the region, including topical events such as the preponderance of ethno-sectarian violence and the rise of Islamist movements. Other key questions include the lack of democracy in the region and the creation of rentier economies in the Gulf. |
| MULTICULTURALISM | PSIPM026 | 20 |
| This module looks at the responses in political theory to the rise of multicultural societies in Europe and North America since the end of World War II. The aim is to introduce students to a range of contemporary theoretical perspectives on multiculturalism and to facilitate critical assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of competing approaches. Theorists under examination will include: Parekh, Kymlicka, Taylor and Modood as well as major liberal alternative views; Barry, Rawls and Raz. The module will combine theoretical study with analysis of practical issues/case studies surrounding multiculturalism. Among the issues to be considered are the following: models of integration, group rights, institutional racism, Islamophobia, and the Rushdie affair. The module will also consider divergent policies adopted within European states (eg, France and Germany) and give attention to the attempts to operationalise multiculturalism in the UK in particular via the Parekh Report. |
| MUSIC, MEDIA, SOCIETY | FTMFM062 | 20 |
| This module considers the changing role of music within social and cultural practices, its varied relationships with selfhood, media and technology, bodies, everyday lives and social power. In surveying the ways music is and has been bound up in social and cultural formations, the module engages with a range of theoretical issues about how music ‘works’ as well as exploring some of the ways organised sound can be said to ‘mean’ in differing contexts. The module also introduces students to an eclectic range of writings and questions about music in social life, considering questions about the materiality of sound, musical communities, performance, media and affect, positioning such issues in relation to music’s production, circulation and consumption. |
| NEW MEDIA AND SOCIETY | PSIPM007 | 20 |
| For better or worse, new digital technologies are hyped at having revolutionised society. This module will provide students with an introduction to the ways in which the internet and other digital technologies are (and are not) affecting society from theoretical and empirical perspectives, and how society shapes technology. Topics covered include: the evolution of the internet; the "network society"; regulating new media; the radical internet and terrorism; social networking, blogs and interactivity; culture and identity in the digital age; and how the internet affects politics and the media. |
| ONLINE JOURNALISM | PSIPM027 | 20 |
| This module provides students a grounding in core journalism skills, with a special application to new and emerging media. Topics covered include: new forms of journalism, news sources and rich content production. Students will write and produce content for an online news platform. |
| PHILOSOPHY AND LITERATURE SEMINAR | PHI-M028 | 20 |
| The main aim of this course is to explore philosophical themes which arise naturally in the reading of literature, and literary issues which arise naturally in the study of philosophy. Literary texts may well include a selection from: Shakespeare, Pope, Wordsworth, Keats, Tennyson, Arnold, Conrad and Beckett. Philosophical texts may well include a selection from: Plato, Augustine, Montaigne, Descartes, Goethe, Nietzsche and Wittgenstein. Two important themes for discussion will be the rise of physical science and its impact on philosophy and literature; and how different conceptions of philosophy and literature affect the way in which they are written (or not written). Assessment will be by two coursework essays. |
| PHILOSOPHY DISSERTATION (80 CREDITS) | PHI-M20X | 80 |
| This module is compulsory for all students taking the course MA/MSc Environmental Sciences and Humanities. Students will be required to produce a 10,000-15,000 word dissertation over the Summer period. The dissertation may deal with any topic covered by the remit of the course as a whole. The title and scope of the dissertation will be determined by the student together with his or her supervisor. A detailed research proposal will be submitted to the proposed supervisor in early April and must be approved by the Course Director. Each student will receive 6 hours of formal supervision during the course of the module. The supervisor will normally be one of the instructors on the course, unless a more suitable member of staff is identified and agrees to act as supervisor. The topic of the dissertation and faculty location of the supervisor will determine whether the student ultimately receives an MA or MSc degree. Normally a student who is supervised by a member of staff in ENV will receive an MSc, otherwise the student will receive an MA. Co-supervision between schools is encouraged. In such a case the type of degree will be determined by the primary supervisor. The dissertation will be marked by one member of the Science faculty and one member of the Arts and Humanities faculty. |
| PHILOSOPHY DISSERTATION (90 CREDITS) | PHI-M10X | 90 |
| For students taking the MA in Social Philosophy. Students are required to write a dissertation of a length as specified in their MA Course Guide on a topic approved by the Course Director or other authorised person. |
| PHILOSOPHY OF LITERATURE SEMINAR | PHI-M021 | 20 |
| The topics of this module will be chosen from amongst the following: the definition and purpose of literature; the nature of literary language, fiction, fictional characters, narrative, genre, literary criticism and interpretation; the relevance of author's intention, the role of the reader, and the relationship between literature which is read and that which is heard and seen; aesthetic evaluation, taste, subjectivity and objectivity; whether literature can convey truth and knowledge, and the relationship between aesthetic judgement and ethics. Students submit two essays of 2,500 words each. |
| PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE | PHI-M024 | 20 |
| As any intellectual enterprise, natural science poses fascinating and deep problems. Think e.g. of mechanics: in order to describe observable motion it appeals to such unobservable entities as forces, and in order to talk about real bodies it refers to ideal entities like points endowed with a mass. These facts lead to challenging questions: what is the role of unobservable entities within a scientific theory? Why do we need to resort to ideal hypotheses in order to study the real world? Is there a fundamental divide between theoretical science and experimental science? We will explore these issues by looking at scientific practice from a philosophical standpoint. This module is self-contained and presupposes no previous knowledge of physics or other sciences. Students on the M Level version will attend advanced level seminars and their coursework will be marked to a higher standard. The module is offered biennially in conjunction with PHI-2A14/3A14. |
| PHILOSOPHY POSTGRADUATE WORKSHOP | PHI-M09Y | 10 |
| The weekly workshop enables students to present their own work in short presentations and to contribute to discussions on each other's work. There will also be meetings where research methods and tactics are discussed, such as journal publication. Each student must produce a presentation and meaningfully contribute to the meetings in order to pass the module. |
| POLITICAL ECONOMY OF THE ENVIRONMENT | PSIPM022 | 20 |
| In this module, students will critically engage with mainstream political and economic assessments of environmental degradation and climate change by adopting a political economy approach. In coming to terms with these environmental threats, the module tries to reawaken a broader type of ethical, natural and social theorisation that defined an earlier political economy. This is not a module on environmental or resource economics, nor are students expected to have an economics background. Rather, this module tries to problematise social production as something much more than a series of market relations. It tries to develop a broader socio-cultural understanding of production that ‘de-naturalises’ the way we view and exploit the natural world. |
| POLITICS AND MASS MEDIA | PSIPM012 | 20 |
| Working from the assumption that the mass media are an integral part of modern political life, this module examines the way in which politics is represented in the mass media and reviews critically the argument about 'bias'. It also explores the arguments around the ownership and control of mass media, the increasing use of the mass media by political parties and the changing relationship between citizens and politics engendered by new communication technologies. |
| POLITICS AND POPULAR CULTURE | PSIPM009 | 20 |
| This module explores the ways in which popular culture and politics are linked. It works from the assumption that popular culture 'matters', and the key question is how it matters. Hence it examines the different ways in which, and the different theories through which, popular culture is interpreted as expressing or constituting national or sexual identity, propaganda or political insight, means of resistance or of compliance. It also considers the political economy of popular culture (especially the role of the state) and the political uses of popular culture (especially in political communication). |
| POLITICS AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS | PSIPM034 | 20 |
| This module enables students to develop an advanced understanding of the theory and practice of public affairs, interest intermediation, and the strategies used by interest, advocacy groups and others to influence the political process. As well as covering the main debates in the academic literature, it draws directly on the experience of practitioners and offers unique insights into this under-studied area of politics. |
| POLITICS AND PUBLIC CULTURE | LDCEM069 | 20 |
| CORE MODULE FOR STUDENTS ON THE MA MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN TEXTUAL CULTURES. The aim of this module will be to look at ways of reading literary works in their social, political and intellectual contexts, and to explore the role of the writer in early-modern culture. To do this we will focus on the works of John Milton – the full range of his works, including poetry, prose and (in translation) Latin polemic. The contexts we will consider might include: aesthetics; the history and theory of republicanism; religious radicalism; the problem of ‘Britain’; news; the development of the printing trade and its relation to writing poetry and propaganda; Britain’s place in Europe; the history of reading; the social spaces where literature operated; the rise of the ‘public sphere’. In addition to Milton’s writings, we will look at the print and news culture of early-modern Britain, with some attention to the materiality of printed texts. We may also look at other writings and other modes of writing by Milton’s contemporaries, including pamphleteering and journalism and works by Andrew Marvell, Marchamont Nedham, Lucy Hutchinson and John Dryden. |
| PRACTICAL MEDIA | PSIPM020 | 20 |
| The Practical Media module is divided into two six week blocks and offers students an introduction to both print journalism and television broadcasting. The former is taught by a former BBC journalist at UEA and will teach students the processes and skills of investigative journalism, before allowing students to apply this knowledge by researching and writing their own stories. The broadcast part of the course is taught in collaboration with the state of the art EPIC Television Studios in Norwich. This gives students the chance to use the very latest digital technologies in an advanced studio setting. Students will write, film and produce their own short documentaries. |
| PROCESS AND PRODUCT IN TRANSLATION | LDCEM034 | 20 |
| This module is designed to allow students to produce translations in conditions that encourage and facilitate reflection on the process and product of translation. It encourages students to think experimentally, not only about the forms a finished translation might take, but also about the ways in which process might be incorporated into that translation. The module has a workshop format and culminates in a series of presentations by students of the projects on which they have chosen to work. A series of sessions, devoted to the discussion of problems, both theoretical and practical, connected with translation and the projects ahead, precede the presentations. |
| PUBLIC CHOICE | PSIPM014 | 20 |
| Public choice theory applies economic models to explain political phenomena. This module, jointly taught by lecturers from philosophy, politics and economics, studies the concepts of market failure and political failure, problems of collective action, rational choice models of democracy and bureaucracy, social choice theory, the motivation of actors in the political process, and the evolution of conventions and norms. The political context is the move from a welfare state to a market society. The emphasis is on the critical appraisal of alternative approaches to public choice and policy issues. |
| PUBLIC MANAGEMENT: THEORIES AND CHANGE | PSIPM042 | 20 |
| This module enables students to develop advanced understanding of the main theories, models and concepts used in the study of public management, the main debates in the field, and substantive knowledge of developments in public management in a variety of settings. Students who successfully complete this module will be able to demonstrate: a critical understanding of the main theoretical approaches used in the study of public management and organisational behaviour; familiarity with the main debates in the scholarly literature on public management; substantive knowledge of the theory and practice of the new public management; a critical understanding of public management reform in the United Kingdom and elsewhere; and familiarity with debates concerning the operation and impact of international organisations, including the EU, on public management at the national level. |
| PUBLIC POLICY: THEORY AND ANALYSIS | PSIPM023 | 20 |
| This module enables students to develop advanced understanding of the main theories, models and concepts used in the study of public policy, the main debates in the field, and substantive knowledge of public policy in a variety of settings. Students successfully completing the module will be able to demonstrate: - critical understanding of the main theoretical approaches used in the study of public policy - familiarity with the main debates in the scholarly literature on public policy - advanced knowledge of public policy and policy processes in a variety of national settings - familiarity with the main theories and debates relating to the operation and impact of international organisations, including the European Union, on domestic policy and policy-making processes. |
| QUEERING AMERICA | AMSAM033 | 20 |
| This is a module that engages with queer theory and its inherent complexities in order to read American Studies ‘across the grain,’ to explore the silences and those silenced in accepted readings of America. The module will both scrutinize and utilize the polyphony of theoretical discourses that constitute queer theory’s most often (deliberate) discordant approach so as to open-up the liminal spaces in America – those cities of night to evoke John Rechy’s novel on such liminality. The module is not simply an examination of homosexuality in America, but an examination of alterity in its many different forms, and how this alterity conceptualises America in ways that problematize our immediate understanding of the nation. |
| READING AMERICAN WOMEN'S LIVES: HER-STORY IN THE LONG NINETEENTH CENTURY | AMSAM042 | 20 |
| The module will be structured around eight biographies of different women spanning the Revolutionary and early National period through to the late nineteenth century. The biographies under discussion will include the revolutionary Jane Adams, midwife Martha Ballard, mill girl Eunice Connolly, true women turned plantation mistress Sarah Hicks Williams, women’s right activist and abolitionist Sojourner Truth, the two “first ladies” of the Civil War era Mary Todd Lincoln and Varina Davis reflecting on their experiences in the historical and cultural context in which they lived. The seminars will reflect on the historical conditions that shaped these women’s lives and consider the ways in which they negotiated the dominant ideals of the era. The concepts of race, class, region, and age will be considered alongside gender as primary factors that structured these women’s experiences, in addition to considering factors such as spousal relationships, the growing ideal of romantic love, the sentimentalisation of women’s roles in domestic fiction and wider society, and the developing structures of familial relationships. Biographical materials will be supplemented by historical scholarship and visual media including portraits, pictures, and film. |
| REGULATION | PSIPM028 | 20 |
| This module provides a foundation in the theory and practice of economic regulation, incorporating economic, business, legal and political science perspectives. The module is a research-led programme based on the research undertaken in the ESRC Centre for Competition Policy and assumes no previous studies of economics. |
| RESEARCH AND METHODOLOGY TRAINING SEMINAR | AMSAM02Y | 10 |
| This module is run over two semesters. The Autumn and Spring semester element of the training requires attendance and active engagement at the School research seminars which are run on a weekly basis. In addition, during the Spring semester students will take a half-module concerned with preparation for writing their dissertations over the Summer. Students will present their dissertation proposal at the last of the School's research seminars in the Spring Semester. Assessment will be based on a reflective report, written at the end of the autumn semester, concerning the research seminars students have attended. The spring semester will be assessed through presentation and submission of the dissertation proposal. |
| RESEARCH AND METHODOLOGY TRAINING SEMINAR | LDCEM020 | 10 |
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| REUSING THE PAST: THE CLASSICAL IN THE MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN | LDCEM018 | 20 |
| CORE MODULE FOR STUDENTS ON THE MA MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN TEXTUAL CULTURES. The complex and unstable movement from medieval to Early Modern culture is reflected in and effected through a fundamental revaluation of the classical legacy: in the development of new approaches to classical texts and of new uses to which their cultural authority might be put. This module explores this movement through the works of three late-fifteenth- and early-sixteenth-century writers, Robert Henryson, Gavin Douglas, and John Bellenden, and their responses to the texts of Aesop, Virgil, Ovid and Livy. It tracks a movement from medieval adaptation to Early Modern translation, from moralising allegory to politically inflected intertextuality, exploring the rich variety of ways in which classical texts were made newly available and newly culturally meaningful. |
| REVIEW PAPER (MRES) | PSIPM04Y | 20 |
| A research review paper of 6,000-9,000 words on a subject of your choice. |
| RUSSIAN FOREIGN POLICY | PSIIM008 | 20 |
| The module concentrates on Russian foreign policy since the end of the Cold War. It considers the internal and external determinants of foreign policy and looks at key policy issues and policy towards a number of important states and regions. |
| SCIENCE FICTION: FILM AND TELEVISION | FTMFM043 | 20 |
| Science Fiction films and television series have provided a significant focus for addressing social/cultural and political issues. This module looks at the historical development of the genre, with an emphasis on locating the films/television programs within an historical and cultural context. An array of films and series episodes from both the US and UK will be screened and various clips will also be discussed in seminar. Films/television programs covered in the module will include: Le Voyage dans la Lune (1902), Things to Come (1936), Forbidden Planet (1956), Quatermass 2 (1957), Lost in Space (1965-1968), Doctor Who (1963-1989), Altered States (1980), Threads (1984), Robocop (1987), Independence Day (1996), The Matrix (1999). |
| STUDYING MEDIA | FTMFM029 | 20 |
| This module is intended to provide an introduction to the key study skills in film, television and media studies for students unfamiliar with the British university system and its expectations of students. Focusing on the key issues and academic debates within media studies, it will provide students with a sense of the educational expectations that they will encounter during their other modules and help them to acclimatise themselves to the culture of British universities. |
| STUDYING MEDIA | PSIPM017 | 20 |
| This module is intended to provide an introduction to the key study skills in media and cultural studies. It will be particularly useful for students unfamiliar with the British university system and its expectations. Students will apply theoretical and methodological approaches to contemporary media texts and discuss recent scholarship on changes in China’s media and cultural landscape. In addition to introducing key study skills and debates in the discipline, the workshop sessions will provide a supportive environment for critical reflection and intercultural communication. THIS MODULE IS AVAILABLE ONLY TO STUDENTS TAKING THE MA IN MEDIA, CULTURE AND SOCIETY AND THE MA IN MEDIA AND CULTURAL POLITICS. |
| STYLISTICS FOR TRANSLATORS | LDCEM033 | 20 |
| This module will examine style in texts, and how the analysis of style affects translation. We will look at various different approaches to the definition and understanding of style, concentrating on the stylistic analysis of literary (and some non-literary) texts of all types. In the final weeks of the semester students will present and discuss the translation of style in texts and languages of their choice |
| SUPERVISED STUDY MODULE FOUR | PHI-MA04 | 20 |
| This module provides for supervised study on the same model as Philosophy Supervised Study 1, for students taking two such modules in the Spring semester. Except in the case of Part-Time students, this module can only be taken concurrently with Philosophy Supervised Study Unit 3. This module may also be taken in the form of language skills for original research (e.g. Ancient Greek, German) in which case language exercises and/or translation tasks may replace some or all of the essay work. Training in logic may also take this form. |
| SUPERVISED STUDY MODULE ONE | PHI-MA01 | 20 |
| The module is designed to train the student in research techniques in philosophy and to develop advanced knowledge and understanding in some clearly defined area of the discipline which may or may not have been studied before, eg. at BA level. The student is assigned to work with a tutor with research expertise in the chosen area. The topics covered, and the manner in which they are covered, will be tailored to the student's prior experience in the field. Typically, three essay questions, with bibliographical research, will be set for work during the semester. |
| SUPERVISED STUDY MODULE THREE | PHI-MA02 | 20 |
| This module provides for supervised study on the same model as Philosophy Supervised Study unit 1, and is available as the first such module to be taken in the Spring semester of the programme. |
| SUPERVISED STUDY MODULE TWO | PHI-MA03 | 20 |
| This module provides for supervised study on the same model as Philosophy Supervised Study 1, for students taking two such modules in the Spring semester. Except in the case of Part-Time students, this module can only be taken concurrently with Philosophy Supervised Study module 1. This module may also be taken in the form of language skills for original research (e.g. Ancient Greek, German) in which case language exercises and/or translation tasks may replace some or all of the essay work. Training in logic may also take this form. |
| THE 20TH CENTURY NOVEL | AMSAM017 | 20 |
| This module emphasizes close reading, and exposure to some of the masterpieces of 20th century American prose fiction, over theoretical paradigms or a great deal of critical reading. Each week we will discuss a significant 20th century American novel (and author) in depth, coming to grips with their primary themes, structures, and techniques. However, many of our books have a solid body of scholarship associated with them with which you should also certainly expect to familiarize yourself, and each week's reading will include a required scholarly essay, which will be selected by your classmates for their presentation. |
| THE ACTOR IN SPACE | LDCEM047 | 20 |
| The extremely various theatres of late medieval and early modern England situate the figure of the actor in a great many different settings and configurations. The place of performance may be public, or owned by a patron or by the actors themselves; it may be candle-lit or open to the sky; it may be a communal space for action or the illusionistic location of the fiction; and that fictional world, in turn, may be unitary or else divisively assigned to angels and devils, kings and clowns, speakers and singers. It is possible to grasp this diversity as an historical narrative (from the medieval pageant to the professional stage, from the Elizabethan amphitheatre to the Restoration playhouse with movable scenery), but it was also, often, a synchronic range of possible spaces, each with its distinctive cultural affiliation, each corresponding to, and making visible, its distinctive conceptions of the human, the social and the sacred. The course will explore these spaces by looking not only or even mainly at the theatre history, but at the scripts that record and suggest their meanings. |
| THE BIG PICTURE: CONTEMPORARY HOLLYWOOD CINEMA | FTMFM015 | 20 |
| Hollywood has remained a dominant force in film production, distribution and exhibition in recent decades, despite competition from other local and transnational cinemas. This module aims to explore the success of the Hollywood system through a focus on the industry itself, and the films it produces, particularly those that have been most successful at the domestic and international box office. The module will, therefore, cover a range of relevant topics that may include: what kind of films does Hollywood invest in? Is financial gain the best lens to judge issues of ‘popularity’? Who are the target audiences for those films? What is the role of the audience in receiving and popularising these hit movies? What is the relationship between domestic theatrical release, circulation in foreign markets and distribution in other media such as television, film, and DVD? |
| THE BLACK ATLANTIC | AMSAM018 | 20 |
| This module will consider the flow and proliferation of black culture into and within the Americas, through the medium of the middle passage and the 'Black Atlantic'. This module offers a comparative perspective on American culture: the experiences of African slaves and their subsequent freedom, physical and - for some - also political, will be traced in the contemporary fiction and poetry of the Caribbean and the United States. Given the overwhelming importance of Africa to contemporary Caribbean and African American writing and culture, this module will begin and end with a focus on West African perceptions of the slave trade. |
| THE DIRTY SOUTH: READING SOUTHERN CULTURES | AMSAM038 | 20 |
| In William Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom!, Shreve McCannon asks his Harvard roomate, Mississippian Quentin Compson, to "Tell about the South": "What's it like there. What do they do there. Why do they live there. Why do they live at all." In this module, we will explore the contrasting ways that those questions have been answered - and, indeed, still continue to be answered - by Southerners and others. Reading widely in Southern literature, we will witness the emergence of a distinct Southern literary identity in the years before the Civil War; consider the effect of slavery on the development of Southern letters; encounter, through Reconstruction and beyond, the effects of defeat, liberation and memory; meet the flowering of the Southern Renaissance; and trace the development of Southern writing through the Civil Rights Era and beyond, up to the present day. But we will also consider a variety of other Southern cultures - music, particularly, from country to hip-hop, but also film and television - and think about the ongoing representations of the South by outsiders. And throughout, we will question the shifting meaning of "the South", and consider its persistent significance in the twenty-first century. |
| THE EUROPEAN UNION IN INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS | PSIIM010 | 20 |
| The module focuses on European Political Cooperation in the 1990s and beyond, particularly Europe's role as an international actor. Issues include the EU as mediator in international conflicts such as the Gulf War, the Middle East and Yugoslavia, the EU's position as one of three major economic world powers, the EU and Third World development, new considerations in European security, global environmental concerns. Convergence or divergence in European political consensus is examined through these issues in an attempt to draw useful insights for the future of European Integration. |
| THE FOREIGN RELATIONS OF CHINA AND JAPAN IN THE MODERN WORLD | PSIIM026 | 20 |
| The module looks at the history of China and Japan from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. The attempts at modernisation, conflict between the two nations, their relationships with the Asian region and the United States are covered. Their contrasting attempts to develop in the postwar period are investigated. We also assess their current policies and the issues of importance to China and Japan in the twenty first century, and assess whether they can move beyond the legacy of this difficult history. |
| THE IMPERIAL ORIGINS OF THE US AND CANADA | AMSAM044 | 20 |
| The Imperial Origins of the United States and Canada begins with an examination of the condition of North America in 1492, and proceeds to discuss in the next three sessions to analyse the impact of trade, missionary work, European settlement, warfare, slavery and imperial rivalry in three broad geographic regions: 1) The Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico and southern Atlantic coasts of North America; 2) The St. Lawrence valley, New England and the Canadian Maritime regions; and 3) New Netherland, New Sweden and their successor colonies, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Having laid this foundation, the module continues chronologically, examining the Spanish, French, and British Empires in North America side-by-side, through the period of the American Revolution and on to the War of 1812. Over the long run, the British Empire spawned two huge polities in North America, and the module will close by examining its distinctive legacies on the two sides of the U.S. - Canadian border. |
| THE LIFE OF THE BOOK | LDCEM007 | 20 |
| CORE MODULE FOR STUDENTS ON THE MA BIOGRAPHY AND CREATIVE NON-FICTION (RESERVED FOR STUDENTS ON ROUTE T1Q325101 - LIFE WRITING). This module will follow the arc of the life of a book from inception to reception. How do you choose a subject, determine a book’s structure, find a voice and build character? What about the often daunting question of research? Once the book is written, how do you set about writing a proposal and finding a publisher? We will also consider questions surrounding copyright, editing and reviewing. The emphasis will be practical, with a significant workshop element. |
| THE PERSISTENCE OF THE AESTHETIC | LDCEM062 | 20 |
| This module addresses the relation between art and politics by examining the attempt to unmask the aesthetic as ideological. In order to do this, we will acquire a firm grasp of the meaning of 'the aesthetic' and of what it is often taken to conceal, 'ideology'. We will, therefore, begin by exploring what has been called the 'invention' of the aesthetic in modernity, paying particular attention to the emergence of the aesthetic as a category in the eighteenth century as part of debates concerning the public sphere, disinterestedness, and universality. Key figures here will include the third Earl of Shaftesbury, Immanuel Kant, and Friedrich Schiller. We will then move on to consider the precise meaning of 'ideology' in its various forms in the work of Karl Marx, Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, and Theodor Adorno. Our focus in particular will be on the way in which the aesthetic has been thought to relate to 'ideology' by these, and numerous other, thinkers from fields such as sociology, anthropology, literary criticism, and art history. But far from simply deploying the tools of ideological analysis as a means to expose the covert politics of the aesthetic as such, we will ask whether the aesthetic is as vulnerable to so-called ideology - critique as has sometime been claimed. We will thus evaluate recent attempts to renovate the aesthetic by figures such as Jacques Ranciere, Isobel Armstrong, J.M. Berstein and others. This module, therefore, will address concerns central to those interested in the history and theory of literary and art criticism, and also in cultural and educational policy. |
| THEORIES OF AMERICAN CULTURE | AMSAM009 | 20 |
| This Core Autumn module introduces students to key theories in American Studies. As American Studies is an interdisciplinary field, we require all MA students in our School, whether focusing upon American History, American Literature, Film and American Studies, or American Studies, to familiarize themselves with foundational concepts in the field. The reading list will vary, but will generally have a week of introduction followed by three weeks on literary and textual theory, three weeks on historiography, and three weeks on visual culture and film theory. The aim of the module is to ensure that all students are comfortable with the basic theoretical tools necessary to advanced study in American cultural studies of all varieties. |
| THEORIES OF SOCIETY AND POLITICS | PSIPM003 | 20 |
| This module addresses philosophical and methodological problems of the social sciences, including the normative issues involved in a number of current social and political debates. |
| THEORY AND PRACTICE OF POLICY MAKING IN BRITAIN | PSIPM018 | 20 |
| This module will look at theories of policy making and relate them to recent developments in the policy process in Britain, using a case studies approach. The unit will consider some theories of decision making, such as the rational actor model, disjointed incrementalism, policy networks, bureaucratic politics. It will also examine broader issues of the relationship of power and economic forces to the decision making process. Finally, it will examine such issues as agenda setting, the importance of policy discourse and the role of ideas and belief systems in the policy making process. |
| TOPICS IN POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY | PHI-M008 | 20 |
| This module will be devoted to the interpretation and discussion of important, advanced texts in modern political philosophy, in particular texts by John Rawls, perhaps the most significant political philosopher of the late twentieth century. Rawlsian political philosophy of liberalism will be tested with regard to its soundness in relation to equality, community/society, and ecology. Consideration will be given to looking at what political philosophy might viably challenge or replace liberalism, which tends to be the 'dominant paradigm' in political theory and practice today. Students will also have an opportunity to apply abstract philosophical ideas to current political controversies. |
| TRANSLATION THEORY | LDCEM043 | 20 |
| This module discusses key theoretical and descriptive pronouncements on translation by theorists and practising translators working within the Western tradition. The focus is predominantly on contemporary work, with some older commentary providing historical context. Students are encouraged to explore their own theoretical interests and present their findings in class. |
| TRANSLATION WORKSHOP | LDCEM04Y | 0 |
| A series of workshops by practising translators, shared by the MA in Literary Translation and the MA in Applied Translation Studies. These will be on different aspects of translation, and will involve various genres. There is generally no preparation required for workshops, but students are asked to find out as much as possible in advance about the workshop-holder's background and work. There will usually be translation exercises and discussion in class. Some workshops are on literary topics, but some also deal with non-literary translation or other issues such as approaching a publisher. The workshop programme will be distributed at the start of the academic year. |
| WAR GAMES: DIPLOMACY AND STRATEGY IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS | PSIIM034 | 20 |
| This module introduces students to some of the major issues and ideas concerning diplomacy and military strategy in International Relations. The module comprises fortnightly lectures, two screening sessions, and weekly seminars involving lengthy scenario exercises. Students will learn about the theoretical and practical challenges concerning military relations between states, including concepts such as ‘the security dilemma’, ‘future uncertainty’, ‘self help’, ‘balancing’, ‘deterrence’, ‘imperial overstretch’, and ‘humanitarian intervention’. The successful completion of this module will lead to a more nuanced understanding of war and peace in international politics. |
| WOMEN AND FILM | FTMFM060 | 20 |
| This module intends to explore and critically reflect upon the relationship between women and film whilst focusing on issues such as women’s cinema as counter cinema; women’s cinema as minor cinema; women filmmakers; international women’s film festivals; the representation of women in film; female spectatorship, (fe)male gaze; sexuality; feminism and post-feminism in film; female subjectivity; female desire, feminist filmmaking. The module will focus on analysing contemporary films from a variety of national and transnational cinemas that may include Hollywood, British, Turkish, Japanese, Argentina, Palestine, India, Greece, Portugal, Africa and Brazil. |
| WRITING IN THE FIRST PERSON | LDCEM012 | 20 |
| CORE MODULE FOR STUDENTS ON THE MA BIOGRAPHY AND CREATIVE NON-FICTION. This module looks at autobiography in the broadest sense, taking in memoir, nature writing, travel writing, reportage and essay. We'll be talking about the history and variety of first-person narratives, the ways writers reveal themselves in their words, how autobiography keeps to and departs from the facts, the importance of form and structure, and about non-fiction's relationship to novels and poems. Seminars will feature practical writing exercises as well as readings and discussions. |
| WRITING LIVES | LDCEM003 | 20 |
| CORE MODULE FOR STUDENTS ON THE MA BIOGRAPHY AND CREATIVE NON-FICTION. This module explores the many ways in which writers have grappled with getting ‘life’ and ‘lives’ down on paper. We will look at samples of writing from many different genres, including travel, nature, music and sports writing. We will also be looking at those returning figures – the Hero, the Villain, the Madwoman. In the process we will discuss cultural myth, human empathy and identity and notions of celebrity. Students will be encouraged to find their own special subjects, to study comparative biography, and to look at the many new experimental approaches that make Biography such a flourishing phenomenon today. |
In the interdisciplinary MA in Conflicts in Intercultural Communication, we focus on the identification, analysis and resolution of conflicts in communication across different cultures. We work on case studies of intercultural miscommunication at the level of international political terminology and in discursive/pragmatic strategies, as well as in the representation of cross-national conflicts and the representation of migration conflicts. These case studies link to the broader topics of language in diplomatic contexts, language and social cohesion, language and racism, language and gender, and language in the globalization process. The course involves project and guided research work leading up to a dissertation that can also provide the platform for starting on a research degree, for instance in Intercultural Linguistics, International Politics, Social Psychology.
International exchange and attendant issues in our fast-changing world are key concerns in the School of Language and Communication Studies. They are addressed from the complementary perspectives of Translation, Cross Cultural Communication and Linguistics, each represented by its own MA.