Module overview
This module investigates how cultural narratives have been produced, disseminated and consumed across national boundaries since the mid-twentieth century. Through examination of a range of narrative forms, including fiction, essay, memoir, film and photography produced by artists and thinkers from across the world, the module seeks to deepen your understanding of transnational models of hybridity, migration, cultural translation and ideas of place and displacement. Throughout, we will engage closely with critical approaches that consider the implications of class, race, gender, disability and other forms of identity, and the role of centres and peripheries in their formation.
Aims and Objectives
Learning Outcomes
Transferable and Generic Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- reach an advanced level of global and cultural awareness
- engage in high-level analysis of texts and arguments
- engage in advanced debate around complex, high-level ideas and theories
- manage deadlines and make effective use of your time
- communicate complex, advanced ideas and arguments in an essay format
- identify, select and draw upon a wide range of printed and electronic sources
Knowledge and Understanding
Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
- how culture manifests and is disseminated through global exchange and encounter, at an advanced level
- advanced conceptualisations, theories and debates around cultural narrative, identity, imperialism, colonisation, migration, globalisation and representation
- how to engage, at a high level, with cultural texts in a variety of forms.
- working and thinking globally and across cultures, at an advanced level
Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- employ critical and cultural theory in high-level analysis of cultural trends, narratives and texts
- communicate a high-level academic argument in written and oral form
- interpret and reflect critically, at an advanced level, on a range of global cultural texts
- evaluate advanced theoretical approaches to cultural narrative, place and identity
Syllabus
The syllabus will vary from year to year, but might include, for example, segments on colonialism and postcolonialism, the dynamics of global North and South representation, cultural crossings and displacement, global ecologies and environments, and/or the textual or visual representation of race, gender and/or disability.
Learning and Teaching
Teaching and learning methods
Lectures, seminars and individual tutorials, alongside in-depth independent study.
| Type | Hours |
|---|---|
| Seminar | 24 |
| Guided independent study | 126 |
| Total study time | 150 |
Resources & Reading list
Textbooks
Appadurai, Arjun (1996). Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalisation.
Mbembe, Achille (2001). On the Postcolony / De la postcolonie: essai sur l'imagination politique dans l'Afrique contemporaine.
Mudimbe, V. Y. (1988). The Invention of Africa: Gnosis, Philosophy and the Order of Knowledge.
Rodney, Walter (1972). How Europe Underdeveloped Africa.
Hartman, Saidiya (1997). Scenes of Subjection: Terror, Slavery and Self-Making in Nineteenth-Century America.
Galeano, Eduardo (1971). Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent / Las venas abiertas de América Latina.
Ang, Ien (2001). On Not Speaking Chinese: Living between Asia and the West.
Said, Edward (1978). Orientalism.
Gómez-Barris, Macarena (2017). The Extractive Zone: Social Ecologies and Decolonial Perspectives.
Fanon, Frantz (1961). The Wretched of the Earth / Les damnés de la terre.
Patterson, Orlando (1982). Slavery and Social Death: A Comparative Study.
Chakrabarty, Dipesh (2000). Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference.
Kaplan, Caren (1998). Questions of Travel: Postmodern Discourses of Displacement.
Williams, Patrick, and Laura Chrisman, eds (1993). Colonial Discourse and Postcolonial Theory: A Reader.
Assessment
Formative
This is how we’ll give you feedback as you are learning. It is not a formal test or exam.
Coursework plan
- Assessment Type: Formative
- Feedback: Appropriate feedback will be provided.
- Final Assessment: No
- Group Work: No
Summative
This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Essay | 100% |
Referral
This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Essay | 100% |
Repeat
An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Essay | 100% |
Repeat Information
Repeat type: Internal & External