Reading Culture

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• the role of culture in identity formation; the social and political functions of culture and criticism;
• the importance of historical and national contexts in reading cultural texts;
• the implications of working across cultures and across different cultural forms,
• ethical issues involved in the study of culture.
• the intellectual history of cultural criticism;

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• critically evaluate the relationship between text and context;
• select an appropriate critical method for the analysis of a specific text or texts.
• make distinctions between theories of production and consumption of culture;

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• work independently, organising your time effectively.
• analyse complex material;

This introductory module aims to give you an overview of the history of literary and cultural studies, and to make you aware of a range of different approaches to cultural texts. It aims to encourage you to experiment in choosing different critical approaches, and to learn to think consciously about which critical approach(s) might be appropriate in relation to which particular texts. It will train you in close textual reading as well as in analysis of the relationship between texts and their specific cultural contexts.

You will be encouraged to take responsibility for selecting an appropriate critical method for the analysis of a specific text or texts. You will learn to analyse fiction, poetry, film, photography, and of course cultural criticism. In addition, the module will expose you to a range of texts in French, German, Spanish, and Portuguese, taught in English translation. You will be expected to read and cite texts in the particular language(s) you are studying in the original.

Teaching and learning methods

Teaching methods include

• weekly lecture and seminar

Learning activities include

• small group work
• individual presentations
• independent learning

Resources & Reading list

Textbooks

Rivkin, J. and Ryan, M. (1998). Literary Theory: An Introduction. Blackwell.

Hall, Stuart (ed.) (1997). Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. Sage/Open University.

Barry, Peter (1995). Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory. Manchester University Press.

Assessment strategy

Assessments designed to provide informal, on-module feedback

• Group discussion in seminars

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External