Learning Outcomes:
On completion of this module, students should be able to:
1. Assess the connections between Spectacle and Modernity within the social and political contexts of the covered period (19th, 20th and 21st centuries).
2. Be able to analyse how representations of Nations, Ethnicities, Classes, Genders and Natural Environments are influenced by historical, cultural and socio-political factors.
3. Be aware of relevant key debates in Representation and Cultural Studies.
4. Interrogate the place of visual representations in a building historical narratives.
5. Contribute regularly and in a meaningful way to class discussion.
6. Write scholarly essays to the standard of a level 3 student of history.
Indicative Module Content:
Indicative weekly seminar topics are as follows:
1- The Society of the Spectacle within (Post)Modernity.
2 – The Universal Exhibition as surrogate to reality (1850-).
3 – The Olympics, a modern neo-tradition with classical roots (1896-).
4 - FIFA World Cup, the nation in the pitch. (1930-).
5 – Mega-event ceremonies as Sites of Memory.
6 – Nationalism and Spectacle.
7 – Ethnicity and Nation.
8 - Class: Hegemony and Marginality.
9 – Gender and Normativity.
10 – Nature and the Anthropocene.
11 – Spectacles in Contemporary Societies: Iterations of everyday biases or catalysts of change?