HIS32870 Spectacle and the modern world

Academic Year 2022/2023

Created in mid-nineteenth-century Europe, World Exhibitions were timekeepers of modern Western civilisation progress. In an international setting, the bourgeois imaginary portrayed the outside world according to its universalistic dimension. Some decades later, in the fin de siècle, members of European aristocracy revived the Olympics through a Janus-faced narrative connecting classical, modern, and upcoming eras. This module examines how the founding discourses that originated Universal Expositions, Olympic Games and FIFA World Cups modelled the societal representations presented within these mega-events. We will evaluate how new media possibilities and economic interests have created lavish spectacles of global reach, in which teleological narratives become accessible alternatives among competing accounts of reality. We will thus assess why certain political myths are selected by the host countries to be part of national narratives while other events of historical importance are avoided or trivialised. We will also analyse how modern social developments and challenges - such as the advent of a multipolar world, the twenty-first-century climate crisis, increasing socioeconomic disparities as well as the struggle for ethnic minorities’ participatory rights and gender equality - have created tendencies in how we remember, imagine, and represent modernity.

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Curricular information is subject to change

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?

Student Effort Hours: 
Student Effort Type Hours
Seminar (or Webinar)

22
Specified Learning Activities

95
Autonomous Student Learning

95
Total

212
Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
This is a small-group, seminar-based module. It is taught via a two-hour weekly seminar. The seminar is focused upon individual active and task-based learning by means of class debates, discussion and student presentations. Advanced research, writing and citation skills are developed through a combination of individual student presentations on primary sources, the write-up of this presentation and the extended 4000-word research project. Autonomous learning is advanced through student-led debate and discussion of set primary sources and student presentations each week. 
Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Not applicable to this module.
 
Assessment Strategy  
Description Timing Open Book Exam Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade
Continuous Assessment: Students are graded on their contributions to seminars throughout the semester. Throughout the Trimester n/a Graded No

20
Presentation: A combined 15-20 minute in-class presentation and a 1500-word write-up essay Varies over the Trimester n/a Graded No

40
Essay: A semester-long research project comprising an extended essay of 4000 words. Week 12 n/a Graded No

40

Carry forward of passed components
No
 
Resit In Terminal Exam
Autumn No
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 
Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment
• Group/class feedback, post-assessment

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Feedback on the combined presentation/written assessment will be provided in writing post-submission, usually via brightspace. Oral feedback will be provided on an ongoing basis in seminars in response to student contributions. Feedback on the end-of-semester research project assessment will be provided in writing post-submission, usually via brightspace. Students will also have opportunity to book a one-to-one consultation to discuss their progress either pre- or post-assessment.

Name Role
Dr Daniel Malanski Lecturer / Co-Lecturer