'THE WORLD IS AN AMAZING PLACE': THE POLITICS OF OTHER CULTURES 12.5 1st year Michael Dutton and Grant Parsons. First semester Two 1-hour lectures and a tutorial a week Students who successfully complete this subject should be able to:
  • demonstrate a knowledge of some of the issues raised by the attempt to study another culture;
  • understand and assess a range of arguments which seek to expand the meaning of the political;
  • understand how, and by whom, a culture is represented in a variety of texts, including novels, film and scholarly works;
  • develop relevant knowledge and skills on which to base further studies in politics or cultural studies;
  • demonstrate an improved facility in researching and writing essays and presenting arguments in class.
This subject addresses the problems posed in the attempt to understand cultures other than ones own; principally cultures within the non-west. The role played in historical and contemporary approaches to the study of other cultures by such categories as race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, progress and development, and notions of universal human rights. Specific reference will be made to literary texts, history and film. Written work totalling 4,000 words. E Said Orientalism E Said Culture and Imperialism. INTRODUCTION TO CONTEMPORARY EUROPE: POLITICS, IDENTITY, CULTURE B 12.5 Assoc Prof Christian Grawe. Second semester. Two 1-hour lectures and a 1-hour tutorial each week. Students completing this subject will:
  • have acquired an integrated view of a number of national components of the EU by studying aspects of the recent histories, concerns and ambitions of some major European nations;
  • have become familiar with aspects of the national character and the sense of identity and tradition of some EU countries by studying their cultural products;
  • have studied the nature and origins of a supra-national concept of European identity and the cultural diversity of modern Europe.
The changing concept of Europe from 1945 to the present and the forces shaping it, through a survey of national and trans-national historical, political, intellectual and cultural concerns. Written work of not more than 4,000 words.