Contemporary English Culture
Code
711121004
Academic unit
Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas
Department
Línguas, Culturas e Literaturas Modernas, Secção de Estudos Ingleses e Norte-Americanos
Credits
6
Teacher in charge
Miguel Alarcão
Weekly hours
4
Teaching language
Portuguese
Objectives
a) To introduce students to the main theoretical concepts and analytical practices of the British Cultural Studies, starting with the culture and civilization debate held by anglophone thinkers and intellectuals since the mid-Victorian period.
b) To encourage students to collect information and data on facts, individuals and/or fields of activity which have somehow shaped contemporary British Culture(s).
c) To help students put into practice some notions, ideas and proposals presented at the outset, by applying them, as critically and independently as possible, to their own topics, thereby enhancing their research, analytical and interpretative skills.
Prerequisites
None.
Subject matter
I ) Introduction:
I.1. The beginnings of the culture and civilization debate: from Matthew Arnold to T. S. Eliot.
I.2. The British Cultural Studies:
I.2.1. The Birmingham cradle: Richard Hoggart, E. P. Thompson and Raymond Williams.
I.2.2. Further afield: other contributions from the non-British English-speaking world.
II) Oral presentations.
Bibliography
EAGLETON, Terry, The Idea of Culture, Oxford, Blackwell, 2000.
MULHERN, Francis, Culture/Metaculture, London and New York, Routledge, The New Critical Idiom, 2001 (2000).
OAKLAND, John, British Civilization: An Introduction, 6th ed., Abingdon and New York, 2006 (1989).
STORRY, Mike e CHILDS, Peter (eds.), British Cultural Identities, 2nd. ed., London, Routledge, 2002 (1997).
TURNER, Graeme, British Cultural Studies. An Introduction, 2nd. ed., London and New York, Routledge, 1996 (s. l., Unwin Hyman Inc., 1990).
Teaching method
After a few introductory lectures, the course will take a more practical shape through the oral presentation and discussion of the students projects. A short period for comments and debate will be set aside at the end of each class. Suggestions and materials for further reading will be handed out, together with the regular monitoring of the students researches.
Evaluation method
A short essay (4 pages) written in class (50%)
An oral presentation, individual or otherwise, of a research project (50%)
Although not given any specific percent, regular attendance and participation will act as a basis for positive discrimination between final marks.