Contemporary English Culture - 1st semester
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 present and discuss, starting from the ongoing debates on) “culture” carried out since the mid-Victorian period by anglophone thinkers, the main theoretical concepts and analytical practices put forward by “British Cultural Studies”.
b) To invite students to apply what they have learned to facts, phenomena and characters which they feel have somehow shaped (or still shape) “whole ways of life” in contemporary Britain.
c) To stimulate and enhance competences and abilities associated with research, namely the production of knowledge through the development of critical analysis and evaluation of relevant information.
d) To assess the quality of work produced through c).
Prerequisites
n.a.
Subject matter
I ) Introduction:
I.1. The first British cultural analysts and thinkers: from Matthew Arnold to T. S. Eliot.
I.2. The Making of British Cultural Studies:
I.2.1. The pioneers: Richard Hoggart, E. P. Thompson and Raymond Williams.
I.2.2. Other Anglophone developments and approaches.
II) Oral presentations.
Bibliography
- COULDRY, Nick (2000), Inside Culture. Re-imagining the Method of Cultural Studies. London: Sage Publications Ltd.
- EAGLETON, Terry (2000), The Idea of Culture. Oxford: Blackwell.
- MULHERN, Francis (2001), Culture/Metaculture. London and New York: Routledge, “The New Critical Idiom”.
- STORRY, Mike e Peter Childs, eds. (2002), British Cultural Identities. London: Routledge.
- TURNER, Graeme (1996), British Cultural Studies. An Introduction. London and New York: Routledge, 1996).
Teaching method
This course consists mostly of lectures and oral presentations, a short period (10-15 mins.) being set aside, at the end of each session for questions, comments and debate. The lecturer will try to help and guide students through their research by suggesting and providing additional references for further reading.
Evaluation method
Oral presentations (individual or in groups) on any relevant theme/topic (50%).
A short essay (4 pages), written in class.