Unit information: Popular Representation and Institutions of Culture in 2021/22

Unit name	Popular Representation and Institutions of Culture
Unit code	MODL20026
Credit points	20
Level of study	I/5
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
Unit director	Professor. Hurcombe
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	MODL10116 (Comparative Literature: What is it and how can we practise it?) and MODL10017 (Introduction to Visual Cultures), or equivalent
Co-requisites	MODL20024
School/department	School of Modern Languages
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

The right to political representation is perceived as a defining characteristic of European liberal democracy, yet over the course of the twentieth and twenty-first century it has competed against authoritarian and totalitarian political systems that have used populist rhetoric to claim legitimacy based on a notional and abstract will of the people. At the same time, even liberal democracies have exercised power over colonial and post-colonial countries in ways that disregard or manipulate the right to political representation. In various ways all political systems have erected institutions of culture aimed at shaping the mindset of the people they claim to represent and from whom they draw their legitimacy, while simultaneously being shaped by distinctive pre-existing socio-cultural formations, such as the power of culturally specific kinds of elites. The aim of this unit is to examine and compare through a set of national case studies the various types of political systems that have existed in modern European history, with a particular focus on their socio-cultural embedding, on their discursive attempts to achieve popular legitimacy, and on the institutions of culture they have designed in order to secure consent and consolidate their power, including in their projection beyond national borders.

Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of the unit the students will be able to:

1. Apply an advanced understanding of the interrelations between political discourse and socio-cultural formations in specific European political systems in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries
2. Analyse how nations have designed and controlled institutions of culture to shape the mindset of their citizens or people and affirm their political legitimacy
3. Appraise the discursive and cultural mechanisms whereby nations have sought to export their political models beyond their borders and evaluate the results of these policies on the shaping of local institutions of culture
4. Demonstrate a firm grasp of theoretical and critical scholarship in the relevant fields of study.
5. Develop their skills in presenting and explaining their thinking orally
6. Formulate sophisticated and independent reflections on the unit’s content in writing at a level appropriate to level 5/I.

Teaching Information

• One two-hour interactive lecture per week
• Single-honour students will have an additional fortnightly one-hour tutorial on material related to the unit, but not assessed

• One two-hour seminar per week, including presentations, class discussions and small group work

Assessment Information

• 1 x group presentation (25%), testing ILOs 1, 2, and 5.
• 1 x 3000-word essay (75%), testing 3, 4, and 6.

Resources

If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.

If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. MODL20026).

How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks, independent learning and assessment activity.

See the Faculty workload statement relating to this unit for more information.

Assessment
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit. The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. If you have self-certificated your absence from an assessment, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (this is usually in the next assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any extenuating circumstances and operates within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.