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British Cultures: The Exeter Seminar

Module description

This module is designed for inbound study abroad students and will provide you with a critical introduction to some familiar, and not so familiar, aspects of British Culture from the early modern period through to the present day. The module covers a variety of cultural forms (including literature and film) and genres (including drama, fiction and poetry) and encourages you to reflect on the processes by which – sometimes competing – ideas about national identity have been created, disseminated and interpreted. Teaching is by regular seminars and occasional workshops, some of which will draw on the resources of the University’s Special Collections and Bill Douglas Cinema Museum. Assessment is by a reflective learning log, a group presentation, and an independent study.

Module aims - intentions of the module

This module aims to provide inbound study abroad students with a distinctive critical introduction to British Cultures as broadly conceived. The module covers a variety of different cultural forms (including, but not limited to, literature and film) and genres (including drama, fiction, and poetry) and ranges from the early modern period through to the present day, thereby providing you with the opportunity to study familiar texts in depth and introducing you to a broader and more diverse set of materials than you might yet have encountered. The aim is to equip you with the skills that will enable you to interpret examples of British Culture in relation to their contexts. The module is taught by a convenor with frequent guest contributions from academics in the department with research interests in particular areas.

We start with a group of familiar and indeed canonical authors and texts (examples might include Shakespeare, Austen, Dickens, or Hardy) and we examine the processes by which these examples have become identified with certain modes of Britishness. We then move on to look at representations of British identity in costume dramas and in the heritage sector, and we look at regional variations on the standard model of Englishness (often, if contentiously, taken as a synonym for British identity). Here we will draw on archival resources in the University’s Special Collections and we will make a field trip to a site of literary interest in the South West of England.  In the final weeks of the module, we turn to children’s literature, counter and popular cultures, and to new models of Britishness in a global context. By the end of the module, you will have acquired a broad, deep, and nuanced understanding of the diversity of British Cultures, of the processes by which such cultures are produced and reproduced, and of the implications of these processes for our understanding of Britishness.

If you take this module, you will be expected to read and reflect on a selection of primary and secondary sources both as independent learners and as part of a seminar group. Workshops using the collections of the University Library, Special Collections and Bill Douglas Cinema Museum will introduce you to research and archival skills and a field trip (or equivalent online material) will encourage you to think about British cultures beyond the boundaries of the classroom. Occasional film screenings will supplement the required reading. The group presentation component will require you to work together to share and further your understanding; the learning log will ask you to reflect on their learning; the independent study will enable you to identify and develop a particular area of scholarly interest, to acquire skills in information retrieval and synthesis, and to present your findings in an appropriate format.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Demonstrate an informed appreciation of chosen aspects of British cultures from the early modern period to the present day
• 2. Demonstrate an informed critical understanding of similarities and differences across and between genres, forms, texts and authors of British cultures
• 3. Demonstrate an informed critical understanding of the processes by which cultures are produced, disseminated and interpreted in a range of contexts
• 4. Demonstrate an ability to analyse examples from British cultures from the 1600s to the present day and to relate their concerns and modes of expression to their historical, geographical, social and theoretical contexts

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 5. Demonstrate a developed ability to apply skills of close reading and of comparative analysis
• 6. Demonstrate an ability to understand and analyse relevant theoretical ideas, and to apply these ideas to literary and other cultural texts

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 7. Through module work and group presentations, demonstrate communication skills and an ability to work both individually and in groups
• 8. Through the reflective learning log demonstrate an ability to question assumptions and to direct and evaluate your own leaning processes
• 9. Through the independent study, demonstrate a capacity to identify and construct a coherent, substantiated argument and make critical use of secondary material, to use appropriate research and bibliographic skills and to write clear and correct prose

Syllabus plan

Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:

The module opens with an introduction to British cultures as broadly conceived and invites you to consider the ways in which particular national cultures have been constructed and disseminated through literary and other texts. Thereafter, in the first part of the course, we consider a selection of canonical texts and examine the processes by which these, over time, have been identified with a distinctive British identity. We also consider the implications of this process in contexts beyond the academy, for example, in the heritage sector and if possible will undertake a field trip within the South West to explore this further (or use equivalent online materials). In the middle section of the module we examine visual (TV and film) renderings of Britishness and the work of regional writers. In closing, we turn to children’s literature, popular and counter-cultural forms, and to recent writing that reconfigures British cultures in a global context. N.B. There may be a small charge to cover the costs of the field trip.

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Basic reading:

• Susan Basnett, Studying British Cultures: An Introduction (London: Routledge, 2003)
• Deborah Cartmell, The Cambridge Companion to Literature on Screen (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2007)
• Robert Shaughnessy, The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and Popular Culture (Cambridge:
• Cambridge UP, 2007)
• Peter Widdowson, The Palgrave Guide to English Literature and its Contexts, 1500-2000 (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2004)
• Tory Young, Studying English Literature: A Practical Guide (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2008)

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE: https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=11855
• LION: https://0-literature-proquest-com.lib.exeter.ac.uk/?null
• Project Muse: http://0-muse.jhu.edu.lib.exeter.ac.uk/
• JSTOR: http://0-www.jstor.org.lib.exeter.ac.uk/

Key words search

Study abroad, Britishness, cultural history, popular culture, field trip