Module HIST44630: Time, Culture and Modernity

Department: History

HIST44630: Time, Culture and Modernity

Prerequisites

• • None

Corequisites

• • None

Excluded Combination of Modules

• • None

Aims

• To introduce students to advanced debates and case-studies that focus on time and temporality in modern culture.
• To help students gain a deeper understanding of how the ‘time-frames’ of modern political cultures and societies have been analysed.

Content

• Since 1789, modern societies and cultures have represented the experience of time around key concepts, such as ‘the break with the past’, ‘the rush to the future’, or ‘the creation of memory’; and descriptions of the flow of time, from ‘progress’ or ‘acceleration’ to ‘decay’ and ‘the death of history’ have emerged as vital elements of our modern discourse. But how have these concepts been formulated since 1789? And where can we find evidence that they have connected closely to real political, cultural and social debates within modern Europe? This module aims to set out a range of theoretical approaches to understanding the vital role which ideas about time play in modern culture; and then to introduce students to specific historical moments when – according to some of the best recent literature – time and temporality were refocused or reconceived through direct experience. The module will explore the ideas of Francois Hartog, Georges Gurvitch, Walter Benjamin and Reinhardt Koselleck among other theoretical approaches. It will then focus more closely on the experience of time in the revolutionary decade of the 1790s; the crisis of historical thought in the nineteenth century; the ‘fin-de-siècle’ in late nineteenth-century Europe; the social experience of time in the First World War; and the experience of time in 1930s Germany. It will point ultimately to the questioning of the grand narratives of time which post-modern thinkers have advanced in recent decades, rounding off a broad discussion of the theme and demonstrating its continuing pertinence to debates about the very nature of history and intellectual culture in modern Europe. Students’ presentations in class and their final piece of coursework will EITHER allow them to explore the rich theoretical debates about temporality in modern culture OR to develop detailed historical investigations that draw on those debates while examining a particular case in modern European political culture or society.

Learning Outcomes

• A specialised knowledge and understanding of aspects of Modern History
• A knowledge and understanding of the advanced historiography in areas of Modern History
• A advanced knowledge and understanding of aspects of the theoretical and conceptual approaches relevant to Modern History

• The ability to identify and analyse historical evidence in a sophisticated manner
• The ability to appreciate, assess and apply advanced historiographical and conceptual approaches to Modern History
• The ability to manage bodies of historical evidence and historiography, including the gathering, sifting, synthesising, marshalling and presenting of such information
• The ability to use advanced skills of historical analysis, including posing questions, assessing interpretations, assembling evidence and arguments to enable the evaluation of a hypothesis, which may involve exploring the current limits of knowledge
• The ability to present historical findings in clear and appropriate written forms

• discrimination, judgment and autonomy
• familiarity with appropriate means of identifying, finding, retrieving, sorting and exchanging information
• research capabilities, including the ability to pose, consider and solve complex problems
• structure, coherence, clarity and fluency of written expression
• intellectual integrity, maturity and an appreciation of the validity of the reasoned views of others

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• Student learning is facilitated by a range of teaching methods.
• Seminars and Group Discussion require students to reflect on and discuss: their prior knowledge and experience; set reading of secondary and, where appropriate, primary readings; information provided during the session. They provide a forum in which to assess and comment critically on the findings of others, defend their conclusions in a reasoned setting, and advance their knowledge and understanding of modern British political culture.
• Structured reading requires students to focus on set materials integral to the knowledge and understanding of the module. It specifically enables the acquisition of detailed knowledge and skills which will be discussed in other areas of the teaching and learning experience.
• Assessment is by means of a 5000 word essay which requires the acquisition and application of advanced knowledge and understanding of an aspect of modern British political culture. Essays require a sustained and coherent argument in defence of a hypothesis, and must be presented in a clearly written and structured form, and with appropriate apparatus.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

One or more short assignments delivered orally and discussed in a group context.

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University