Contemporary English Culture

Code:

LA006

Acronym:

CICON

Keywords
Classification	Keyword
OFICIAL	Cultural Studies - English

Instance: 2007/2008 - 1S

Active?	Yes
Responsible unit:	Department of Anglo-American Studies
Course/CS Responsible:	Bachelor in Applied Languages

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
EELRI	4	Official Study Plan - LEELRI	4	-	6	52	162
LA	26	Study Plan only for 2007/2008	1	-	6	52	162
			2
			3

Teaching language

Portuguese

Objectives

Together with a discussion of some concepts directly connected with the study of “culture” – such as the ones of “culture”, “civilization”, “history”, “nation” and “art” –, the main goal of this course is to stimulate the students’ capacity to critically relate some English “cultural” expressions with the wider social and political realties to which they belong and simultaneously interrogate. Theoretical classes will be dedicated to the identification of the main features of 20th century English society, and particularly to the decades between the end of the Second World War and today, while practical classes will concentrate on a more analytical approach to dome – theoretical, journalistic, historiographical – texts and some films regarded as capable to create the necessary conditions for a fruitful questioning of the different realities represented in each of them.

Program

The first moments of the programme will be dedicated to the systematization of some information on the political, social and economical history of 20th century England, structures around the following moments: the transformations occurred in the period between the two world wars, the emergence of popular culture and mass culture, the impact of the Second World War and its consequences for the transformation of the British Empire, the creation of the Welfare State and the cultural transformations between the 50’s and the 90’s.
A second moment will contemplate the interrogation of a set of concepts – besides those already mentioned above, also those of “class”, “gender”, “race” and others –, as well as an approach to the making of an English national identity.
A third and more developed moment will consist on the (partial or integral) viewing, commentary and critical discussion of a group of English films, taken as representative of some of the most expressive transformations in the English society and culture and of the internal or external projection of a given image of the English nation: The Scarlet Pimpinel (1934), directed by Alexander Korda; Night Mail (1936), directed by John Grierson; Brief Encounter (1945), directed by David Lean; Every Day Except Christmas, directed by Lindsay Anderson (1957); We Are the Lambeth Boys, directed by Karel Reisz (1959); A Room at the Top (1959), directed by Jack Clayton; Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960), directed by Karel Reisz; A Taste of Honey (1961), directed by Tony Richardson; This Sporting Life (1963), directed by Lindsay Anderson; The Servant (1963), directed by Joseph Losey; Chariots of Fire (1981), directed by Hugh Hudson; The Ploughman’s Lunch (1983), directed by Richard Eyre; A Passage to India (1985), directed by David Lean; My Beautiful Laundrette (1985), directed by Stephen Frears; East is East (1999), directed by Damien O’Donnell.

Mandatory literature

Susan Bassnett (ed.); Studying British Cultures: An Introduction, Routledge, 1997. ISBN: 0-415-11440-3

Complementary Bibliography

Raymond Williams; Keywords, Fontana Press, 1983
Alistair Davis / Alan Sinfield (eds.); British Culture of the Postwar: An Introduction to Literature and Society 1945-1999, Routledge, 2000. ISBN: 0-415-12811-0
Boris Ford (ed.); The Cambridge Cultural History: Early 20th Century Britain, Cambridge University Press, 1992. ISBN: 0-521-42888-2
Boris Ford (ed.); The Cambridge Cultural History: Modern Britain, Cambridge University Press, 1992. ISBN: 0-521-42889-0
Robert Murphy (ed.) ; The British Cinema Book, British Film Institute, 1997. ISBN: 0-85170-641-X

Teaching methods and learning activities

The nature of the course will demand, especially during the first classes, that the teacher conveys a set of coordinates and problems regarded as important for the prosecution of the study. However, and given the partially practical basis of the course, it will be indispensable to rely on the regular and active participation of students, both orally and/or through written assignments, which will find its necessary expression in the evaluation.

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation with final exam

Assessment Components

Description	Type	Time (hours)	Weight (%)	End date
Subject Classes	Participação presencial	56,00
	Exame	2,00		2008-07-31
	Trabalho escrito	31,00		2008-05-30
	Total:	-	0,00

Amount of time allocated to each course unit

Description	Type	Time (hours)	End date
	Estudo autónomo	73	2008-07-31
	Total:	73,00

Eligibility for exams

See next item.

Calculation formula of final grade

Students opting for continuous assessment will have to submit the following: a) a written essay; b) a short written test; and c) an oral presentation.
Students opting for final assessment will have to take an examination at the end of the semester, under the conditions defined by the ‘Evaluation Norms’ passed by the ‘Conselho Pedagógico’.
The final examination will be marked according to the 0-20 scale traditionally applied in higher education in Portugal.
Students opting for continuous assessment will be classified through the application of the following formula (see 'evaluation components' above): (a x 2) + (b x 2) + c : 5.