Contemporary English Culture

Code:

LA006

Acronym:

CICON

Keywords
Classification	Keyword
OFICIAL	Cultural Studies - English

Instance: 2010/2011 - 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
LA	50	Study Plan - Applied Languages: Business Relations	1	-	6	52	162
		Study Plan-Applied Languages: Translation	1	-	6	52	162
LLC	25	Single Language Plan-English	2	-	6	52	162
			3

Teaching language

English

Objectives

To familiarize the students with ethical and political problems which have proved decisive for the twentieth century in Britain.
To familiarize the students with a set of works of distinction, of different types, and with their respective intellectual and social-historical contexts.

Program

TITLE OF THE COURSE: HISTORY, IDEOLOGY AND INDIVIDUAL PURPOSE
This course will consider the problematics of liberty as it is manifest in several dimensions of British cultural production (the scholarly essay, literary narrative fiction and film) between the 1930s and the 1970s. Aspects of the problem worthy of note are the relationship of individual freedom with the threat of totalitarianism, either through science or through ideological manipulation or downright oppression; and with diverse notions of authority, prejudice and historical inevitability.
List of works for study:
1. Aldous Huxley, Brave New World (1932)
2. George Orwell, Animal Farm (1945)
3. Karl Popper, The Poverty of Historicism (1957)
4. Isaiah Berlin, “Two Concepts of Liberty” (1958)
5. Muriel Spark, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961)
6. David Lean (director), Ryan’s Daughter (film, 1970)

N.B.:
1. Students are expected to purchase the following books:
- Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, London, Vintage, 2004.
- George Orwell, Animal Farm, intr. Malcolm Bradbury, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 2000.
- Muriel Spark, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, intr. Candia McWilliam, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 2000.
2. Other primary texts will be made available through the usual channels at FLUP.
3. Further bibliographical references will be given in class.

Mandatory literature

Berlin, Isaiah; “Two Concepts of Liberty”, The Proper Study of Mankind: An Anthology of Essays, ed. Henry Hardy and Roger Hausheer, New York, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, pp. 191-242., 1998
Huxley, Aldous; Brave New World, London, Vintage, 2004
Orwell, George; Animal Farm, intr. Malcolm Bradbury, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 2000
Popper, Karl; The Poverty of Historicism, London, Ark, 1986
Spark, Muriel; The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, intr. Candia McWilliam, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 2000

Complementary Bibliography

Abercrombie, Nicholas, Alan Warde, et al.; Contemporary British Society, 3rd ed., Cambridge, Polity Press, 2000
Collini, Stefan; Absent Minds: Intellectuals in Britain, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2006
Conrad, Peter; Modern Times, Modern Places: Life & Art in the 20th Century, London, Thames & Hudson, 1998
Ford, Boris, ed.; The Cambridge Cultural History of Britain. Volume 9: Modern Britain, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1992
Marwick, Arthur; British Society since 1945, 4th ed., Harmondsworth, Penguin, 2003
Marwick, Arthur; A History of the Modern British Isles 1914-1999, Oxford, Blackwell, 2000
McKibbin, Ross; Classes and Cultures: England 1918-1951, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1998
Morgan, Kenneth O.; Britain since 1945: The People’s Peace, 3rd ed., Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2001
Morgan, Kenneth O.; Twentieth-Century Britain: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2000
Rosen, Andrew; The Transformation of British Life 1950-2000: A Social History, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2003
Sanders, Andrew; The Short Oxford History of English Literature, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1994

Teaching methods and learning activities

Exposition and discussion of the relevant historical and cultural contexts.
Analysis and critical commentary of the aforementioned texts.
Lectures, practical lessons, tutorials.

keywords

Humanities > History
Humanities > Literature
Humanities > History > Political history
Humanities > Philosophy > Ethics
Social sciences > Cultural studies

Evaluation Type

Evaluation with final exam

Assessment Components

Description	Type	Time (hours)	Weight (%)	End date
Attendance (estimated)	Participação presencial	60,00
Written exam	Exame	2,00		2011-02-28
	Total:	-	0,00

Amount of time allocated to each course unit

Description	Type	Time (hours)	End date
Preparation for exam	Estudo autónomo	100	2011-02-28
	Total:	100,00

Eligibility for exams

Attendance of 75% of classes, except in the cases legally considered.

Calculation formula of final grade

Final exam - 100%.

Examinations or Special Assignments

Not applicable.

Special assessment (TE, DA, ...)

Not applicable.

Classification improvement

According to the Evaluation Rules approved by the Faculty.