ML2STA-Society, Thought, and Art in Modern Europe

Module Provider: Languages and Cultures
Number of credits: 20 [10 ECTS credits]
Level:5
Terms in which taught: Autumn / Spring term module
Pre-requisites:
Non-modular pre-requisites:
Co-requisites:
Modules excluded: HS2STA Society, Thought and Art in Modern Europe
Current from: 2023/4

Module Convenor: Dr Veronica Heath
Email: V.Heath@reading.ac.uk

Type of module:

Summary module description:

This module aims to provide students with a systematic historical and cross-national understanding of the key ideas, institutions and symbols that have come to constitute and represent modernity, in its original cradle in Europe and the rest of the world. The module examines the birth of modern men and women in Europe in the late eighteenth century, in the fulcrum of the Enlightenment and Romanticism, and the broad intellectual, cultural, economic, political and social conditions which have been shaping and re-shaping them since. The module further shows a) the contributions of different European nations to a common European reaction to and re-evaluation of tradition and innovation and b) the diffusion of modernity (Westernisation) from Europe to Asia and Africa and its role in the creation of a global world. Finally, it shows how art has played a leading role in the transformations of modernity - not only recording it but also constituting one of its central components.

Aims:

This module aims to provide students with a systematic historical and cross-national understanding of the key ideas, institutions and symbols that have come to constitute and represent modernity. The module examines the birth of modern men and women in Europe in the late eighteenth century and the broad intellectual, cultural, economic, political and social conditions which have been shaping and re-shaping them since. The module further shows a) the contributions of different European nations to a common European reaction to and re-evaluation of tradition and innovation; and b) the diffusion of modernity (Westernisation) from Europe to Asia and Africa and its role in the creation of a global world. Finally, it shows how art has played a leading role in the transformations brought about by modernity - not only recording them but also constituting one of the central components of modernity – modern art.

Assessable learning outcomes:

By the end of the module students will be expected to:

• Give an account of the European origin and dimension of modernity by showing the contributions of different European nations to the creation of modernity


• Define European modernity, trace its diffusion outside Europe and identify non-European , including non-Western, contributions to modern culture


• Demonstrate an ability to compare and contrast different national (both European and non-European) responses to modern ways of thinking, behaving and making art


• Identify the key thinkers whose ideas and values moulded the modern age and outline the main tenets of their thought


• Give an account of the critics of modernity and assess the changes and tensions involved in the passing of traditional society and the rise of modern society


• Be familiar with the debates surrounding the modern and the persistence and revival of pre-modern traditions in contemporary Europe


• Identify and analyse the icons of modernity: those visual images which have captured essential features of modernity


• Demonstrate an ability to use concepts from history, art history and the social sciences in analysing aspects of modernity.

Additional outcomes:

The module also aims to encourage the development of oral communication skills, team work through group projects, the critical analysis of texts, and the application of theoretical/ analytical concepts to empirical data. Students will also develop their IT skills by use of relevant web resources and databases, and their numeracy by the examination of key statistics and figures.

Outline content:

By using an inter- and multi-disciplinary perspective that combines history, art history, politics and sociology, the module examines the late eighteenth- and nineteenth-century roots of some of the most central ideas, values and institutions of contemporary Europe and our modern world . It explores the deep transformations in the conditions of human life which modernity has pr