Module description
The content of the module may be subject to change for 2024/25
From the European song contest to the European Capital of Culture programme, the arts have been put to use in creating a sense of shared cultural identity to accompany the integration of monetary, trade and legal systems in the transformation of the EEC to the EU. Drawing on the idea that ‘nobody falls in love with a common market’, this module will focus on the role which cultural policy, funding, and cross-European artistic projects have had to play in attempts to create a sense of European identity. In addition to top-down projects initiated by EU bodies, the module will also explore grassroots engagements with imagining Europe in literature, film, and performance.
An increasing body of work in European Studies points to the cultural dimensions of European identity and integration, which play a significant role in shaping popular imaginations of what Europe is and should be. At the same time substantial research exists on how to read cultural production and practice in national contexts across Europe in Modern Languages. This module will draw on expertise from both Modern Languages and European Studies to enable students to explore these intersections between politics and the arts. Case studies will change from year to year to reflect new developments and expertise but may include Eurovision, the European Capitals of Culture programme, the EU-level initiatives on cultural heritage, and literary representations of Brexit.
The module will be taught in English but students who are also able to access sources in other languages are encouraged to do so.
Assessment details
500 word written assignment 1 (15%); 500 word written assignment 2 (15%); 2 hour exam (70%).
Reassessment: all re-assessment for this module will take the form of coursework. The exam element will be replaced with a 3000-word essay
Educational aims & objectives
- To introduce students to principles and concepts relating to the role of the arts in the creation and promotion of pan-European identity;
- To develop students’ abilities to recognise and engage with competing perspectives and methodologies from Modern Languages, Cultural Studies, and European Studies.
- To evaluate a common set of cultural productions by selecting appropriate techniques from an interdisciplinary skillset
- To develop skills in collecting information relating to their subject and synthesising it in interdisciplinary dialogue.
Learning outcomes
By the end of the module, students should be able:
- To show detailed knowledge of the cultural programmes of the EU and the political dimensions of the EU at a local, national, and European level.
- To identify patterns and relationships relating to EU identity formation from multiple disciplinary perspectives.
- To use appropriate theoretical models to analyse cultural products and practices in translation from a range of linguistic contexts.
- To analyse a range of information from competing perspectives in an interdisciplinary context.
Teaching pattern
1 lecture plus 1 seminar, weekly.
Suggested reading list
Students will be asked to work with a range of set primary materials across the module (these may include songs, performances, novels, websites, cultural objects, promotional materials) and a range of theoretical and secondary reading. The set reading is subject to change from year to year and will be confirmed via KEATS at the start of term.
Indicative examples of core primary materials may include:
- selected Eurovision performance videos
- website of a European Capital of Culture
- virtual exhibitions of European House of History.
- L'auberge Espagnole [Pot Luck] (2002) dir. by Cédric Klapisch.
- extracts from novels such as Sunjeev Sahota, The Year of the Runaways (London: Picador, 2016); Melissa Harrison, All Among the Barley (London: Bloomsbury, 2018).
- extracts from novels such as Robert Menasse, The Capital (London: Quercus, 2020); Ali Smith, Autumn (London: Penguin, 2017).
- website of the European Balcony Project.
- Audre Lorde, International Conference of Writers: Dream of Europe (New York: Kenning Editions, 2020)
- 'New Narrative for Europe' Declaration, Berlin 2014.
Examples of core theoretical reading may include:
- El-Tayeb, Fatima. “‘The Birth of a European Public’: Migration, Postnationality, and Race in the Uniting of Europe.” American Quarterly 60, no. 3, (2008): 649-670.
- Extracts from: Fornäs, J. Signifying Europe. Bristol: Intellect, 2013.
- Extracts from: Foster, R.. Tabulae Imperii Europaei: Mapping European Empire. London: Routledge, 2015).
- Extracts from: Fricker, Karen / Gluhovic, Milija (eds). Performing the 'New' Europe: Identities, Feelings and Politics in the Eurovision Song Contest. New York: Palgrave, 2013.
- Griffiths, Ron. “City/Culture Discourses: Evidence from the Competition to Select the European Capital of Culture 2008”. European Planning Studies 14 (4/2006): 415-430.
- Kaiser, Wolfram. “Limits of Cultural Engineering: Actors and Narratives in the European Parliament’s House of European History Project”. Journal of Common Market Studies 55 (3/2017): 518–534.
- Karaca, Banu. “The art of integration: probing the role of cultural policy in the making of Europe.” International Journal of Cultural Policy 16, no. 2 (2010): 121-137.
- Pitts, Johny, Afropean. Notes from Black Europe (London: Penguin, 2020).
- Settele, Veronika. “Including Exclusion in European Memory? Politics of Remembrance at the House of European History.” Journal of Contemporary European Studies 23 (3/2015): 405-416.