Imagining the Nation

• Credit value: 30 credits at Level 7
• Convenor: Dr Ann Lewis
• Assessment: a 5000-word essay (100%)

In this module we encourage you to reflect on the category of the nation as a paramount framework in the study of culture by looking at the histories and situated conceptualisations of the term national culture (national literature, national cinema, etc) and critiques thereof, prior to embarking on the study of specific case studies in specific national traditions. A solid grounding in the Western, European traditions and subsequent critiques of the national paradigm will help you to understand the intersection of nation with cultural forms, institutions and practices in your chosen comparative or language-speaking area of study.

The first part of the module is offered to all students on the MA/MRes Modern Languages and Comparative Literatures. In the second part you will divide into different proposed strands according to your chosen area of interest and the expertise available in the School of Creative Arts, Culture and Communication. This second part will vary year by year depending on the interests of incoming students and the availability of academic staff.

Indicative syllabus

Part 1

This section of the module explores the work of Benedict Anderson (Imagined Communities), Partha Chatterjee (The Nation and its Fragments), Dipesh Chakrabarty (Provincializing Europe), Jean-Luc Nancy (The Inoperative Community) and Giorgio Agamben (The Coming Community) to reflect on the contested notions of nation, community and identity.

Part 2

• Ideology and innovation in post-war German cinema
• France and otherness, race and deterritorialisation
• French perceptions of America
• The Paris Commune and its international legacy
• Photography and the Brazilian image world
• Contemporary Latin American fiction
• Vanishing points: the culture of Spanish Republican exile beyond the nation
• Deconstructing Italianness and the Risorgimento narratives
• Destabilising the notion of Japan through contemporary Japanese literature/film

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

• demonstrate in-depth critical knowledge of the categories associated with national culture (national literature, national cinema, etc), as well as understanding the historical formation and European roots of the category of the nation, and the meanings of its contemporary critiques in cultural realms
• demonstrate awareness of a variety of critical approaches to the study of national cultures, and how by choosing an approach, critics condition their object of study and their interpretation and placement within cultural histories
• analyse and critically assess some of the dominant themes, salient authors and cultural objects within your chosen strand and cultural tradition
• demonstrate skills in close textual analysis
• show critical awareness of the meanings and functions of cultural production within the social and cultural contexts of their production and reception
• engage with complex cultural criticism material.