HI282-15 The Formation of American Culture, 1876-1929
Introductory description
The Formation of American Culture explores the history of the United States (1876-1929) through the rise of the culture industries, including the production, censorship, and consumption of literature, theater, music, film, radio, television, sport, fashion, and advertising -- and the ways in which individuals have sought to resist or reformulate dominant national discourses through cultural production.
Topics include the incorporation of culture as an integrated big business in the late nineteenth century, the early history of baseball, the creation of the Western, the emergence of working-class culture in dime novels and vaudeville, blackface and the erasure of African American history, Hollywood's attitudes toward working women in the 1920s, and the rise of the gangster as a media hero.
Module aims
Students will learn not only about the history and theory of culture, national identity, and "modernism" in America, but also about the ways in which cultural history is developed, contested, and reconstructed via race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality.
Outline syllabus
This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.
Week 1: The Feminization of American Culture
Week 2: Virginians and Dudes: Selling the West
Week 3: Reading Topic: Making Baseball White
Week 4: Vaudeville and Theatrical Culture
Week 5: Immigrants and Tramps
Week 6: Reading week
Week 7: The New Woman
Week 8: Silent Hollywood and Screening of It, 1927
Week 9: Hardboiled Fiction
Week 10: The Dark Side of Modernism
Learning outcomes
By the end of the module, students should be able to:
- Demonstrate a detailed knowledge of the formation of American culture in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
- Communicate ideas and findings, adapting to a range of situations, audiences and degrees of complexity.
- Generate ideas through the analysis of a broad range of primary source material.
- Analyse and evaluate the contributions made by existing scholarship related to the history and theory of culture.
- Act with limited supervision and direction within defined guidelines, accepting responsibility for achieving deadlines.
Indicative reading list
Reading lists can be found in Talis
Specific reading list for the module
Subject specific skills
See learning outcomes.
Transferable skills
See learning outcomes.
Study time
| Type | Required |
|---|---|
| Lectures | 9 sessions of 1 hour (6%) |
| Seminars | 9 sessions of 1 hour (6%) |
| Tutorials | 2 sessions of 1 hour (1%) |
| Other activity | 2 hours (1%) |
| Private study | 131 hours (86%) |
| Total | 153 hours |
Private study description
History modules require students to undertake extensive independent research and reading to prepare for seminars and assessments. As a rough guide, students will be expected to read and prepare to comment on three substantial texts (articles or book chapters) for each seminar taking approximately 3 hours. Each assessment requires independent research, reading around 6-10 texts and writing and presenting the outcomes of this preparation in an essay, review, presentation or other related task.
Other activity description
Film screenings
Costs
No further costs have been identified for this module.
You must pass all assessment components to pass the module.
Assessment group A2
| Weighting | Study time | Eligible for self-certification | |
|---|---|---|---|
Assessment component |
|||
| Seminar contribution | 10% | No | |
Reassessment component |
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| 1000 word reflection | Yes (extension) | ||
Assessment component |
|||
| Presentation and 500 word source reflection | 40% | No | |
Reassessment component |
|||
| 1000 word reflection | Yes (extension) | ||
Assessment component |
|||
| 3000 word essay | 50% | Yes (extension) | |
Reassessment component is the same |
|||
Feedback on assessment
Written feedback provided via Tabula; optional oral feedback in office hours.
Courses
This module is Optional for:
- Year 2 of UENA-VQ32 Undergraduate English and History
- Year 2 of UFRA-R1VA Undergraduate French and History
- Year 2 of UGEA-R2V1 Undergraduate German and History
-
ULNA-R4V1 Undergraduate Hispanic Studies and History
- Year 2 of R4V1 Hispanic Studies and History
- Year 2 of R4V1 Hispanic Studies and History
-
UHIA-V100 Undergraduate History
- Year 2 of V100 History
- Year 2 of V100 History
-
UPDA-Y306 Undergraduate History (Part-Time)
- Year 2 of Y306 History (Part Time)
- Year 2 of Y306 History (Part Time)
- Year 2 of UHIA-V102 Undergraduate History (Renaissance and Modern History Stream)
- Year 2 of UIPA-V1L8 Undergraduate History and Global Sustainable Development
- Year 3 of UITA-R3V2 Undergraduate History and Italian
- Year 2 of UHIA-V1V5 Undergraduate History and Philosophy
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UHIA-VM11 Undergraduate History and Politics
- Year 2 of VM11 History and Politics
- Year 2 of VM11 History and Politics
- Year 2 of VM11 History and Politics
- Year 2 of UHIA-VL13 Undergraduate History and Sociology
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UVCA-LA99 Undergraduate Liberal Arts
- Year 2 of LA99 Liberal Arts
- Year 2 of LA92 Liberal Arts with Classics
- Year 2 of LA73 Liberal Arts with Design Studies
- Year 2 of LA83 Liberal Arts with Economics
- Year 2 of LA82 Liberal Arts with Education
- Year 2 of LA95 Liberal Arts with English
- Year 2 of LA81 Liberal Arts with Film and Television Studies
- Year 2 of LA80 Liberal Arts with Global Sustainable Development
- Year 2 of LA93 Liberal Arts with Global Sustainable Development
- Year 2 of LA97 Liberal Arts with History
- Year 2 of LA71 Liberal Arts with Law
- Year 2 of LA91 Liberal Arts with Life Sciences
- Year 2 of LA75 Liberal Arts with Modern Lanaguages and Cultures
- Year 2 of LA96 Liberal Arts with Philosophy
- Year 2 of LA94 Liberal Arts with Theatre and Performance Studies