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Module Catalogue

HI2A8-15 The Formation of American Culture, 1929-2019

Department
History
Level
Undergraduate Level 2
Module leader
J.E. Smyth
Credit value
15
Module duration
10 weeks
Assessment
100% coursework
Study location
University of Warwick main campus, Coventry

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Introductory description

This module explores the history of the United States (1929-2019) through the rise of the culture industries; the production, censorship, and consumption of literature, theatre, music, film, radio, art, television, sport, fashion, advertising, gaming, and social media; and the ways in which individuals have sought to resist or reformulate dominate national discourses through cultural production and engagement.

Module web page

Module aims

Topics include the revolution of American fashion in the 1930s, Mexican American youth culture and the Zoot Suit Riots; the Hollywood blacklist and the anticommunist purge of the culture industries, masculinity and corporate culture in the postwar era, African Americans on network television, Discophobia, the history of the Hollywood blockbuster, social networks, and the impact of #MeToo.

Students will learn not only about the history and theory of culture, national identity, and "post-modernism" in America, but also about the ways in which cultural history is developed, controlled, 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.

  1. Women at Work...in 1930s Hollywood
  2. American Looks
  3. Fear of the Dark
  4. Seeing Red
  5. Gray Flannel Suits
  6. Reading week
  7. UnCensored
  8. Televized Revolutions
  9. Backlash
  10. Blockbuster

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 1 session of 1 hour (1%)
Practical classes 1 session of 2 hours (1%)
Private study 130 hours (86%)
Total 151 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.

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
1000 word reflection Yes (extension)
Assessment component
Individual 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 UHIA-V100 Undergraduate History
  • Year 2 of UHIA-V102 Undergraduate History (Renaissance and Modern History Stream)
  • Year 2 of UHIA-V1V5 Undergraduate History and Philosophy
  • Year 2 of UHIA-VM11 Undergraduate History and Politics
  • Year 2 of UHIA-VM13 Undergraduate History and Politics (with a term in Venice)
  • Year 2 of UHIA-VL13 Undergraduate History and Sociology
  • Year 2 of UHIA-VL15 Undergraduate History and Sociology (with a term in Venice)

This module is Core option list C for:

  • Year 2 of UHIA-V102 Undergraduate History (Renaissance and Modern History Stream)

This module is Option list A for:

  • Year 2 of UHIA-VM13 Undergraduate History and Politics (with a term in Venice)
  • Year 2 of UHIA-VL15 Undergraduate History and Sociology (with a term in Venice)

This module is Option list B for:

  • Year 2 of UHIA-V100 Undergraduate History
  • Year 2 of UHIA-V102 Undergraduate History (Renaissance and Modern History Stream)

This module is Option list C for:

  • Year 2 of UHIA-V100 Undergraduate History
  • Year 2 of UHIA-V102 Undergraduate History (Renaissance and Modern History Stream)
  • Year 2 of UHIA-VL13 Undergraduate History and Sociology