Introductory description

This module examines British art, design and architecture responding to the First World War (1914-18) and its immediate aftermath. Focussing on the work of artists and designers, such as Nevinson, Wyndham Lewis, Nash, Walker, Southall, Gill and Lutyens, the module explores the diversity of responses to the impact of modern industrialised "total" war and its effects upon society. Consequently it considers a variety of cultural forms, such as paintings, prints, sculptures, photography, monuments, literature, poetry, plays and film. Various modes of artistic expression will be examined, including naturalistic, symbolic and modernist responses, within the contexts of the collision between long-held cultural traditions and the modern socio-political circumstances of wartime and early twentieth century Britain. Consideration will also be given to the representation of war dead, rituals of remembrance, for example recourse in spiritualism and the occult, and memorials. Also, the reception of art, design and architecture produced in response to war, including patronage and exhibition cultures.

Module aims

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.

The Legacy of Cultural Tradition: the ‘Reciprocal Metaphorization’ of War and Sexual Difference.
Art, Design and War Propaganda at the Start of War.
British Avant-Garde Art and the War.
The Impact of War: ‘Destabilizing the Traditional Tropic Gender Balance’: weak men and strong women.
Art and Censorship.
Female Artists and Photographers.
Art and Pacifism.
Rituals of Mourning, Remembrance and Legacy.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Understanding of developments in British art, design and architecture during the First World War.
• Show a nuanced understanding of impact of the First World War, British patronage and the consumption of art, design and architecture.
• Be able to make connections and describe the relationships between the creation and reception of art, design and architecture and the cultural and social environment of the period covered by the module.
• Present an argument, initiate and sustain group discussion through intelligent questioning and debate at an appropriate level
• Ability to undertake research and to write up the results in the form of a well-structured argument at an appropriate level
• Familiarity with essential ICT skills
• Ability to collaborate effectively with others
• Show understanding of diverse viewpoints
• Ability to find, select, organize and synthesize evidence
• Ability to formulate a sustained argument
• Think conceptually and independently at an appropriate level
• Sophisticated visual analysis
• Bibliographical skills at an appropriate level
• Critical analysis of cultural artefacts in their context

Indicative reading list

James Fox, British Art and the First World War 1914-18, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2015.
Angela K. Smith, ‘The Girl Behind the Man Behind the Gun: Women as Carers in Recruitment Posters of the First World War,’ Journal of War and Cultural Studies, 1.3, 2008, 223-41.
Michael Roper, ‘Between Manliness and Masculinity:’ The “War Generation” and The
Psychology of Fear in Britain, 1914-1950,’ Journal of British Studies, London, No. 44,
Johann Pillai and Amber Onar, ‘Tracing the Performative: F.T. Marinetti, C.R.W. Nevinson, and the English Futurist Movement,’ Michael J.K. Walsh (ed.), A Dilemma of English Modernism, 47-71.
Douglas Mao, ‘”Blasting and Disappearing,”’ Mark Antliff and Scott W. Klein (eds.), Vorticism: New Perspectives, 235-255.
Malvern Sue, Modern Art, Britain and The Great War: Witnessing, Testimony and Remembrance, Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2004.
Jane Beckett,‘(Is)Land narratives: Englishness, Visuality and Vanguard Culture 1914-18,’ David Peters Corbett and Lara Perry (eds.), English Art 1860-1914: Modern Artists and Identity, Manchester, 2000, 195-212.
Miranda Hickman, ‘The Gender of Vorticism: Jessie Dismorr, Helen Saunders, and
Vorticist Feminism’, Mark Antliff and Scott W. Klein (eds.), Vorticism: New Perspectives,
119-136.
Grace Brockington, ‘Performing Pacifism: The Battle between Artist and Author in The Ballet of Nations, Catherin Maxwell and Patricia Pulham (eds.), Vernon Lee: Decadence, Ethics, Aesthetics, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2006, 143-159
Vernon Lee, The Ballet of the Nations: A Present Day Morality, Chatto and Windus, London, 1915.
Jay Winter, Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning: The Great War in European Cultural History, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1995.

Subject specific skills

• understanding of developments in British art, design, architecture during the First World War.
• have how a nuanced comprehension of the impact of the First World War, British patronage and the
  consumption of art, design and architecture.
• be able to make connections and describe the relationships between the creation and reception of art, design
  and architecture and the cultural and social environment of the period covered by the module.
• Sophisticated visual and critical analysis of cultural artefacts in their context.

Transferable skills

• present an argument, initiate and sustain group discussion through intelligent questioning and debate at an
  appropriate level
• ability to undertake research and to write up the results in the form of a well-structured argument at an
  appropriate level
• familiarity with essential ICT skills
• ability to collaborate effectively with others
• show understanding of diverse viewpoints
• ability to find, select, organize and synthesize evidence
• ability to formulate a sustained argument
• think conceptually and independently at an appropriate level
• bibliographical skills at an appropriate level