History MA

Researching History

This core module equips you to research history at an advanced level: it supports your development as you progress to postgraduate study, where you will exercise greater independence as a researcher. The sessions will engage with fundamental questions about the nature of our discipline, how it has changed, and where it is going next. We'll also consider what tools and strategies we have to identify and interpret historical evidence, and how we can communicate our findings and arguments to the academic community. 

Seminars will bring together students with diverse historical interests, and you'll be asked to identify examples from your own research specialism for discussion in class. In addition to the seminars, there are workshops run by the Arts and Humanities Faculty Digital Learning Team, and you will be asked to explore our research culture by attending a research event of your choice during this first semester. This could be one of our History Research Seminars, or an event run by one of our research centres.

15 credits

Research Presentation for Historians

This core module is designed to equip you with the skills and experience that you need to present and communicate a defined historical research project to an academic audience. The subject of the presentation will be your dissertation topic, so this module also contributes towards the successful completion of your dissertation.

In this module, you will identify the specific research questions driving your dissertation and learn how to discuss the sources and approaches you are using to answer them. You will develop your ability to present your research data and findings in an accessible form to an audience, and you will enhance your ability to use presentational aids such as slideshows, data projection, and visual aids.

The module also aims to improve your skill and confidence in speaking to an audience and responding to questions; this gives you the opportunity to develop the presentational skills demanded by employers as well as by a career in academic research. You will also learn how to make reasoned and critical judgements of others' presentations.

You'll give your final presentation at a 'postgraduate conference' style assessment day to an audience of academic staff and fellow postgraduates. Presentations are assessed equally on content and communication with audience review making up a third of your mark and the academic panel's review making up the other two thirds.

15 credits

Dissertation in History

In this module, you will undertake an individual research project, based on an identifiable collection of primary sources and present your findings in a dissertation of 15,000 words. The dissertation represents an original piece of independent research and should be based on a substantial primary source base and demonstrate a thorough knowledge of the secondary literature. In certain cases, primary evidence may also consist of modern historiography. Through the dissertation you will demonstrate your practical understanding of how established techniques of research and enquiry are used to create and interpret historical knowledge. You will work under the supervision of an expert member of staff who will provide guidance and regular tutorial support.

60 credits

Example 15 credit option modules:

Heritage, History and Identity

This module highlights the diversity of cultural heritage, ranging from cultural and 'natural' landscapes, through monuments to music, dress, cuisine, 'traditional' crafts, and language and dialect. It explores the role of these various forms of heritage in shaping local, regional and national identity; the extent to which they reflect or misrepresent local, regional and national history; the legal and ethical issues surrounding conservation and preservation of heritage; and how study of 'traditional' lifeways may contribute to understanding of history.

15 credits

Egypt in the Age of the Empire.

This module provides the student with a detailed knowledge of the archaeology of Dynastic Egypt during the New Kingdom, between 16th and 11th centuries BC (18th - 20th Dynasties).  The module embeds Egypt in its late prehistoric Mediterranean and Near Eastern context and traces the development of Egyptian society, dynastic rule, societal structures and the relationship of Egypt with its neighbours. The module will use archaeological, textual and scientific evidence to explore how society is shaped by ideology, belief, power and conflict alongside the natural world.

15 credits

Digital Cultural Heritage: Theory and Practice

This module examines the theoretical and methodological advances in Digital Cultural Heritage and their broader implications in fields concerned with the interpretation and presentation of the past. We will draw on theoretical readings as well as analyse the potential benefits and drawbacks of certain digital and online approaches. Topics include: principles and theories underlying Digital Cultural Heritage, understanding processes of creating digital surrogates, establishing principles for user experience, and exploring digital narratives for public dissemination. A major component of this module will be a semester-long project that will require the development of a proposal for a digital cultural heritage project.

15 credits

Heritage, Place and Community

The aim of this module is to introduce the theory and practice of heritage, conservation and public archaeology. The module will encourage debate on issues that affect how we define and apply the term 'heritage'. It also offers an opportunity to focus on the historic 'value' of a site or landscape, with an evaluation of how it is currently managed, and strategies for its future conservation and presentation.

15 credits

Digital Mapping for the Humanities

This module will introduce students to digital mapping as sources, as methods and as outputs for humanities research. Digital mapping offers a wide variety of analytical and interpretive methods that are put to use in many humanities disciplines. Maps and mapping allow us to recognise social constructions of place, visualise patterns, gaps, and changes across time and space. By combining spatial and temporal dimensions into visual representation, digital mapping can provide innovative approaches, methods, techniques, interpretive practices, and solutions to different stages of research, from data collection to science communication. The module will be delivered through both discursive and 'hands-on' classes and will draw on case studies from across the arts and humanities. Students will critically engage and analyse multidisciplinary examples in which digital mapping is a core aspect of research. They will also make use of multiple methods and tools on digital mapping platforms to create, visualise, analyse, disseminate, and communicate spatial and temporal data and knowledge.

15 credits

Presenting the Past: Making History Public

This module focuses on the creation and interpretation of 'public history'. You'll have the opportunity to develop critical skills in interrogating public history through reflecting on the issues involved in disseminating history outside academia, so it may be of particular interest if you are planning to pursue a career in heritage, museums or education.

You'll analyse examples of public history, develop communication and presentation skills for audiences outside academic contexts, and gain experience working in a team to put these skills into practice. 

As part of your assessment, you will work in a group to create an example of public history. You might create a webpage, a podcast, a design for an exhibition, an historic house booklet, a script for a radio programme, or a proposal for a TV series. You will also reflect on the value of your historical knowledge and skills outside academic study through a short essay.

15 credits

Wikipedia and History

Wikipedia is today probably the world's chief source of historical knowledge. Every day, its pages on history are read by many thousands of people. Yet professional historians tend to avoid engaging with it. This course seeks to change that. As well as discussing critical perspectives on Wikipedia, students will receive practical training in creating or editing a page on a historical topic. They will then apply their studies in a hands-on way to improving the encyclopedia's historical coverage, and reflect on the kind of historical knowledge of the period it promotes and disseminates.

15 credits

Approaches to Political History

The political world has long been, and remains, an important strand of the work of professional historians. This module encourages you to consider the varying approaches to studying political history, such as 'high' politics, political culture and political thought. We will assess how to research different forms of political history from a number of methodological and source-based perspectives. The module aims to help you to understand the approaches to studying political history, and to clarify the appropriate methods for building an independent research project. 

In considering the different forms that political history can take, the module allows you to draw on your own interests and expertise, learning the techniques available to uncover the multi-layered history of politics in various local, national and international/global contexts. The final assessment is an essay personalised to your interests, on a topic agreed in discussion with the tutor, and asks you to explore one of the key methodological approaches to the study of politics, as applied to a case study of your own choice.

The module encourages you to think about the appropriate forms of studying political history across different time periods, stressing the connection between source availability and method. You will be introduced to several case studies from across history, which will form the basis of conversations about methodological practice. These case studies may change from year to year, but indicative examples include the revolutions in seventeenth-century England and eighteenth-century America and France;  nineteenth-century global empires; and the twentieth-century 'Troubles' in Northern Ireland.

15 credits

Digital History

This module will introduce you to the field of digital history. You will explore the methods through which digital history is carried out and the impact it has had on the wider discipline of history. You will critically reflect on the key theories that underpin digital history and examine existing digital history projects in detail, before getting the chance to put digital historical methods into practice yourself.

Throughout the module, you will investigate the development of digital history as a discipline and explore the processes through which history is made digital. These include the digitisation of historical sources, the creation of digital archives and the transformation of traditional sources into structured digital data. You will get the chance to explore ways in which this data can be examined, including distant reading, digital mapping, digital prosopography, social network analysis and data visualisation. You will be encouraged to analyse these methods critically, assessing their strengths and limitations and exploring their capacity to uncover patterns of historical change. You will discuss and debate how methods are applied and the kinds of research they facilitate, and will also get the opportunity to try key methods out in practice using digital research tools and sample data.

As you move through the course, you will be asked to reflect on ways in which digital methods can be used as public-facing tools, both to recreate historical environments using techniques such as VR and AR, and as a means of disseminating the results of research in accessible ways.

You will be asked to critically examine how digital technologies have reshaped the discipline of history - including their impact on accessibility, inequality and bias - in both positive and negative ways.

To facilitate the combination of practical application and theoretical reflection, you will be provided with a set of digital history projects which will act as ongoing case studies throughout the course. These will cover a wide range of historical source types and periods. You will use these case studies as a means to explore the methods covered in the module, as well as sources of historical data for your own assignments.

You will leave the module not just with an appreciation of how digital methods can be used to facilitate historical research, but also a set of transferable digital skills applicable in a range of academic and non-academic settings.

This module does not assume any previous knowledge or experience with digital tools.

15 credits

Work Placement in History

This module gives you the opportunity to gain experience working on a history-related project in the local community. This might be at a museum, archive, gallery, heritage site or working on a community project and may include undertaking activities such as historical research, developing an exhibition or organising an event.

You will be supported to choose a placement from those offered at the start of the academic year and will then work with the placement provider to finalise your role.

Wherever you go, you'll complete a placement of approximately 100 hours, gaining valuable insight into the day-to-day workings of these kinds of organisations. You'll develop history-specific vocational skills, the ability to interrogate public history, and you will also reflect on the issues involved in disseminating history outside academia through a reflective essay.

These kinds of skills are valuable whether you're looking for employment after the MA programme or are planning to continue your studies with a PhD.

15 credits

How to research and write Indigenous histories

This module seeks to equip you with the tools, methods and understanding to begin to research and write Indigenous histories in an ethical, engaged and critical way. Recognising Indigenous histories as the product of diverse, vibrant, often still-living cultures, the module seeks to illuminate the places and perspectives of Native peoples in history and historiography, thinking critically about how to centre Indigenous voices not only in the stories we tell, but in who gets to tell them. Reading and critiquing famous scholars, activists and intellectuals, we will centre Native perspectives and voices, and consider the challenges and opportunities of the complex alphabetic, material and oral records available for the study of Indigenous histories. Over the past fifty years, the study of the Indigenous past has evolved enormously.  Alongside academic approaches to marginalised histories, Native voices and scholars have increasingly asserted their right to be central to these discussions, challenging stereotypes about Indigenous peoples and asking whether Indigenous history should be 'activist' and how far it should be informed and practised by Indigenous peoples themselves. Asking you to consider your own 'positionality', this module will tackle key controversies, from the importance of language (why might it matter to call depopulation a 'genocide'?) to the question of who 'owns' Indigenous history and possesses the 'authority' to write it? For many Indigenous cultures, European invasions were a watershed not only in their histories, but also in their historiographies, as a fundamental transition from Indigenous pictographic, oral and other non-alphabetic traditions to European alphabetic text brought the very nature of writing and of knowledge into question. The failure to recognise Indigenous forms of recording as 'real' history often continues today, as oral traditions are dismissed as 'unreliable', and Mesoamerican pictographic systems are seen as, at best, 'pre-alphabetic'. In reality, Indigenous communities possessed highly sophisticated and complex forms of recording, and this module will introduce you to some of these forms and help you grapple with how to combine them with more familiar sources to shed light on the Indigenous past. Focusing on Indigenous American histories as a starting point for conversation, but also including other global contexts, the module allows you to draw on your own interests and expertise, learning the broader significance of the module's methods and approaches to Indigenous and other marginalised histories. The final assessment is an essay personalised to your interests, on a topic agreed in discussion with the tutor, and asks you to explore one of the key themes of the module in an Indigenous context of your choice.

15 credits

Making a Living: Approaches to Work c. 1500-1900

How did people in the past make a living? Covering five hundred years, this module explores how historians study working lives. You will examine a range of sources that tell us about people at work including diaries and autobiographical works, account books, legal records, and national censuses. Each session explores a different source used to study work in the past, taking examples from across the globe. We study different approaches and methodologies historians have applied to these sources, raising questions such as: what is work? What did women do and how can we recover their working lives? How can we access experiences of coerced or unfree labour? We will consider how historians have used work as lens through which to understand identity, living standards, andt local, national and global economies. This course challenges traditional conceptions of what work is, offering you the opportunity to grapple with ideas of freedom and unfreedom, and paid and unpaid labour. You will gain experience of using a wide range of sources, thinking comparatively about work over time and place, and develop expertise in qualitative and quantitative methods.

15 credits

Example 30 credit option modules:

The Global Cold War

This module explores the Cold War as a global phenomenon. While Europe played a central role in the origins and denouement of the ideological contest between the United States and the Soviet Union, for the past twenty years or so historians have explored in greater depth the impact of the Cold War in the global South. This latter group of scholars have examined the Cold War as a Superpower competition over the political and economic future of the so-called 'Third World' and explored the agency of actors in the global South. Studies have expanded beyond an initial focus on ideology, diplomacy and security to a wider set of issues including economic development, culture, and human rights, and beyond international histories to include transnational and domestic ones. We now have a Cold War historiography which stresses pluralism and diversity of conception, method, and interpretation.

Through a series of case studies ranging from Europe to Asia, Africa and Latin America and including the home front in the United States and the Soviet Union, we will examine these new historiographical developments. While remaining attentive to the local dynamics that drove political, economic, and social developments in Europe and the global South, we will explore the extent to which the Cold War structured the international system and constrained choices available to countries around the world. What was the Global Cold War? How did it play out and interact with local dynamics in specific locales? Is it possible to study the Cold War as a series of conflicts and transformations around the world without losing conceptual clarity? What are the methodological implications of studying the Cold War in a global perspective? 

30 credits

Community and Power: urban life, ca. 300-1800

Urban settlements have existed for millenia. This module uses these environments to ask questions of the period ca. 300 CE-ca. 1800 CE, and as a lens into key historical interpretations of that period. What was life like in medieval and early modern towns and cities, and what were their political, social, and economical structures? Cities and towns also present a complex picture of pre-modern life: alongside stories of successful, bustling trade centres or political and cultural capitals, they were also sites of deprivation, segregation, enslavement, and violence.  How did people live, love, work and worship within these spaces? From the last days of imperial Rome, with its 1 million inhabitants, to the emergence of Rome, Jerusalem and Mecca as holy sites, the growing commercial centres including London, Venice, and the Baltic cities, and the indigenous and colonial settlements in the Americas and Africa, these towns and cities showcase the variety and breadth of social, cultural, and political life in the pre-modern world. In addition to introducing you to individual towns and cities of the period and key debates in pre-modern history, this module will challenge your understanding of periodisation, asking how we can - and whether we should - distinguish between different periods before modernity.  It will also provide a bridge to Masters-level study in the first semester, developing critical Masters-level skills such as primary source analysis and your ability to understand, deploy, critique, and counter others' arguments, and, through the assessments, expanding your ability to identify underlying themes and topics, and address them in writing, in preparation for your Dissertation. Each week you shall study a different facet of urban life in pre-modernity, looking at different case studies from across the period before ca. 1800 to critically engage with that theme and its implications for understanding the history of pre-modern urban spaces.

30 credits

Power and Protest in Twentieth-Century Europe

This module explores key trends and major caesuras in the history of twentieth-century Europe, covering developments in both Western and Eastern Europe. The core theme of the module is power. Using different case studies, we will discuss a series of questions:  how is power legitimised and exercised? How do violent and non-violent types of state power operate? How is genocidal killing distinguished from other types of mass violence? Why have the human body and reproduction become sites for the exercise of power? How and with what results have protest movements challenged established institutions and societal conventions?

The module builds on a rich and diverse historiography on twentieth-century Europe that has emerged over the past three decades. One key element of this historiography is the use of innovative concepts and approaches. For instance, we will query whether revolutions are informed and benchmarked by historical 'scripts', i.e. the precedent of prior revolutions starting in 1789? We will consider different factors that allow for the mobilization of protests movements such as their 'framing' and transnational exchanges. And we will discuss different approaches to the study of the power of language, semantics and discourse. Ultimately, we will also consider issues of periodization and ask whether the twentieth century was a 'short' century. Overall, the module will offer new ideas and approaches for the study of key junctures in twentieth-century European history.

30 credits

Race and Racism in Historical Perspective

What is race and how has it operated historically? Through a series of case studies, this module will seek to historicize ideologies, ideas and the experiences of race and racism across the early modern and modern historical periods. The module takes as its starting point the understanding that race is not a biological fact but always and everywhere the product of struggles for power in specific political, cultural and geographical settings. How have racial categories been made and re-made, imposed and resisted? How has this affected material outcomes and distributions of wealth and power? What are the ongoing legacies of these histories?

We will examine a number of case studies, including slavery, abolition campaigns and immigration in various spacial and temporal contexts. We will explore key concepts in historiography including settler colonialism, whiteness and white supremacy, racial liberalism, and anti-racism. Throughout, we will be attentive to the intersections of race with other categories of social difference such as gender, class, and sexuality, and appreciate the importance of historical context in understanding conceptions of race and racism. 

30 credits

Feminist Methods in Historical Practice

In this course, we examine a wide range of feminist approaches to studying the past. We trace the development of women's history, gender history, and queer history, asking how feminist politics have shaped the research questions and methods of historians. But we also consider feminist history in its most expansive forms: through the lens of psychoanalysis, of memoir and oral history, of auto-theory, and intersectional histories of gender, race, and social class. How has feminism reshaped historical methods and our institutions? How has it failed to do so? How can we balance our stories of women's agency and transformations in women's status, with accounts of continuity and long-term injustice? What is the future for feminist history, and what is the place of historical writing in feminist activism? 

Throughout, we encourage students to engage their learning with their own ongoing research and primary sources from contexts with which they are familiar. Our classroom discussions will be enriched by a creative and diverse application of feminist methodologies to a wide range of primary sources and student-led research interests.

30 credits

A History of Emotions, from the Medieval Age to the Modern

Though History of Emotions is a relatively recent subdiscipline, it has seen a huge rise in popularity in a relatively short period - to the extent that it is now easy to find journals devoted exclusively to the field, research centres specialising in it, and monograph series that publish numerous books every year. Nevertheless, it is not easy to define what History of Emotions means, or the conceptual tools that it must encompass or exclude. At its heart, though, is the notion that emotions - like other, more easily visible phenomena - are malleable and quite likely to change over time. Taking this as its starting point, the module will explore historical traces of a range of emotions from the medieval period to the modern (including  anger, loneliness, jealousy, love, amongst others) in a variety of European and non-European settings. It will also discuss concepts that allow us to exercise a firmer grasp over something that is as supposedly flimsy as emotions.

30 credits

Example Archaeology modules:

Digital Cultural Heritage: Theory and Practice

This module examines the theoretical and methodological advances in Digital Cultural Heritage and their
broader implications in fields concerned with the interpretation and presentation of the past. We will draw on
theoretical readings as well as analyse the potential benefits and drawbacks of certain digital and online
approaches. Topics include: principles and theories underlying Digital Cultural Heritage, understanding
processes of creating digital surrogates, establishing principles for user experience, and exploring digital
narratives for public dissemination. A major component of this module will be a semester-long project that will
require the development of a proposal for a digital cultural heritage project.

15 credits

Digital Mapping for the Humanities

This module will introduce students to digital mapping as sources, as methods and as outputs for humanities research. Digital mapping offers a wide variety of analytical and interpretive methods that are put to use in many humanities disciplines. Maps and mapping allow us to recognise social constructions of place, visualise patterns, gaps, and changes across time and space. By combining spatial and temporal dimensions into visual representation, digital mapping can provide innovative approaches, methods, techniques, interpretive practices, and solutions to different stages of research, from data collection to science communication. The module will be delivered through both discursive and 'hands-on' classes and will draw on case studies from across the arts and humanities. Students will critically engage and analyse multidisciplinary examples in which digital mapping is a core aspect of research. They will also make use of multiple methods and tools on digital mapping platforms to create, visualise, analyse, disseminate, and communicate spatial and temporal data and knowledge.

15 credits

Heritage, Place and Community

The aim of this module is to introduce the theory and practice of heritage, conservation and public archaeology. The module will encourage debate on issues that affect how we define and apply the term 'heritage'. It also offers an opportunity to focus on the historic 'value' of a site or landscape, with an evaluation of how it is currently managed, and strategies for its future conservation and presentation.

15 credits

Heritage, History and Identity

This module highlights the diversity of cultural heritage, ranging from cultural and 'natural' landscapes, through monuments to music, dress, cuisine, 'traditional' crafts, and language and dialect. It explores the role of these various forms of heritage in shaping local, regional and national identity; the extent to which they reflect or misrepresent local, regional and national history; the legal and ethical issues surrounding conservation and preservation of heritage; and how study of 'traditional' lifeways may contribute to understanding of history.

15 credits

Egypt in the Age of the Empire.

This module provides the student with a detailed knowledge of the archaeology of Dynastic Egypt during the New Kingdom, between 16th and 11th centuries BC (18th - 20th Dynasties).  The module embeds Egypt in its late prehistoric Mediterranean and Near Eastern context and traces the development of Egyptian society, dynastic rule, societal structures and the relationship of Egypt with its neighbours. The module will use archaeological, textual and scientific evidence to explore how society is shaped by ideology, belief, power and conflict alongside the natural world.

15 credits

Example English modules:

Romantic Gothic

Romantic Gothic considers the various manifestations of the Gothic mode, from the middle of the eighteenth century towards the end of the Romantic period in 1830. Looking at how the Gothic became such an enduring and powerful mode of expression in literature, the module will look at Gothic poetry, Gothic novels, Gothic bluebooks, and accounts of supernatural occurrences in the popular magazines and newspapers of the age. By the end of the module, you will have a good knowledge of the rise of the Gothic during the eighteenth century and Romantic periods, and will have examined some of the most popular Gothic works of the age alongside less canonical works.

30 credits

Shakespearean Transformations

This module approaches the literature of Shakespeare's era through the theme of transformation. This theme has multiple dimensions: first, you'll look at how Shakespeare and other Renaissance writers transformed existing literary traditions such as the classical epic, religious scripture, and medieval romance within their own writing. Then, you'll look at examples of transformation in Renaissance writing, such as changing sex, changing religion, and changes between the human and the animal. The module also reflects self-consciously on Shakespeare/Renaissance studies as a discipline and how it has been transformed - and might be transformed in future - in light of changing critical, ethical and social priorities. The module is diverse in its content, covering drama, poetry and prose, reflecting the different specialisms and expertise of staff members. The form of assessment, critical essay, helps you to hone your writing skills at graduate level and to carry out independent research into your chosen topic.

30 credits

Exchanging Letters: Art and Correspondence in Twentieth-Century American Culture

This module looks at the art and practice of letter writing in twentieth-century American literature. In particular, it considers the relationship between letter writing and other literary genres, investigating the use writers make of their own and other people's correspondence in published novels, poems and stories. Students will read letters by some of the twentieth-century's most controversial and innovative epistolary writers, including Elizabeth Bishop, F.Scott Fitzgerald, Robert Lowell, Marianne Moore, Flannery O'Connor and Sylvia Plath. One of the main aims of the module will be to consider the aesthetics of letter writing and the extent to which it might be seen as a literary genre in its own right. In addition to this, you will be expected to show awareness of the different historical and social contexts in which these artists worked and to contextualise their readings of letters through reference to other biographical and literary sources

30 credits

Humans, Animals, Monsters and Machines: From Gulliver's Travels to King Kong

This module examines imaginings of the 'human' in relation to machines and animals (and those monsters that are neither one thing nor the other) from the eighteenth century to the twentieth. We will focus mainly on fiction, its cultural contexts and on readings from the period's key thinkers of human being, alongside more recent theories of humans, posthumans and animals. The aim is to encourage critical engagement with this key issue and to facilitate a deeper appreciation of the period's literature, culture and politics, including the relationship of discourses of technology and species to discourses of class, gender and race.

30 credits

Memory and Trauma in Contemporary Literature

This module examines a variety of representations of memory and trauma in contemporary narrative. The texts range widely both generically (from memoir to fiction and the graphic novel) and thematically (to include both personal and collective histories, memories and traumas). Texts by Julian Barnes, Annie Ernaux, Kazuo Ishiguro, Herta Muller or Yoko Ogawa will be studied in relation to classic, contemporary and decolonial theories of memory and trauma, such as those of Sigmund Freud, Cathy Caruth, Stef Craps and Michael Rothberg. We will discuss how narrative form is affected by such factors as historical events, memory loss, delayed recovery and childhood recall. You will gain and develop skills in close analysis, the application of theory, contextual reading, and researching and writing on important, influential and challenging texts.

30 credits

Mid-Century Modernism

The module will engage with current research and scholarship relating to literature of the 'long modern' period (1930 to 1975), introducing you to the history and contemporary state of criticism and theory in relation to mid twentieth-century cultural production. You will receive a thorough grounding in research methods specific to the period. This is a period of unprecedented violence and transformation, from the momentous impact of totalitarian systems, the rise and impact of the Second World War on global culture, host to the worst events the world has ever experienced with the Holocaust and Bomb, the age of rapid and shifting groups and movements, existentialism through abstract expressionism to confessional, innovative and pop art styles. It is also an era of very deep reflection on the idea of the relations between systems of thought across disciplines. The module will chart that reflection as well as a forum for thinking about art's power in a world under new techno-political compulsions, be they nuclear-apocalyptic, Cold War-propagandized, or transnational, neo-imperial, superpowered or postcolonial.

30 credits

Murderers and Degenerates: Contextualising the fin de siècle Gothic

The module explores three related case histories which help to establish how the literary Gothic shaped particular fin de siècle anxieties. To that end the module examines accounts of Joseph Merrick (aka The Elephant Man), newspaper reports of the Whitechapel murders of 1888, and the trials of Oscar Wilde. It is by exploring how the Gothic infiltrated medical, criminological, and legal discourses that we can see how a narrative which centred on the pathologisation of masculinity was elaborated at the time. These case histories will be read alongside Jekyll and Hyde (1886), The Great God Pan (1894) and Dracula (1897) as three of the key literary texts which also examine medicine, the law, and crucially the urban and gender contexts which in turn shape the three case histories.

30 credits