HMKK03621U Cultural History: The Historiography of Cultural History and its Discontents

The course aims to give students knowledge and understanding of some important discussions on theory and method within the historiography of cultural history and cultural studies (including studies in contemporary cultural history and contemporary arts). The course gives an introduction to the writing of cultural history as an academic discipline through engagement with selected texts that are part of the current critical discussions and revisions of the field. The course starts with the question: What is cultural history today? It then moves on to look at two approaches that are at the core of the MA programme in Modern Culture: interdisciplinarity and comparativism, both of which facilitate a type of cultural analysis that can cut across the boundaries between distinct disciplines and cultural forms. Finally, the course considers some recent developments in historiography: postcolonial studies, memory studies and studies in material culture.

The course combines lectures with group work and a mandatory assignment to provide students with opportunities to engage in reflections and discussions on methods and approaches prior to their own analytical work on the cultural-historical topic of second course.