HMKK03621U Cultural History: The Historiography of Cultural History and its Discontents
Modern Culture and Comparative Literature
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.
The mandatory reading list for this course is comprised of 300-400 standard pages (of 2,400 characters). The syllabus is comprised of a compendium of texts (online in the course on Absalon), open access texts and texts that can be accessed through the Royal Library of Denmark.
Suggested reading prior to the course:
Peter Burke, What is Cultural History? Third Edition. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2019. (online access to 2nd ed. 2008 through KB).
New Directions in Social and Cultural History, ed. Sasha Handley, Rohan Mcwilliam and Lucy Noakes. Bloomsbury 2018, 1-18. (online access through KB)
To enhance learning, the courses combine different modes of teaching and learning. This course alternates between lectures followed by one-on-one conversations and plenary discussions, student-led analytical work in groups and small individual writing exercises in class. Students are expected to be active in class (including group work) and to read and prepare texts and/or material for each class.
The module Cultural History consists of two courses. The first part runs for four weeks. It builds a general foundation for the second course by introducing students to recent historiographical and methodological debates in the field of cultural history. The subsequent course focuses on a specific cultural historical topic and topic-specific methodologies.
The course will run in English to enable international students to participate and to provide non-native English speakers with an opportunity to develop their English language proficiency (including their professional domain-specific vocabulary) to prepare for common work tasks in today’s cultural sectors, such as international knowledge dissemination and collaboration. Candidates can choose whether to hand in their concluding exam project in Danish or in English.
- Category
- Hours
- Class Instruction
- 16
- Total
- 16
- Credit
- 15 ECTS
- Type of assessment
- Written examination
- Exam registration requirements
Studieordning:
KA-tilvalg - Frit emne (HLVK13001E): https://hum.ku.dk/uddannelser/aktuelle_studieordninger/kunsthistorie/ikk_enkeltst_katv
BA-tilvalg - Frit emne 1 (HLVB10351E): https://hum.ku.dk/uddannelser/aktuelle_studieordninger/kunsthistorie/ikk_enkeltst_batv/
- Censorship form
- External censorship
Only for Modern culture students
Course information
- Language
- English
- Course code
- HMKK03621U
- Credit
- 15 ECTS
- Level
- Full Degree Master
- Duration
- 1 semester
- Placement
- Spring
- Schedule
- Spring 2022
- Course capacity
- 35
- Study board
- Study board of Arts and Cultural Studies
Contracting department
- Department of Arts and Cultural Studies
Contracting faculty
- Faculty of Humanities
Course Coordinators
- Anne Ring Petersen (8-63707067746b7069426a776f306d7730666d)
Lecturers
Anne Ring Petersen