Moodle@Warwick

The uncompromising modernity of Kafka’s writing has fascinated generations of readers across the world. His fiction has added the word Kafkaesque to the English dictionary for the experience of an obscure and dislocating modernity. A vast body of criticism concerns the question of how to read a body of writing that upsets many of the reader’s conventional expectations about meaning-making. In this module we will analyse how Kafka employs realist, symbolist and allegorical frames of reference in order to challenge the very notion of stable meaning. You will study a selection of Kafka’s short stories with reference to the following themes: narrative perspective; authority, law and justice; gender roles; performance art and Kafka’s animals. The module is optional for students on all degrees and runs over one term.

Course Outline and Weekly Schedule

Week 1: Introduction: Auf der Galerie

Week 2: NO CLASS! Preparation for: Patriarchal Power and the Power of the Unconscious in Das Urteil [See 'Student Preparation']

Week 3: Patriarchal Power and the Power of the Unconscious in Das Urteil (continued)

Week 4: NO CLASS! Social Power and Collective Memory in Beim Bau der chinesischen Mauer and “Eine kaiserliche Botschaft”

Week 5 a): Performance Art or Art as Sham? Ein Hungerkünstler

Week 5 b): Lecture, Wednesday 31 October, 2018, 5-7pm: When Anti-World Literature Turns into World Literature: Kafka’s Archives of Resistance

Week 6: READING WEEK

Week 7: Kafka's Animals: Kafka‘s Kleine Fabel in Comparison with Aesop’s Der Löwe und die Maus

Week 8: Kafka's Animals: The Ape and his Audience in Ein Bericht für eine Akademie

Week 9: Kafka's Animals: Narrative Perspective and Gender in Josefine, die Sängerin oder das Volk der Mäuse

Week 10 a): Make-up lesson for week 4, Monday 3^rd December [room: TBA]: Social Power and Collective Memory in Beim Bau der chinesischen Mauer and “Eine kaiserliche Botschaft”

Week 10 b) Course Summary: “Vor dem Gesetz” and Franz Kafka's Engagement with Modernity

This module intends to provide students with a basic knowledge of the ways in which architecture (as design, planning, and ideology) became one of the delegated fields in which a social, political, or cultural idea of the future could be articulated and implemented from the age of Industrial Revolution to the present day. The module will show how the ideas of theorists and visionaries ended up influencing the form of the everyday built environment around the world. The course will start by exploring the way that rapid urbanisation and industrialisation led many to seek alternative ways of living, whether by looking towards an idealised often-rural past. The module will cover many of the most influential and radical urban theorists of the last 200 years, and will show how their ideas informed the creation of new communities around the globe. It will end by asking how useful Utopian ideas are for solving the many challenges that face urban populations today.

Module Outline

Mannerism defines a key historical period in European arts, bridging the Renaissance and Baroque periods, which is characterised by a shift towards an increasingly more artful, idiosyncratic approach to artistic invention and practice. The term itself, however, is controversial, as it was forged by modern critics on the basis of the Italian sixteenth-century expression maniera (‘manner’, ‘style’). The broad aim of this module is to bring to the fore a number of critical issues raised by the many-sided notion of Mannerism, provide an in-depth examination of a large body of artists and artworks (drawings, paintings, sculptures and architecture) associated with it. The module is based on student-centred seminars, and structured in such a way that students will be invited to reflect on how their understanding of the concept of Mannerism changes throughout. It focuses on how theorists and artists developed new ways of conceiving of artistic practice, by placing unprecedented emphasis on the individual’s inventiveness and talent, and taking the ideal of beauty well beyond the rules of classical art that had prevailed in the High Renaissance. The analysis of theoretical principles elaborated by Italian treatise writers such as Vasari and Lomazzo is combined with an extensive survey of artistic practices and stylistic features that spread from Italy across Europe in the sixteenth century.

Sample Syllabus

Module Format

This module consists of both lectures and seminars. Seminars are student-centred; you should be prepared to contribute to the discussion in order to reap the benefits. Seminars may vary in format, and will entail a variety of in-class group activities including occasional group presentations.

Module Aims

By the end of the module you should be able to understand and compare/contrast:

• Demonstrate critical understanding of how Mannerism impacted on the development of Western art and how it has been discussed in modern scholarship.
• Learn how to deal critically with periodisation, stylistic categories and complex theoretical concepts.
• Demonstrate a grasp of the main lines of Mannerism-related artworks and the notion of Mannerism in contemporary art theory
• Demonstrate detailed knowledge of the works studied and their contexts
• Deploy these ideas critically in relation to other forms of art

Moreover, you should be able to:

• Make use of primary sources to contextualise the material;
• Improve your analytical skills and incorporate visual analysis in your work;
• Frame artists and artworks in their historical contexts and situate them in a broader art historical discourse;
• Deal with theoretical issues and historiographical concepts related to the Renaissance.

Workload

2 x 2-hour lecture/seminar per week

1 x Field trip

You should carry our a minimum of 7 hours preparatory reading and independent research per week

Assessment

3,500 word Portfolio including both documentary evidence and reflective writing (50%)

Slide test Assignment (20%)

1,500 word Essay (30%)

Introductory Reading

Essential

Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the Painters, Sculptors and Architects (ed. 1568), translated by Conaway, J., and Bondanella, P. (Oxford, 1991), ‘Preface’ to Part 3. [http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b2952624~S1]

Robert Williams, ‘Italian Renaissance Art and the Systemacity of Representation’, in Elkins, J, and Williams, R., Renaissance Theory (New York: Routledge, 2008), pp. 159-184 [http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b2344574~S1]

Michael Levey, High Renaissance (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1975), esp. Ch. 1, pp. 15-63.

Walter Friedlaender, Mannerism and Anti-mannerism in Italian Painting (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990).

John Shearman, Mannerism (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1967).

Philip Sohm, Style in the Theory of Early Modern Italy (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001), pp. 86-114Chapter 4, 'Giorgio Vasari: Aestheticizing and Historicizing Style'.

Robert Williams, Art, Theory, and Culture in Sixteenth-Century Italy: From Techne to Metatechne (Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 1997), pp. 29-72 (ch. 1, ‘Vasari's Concept of Disegno’), and pp. 73-122 (Ch. 2, ‘Style, Decorum and the Viewer’s Experience’)

Further

The concept of Mannerism in modern scholarship

Anthony Blunt, Artistic Theory in Italy, 1450–1600 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1962).

Arnold Hauser, Mannerism: The Crisis of the Renaissance and the Origin of Modern Art (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1965).

Enrst H. Gombrich, ‘Mannerism: The Historiographic Background’, in Norm and Form: Studies in the Art of the Renaissance (London and New York: Phaidon, 1966), pp. 99-106.

Hessel Miedema, ‘On Mannerism and Maniera’, Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art, Vol. 10 (1978–1979), No. 1, pp. 19-45.

Jeroen Stumpel, ‘Speaking of Manner’, Word and Image, Vol. 4 (1988), No. 1, pp. 246-264.

Introduction to more specific themes

Sydney J. Freedberg, Painting of the High Renaissance in Rome and Florence (New York: Hacker Art Books, 1985).

Linda Murray, The High Renaissance and Mannerism: Italy, the North, and Spain, 1500–1600 (London: Thames and Hudson, 1977).

Wolfgang Lotz, Architecture in Italy, 1500-1600 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995).

Marcia B. Hall, After Raphael: Painting in Central Italy in the Sixteenth Century (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999)

Bastien Eclercy (ed.), Maniera: Pontormo, Bronzino and Medici Florence, exh. cat. (Munich, London, New York : Prestel, 2016).

Michael Cole, Cellini and the Principles of Sculpture (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002).

David Franklin, Painting in Renaissance Florence, 1500–1550 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001).

Henri Zerner, Renaissance Art in France: The Invention of Classicism (Paris: Flammarion, 2004).

Thomas Da Costa Kaufmann, The School of Prague: Painting at the Court of Rudolf II (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1988).

This archived Fire Safety Awareness course can be accessed to download previously completed training certificates only.

This course has now been updated, visit the new Fire Safety Training (2024 -2027)

 Moodle.

This course is mandatory for all staff and consists of interactive information including text, a video and a quiz. 

It is a requirement to refresh this training every three years.

This Health and Safety Induction (refresher) course is mandatory for all existing staff including Postgraduate Research students. It is a requirement to refresh this training every three years.

There is also a Health and Safety - Induction Training (2024 -2027) course which is mandatory for 'new starters' to the University (including Postgraduate Research students) and will take approximately 20 minutes to complete in total. The course consists of a welcome video, interactive information and a quiz section. 

This Induction course is mandatory for 'new starters' to the University (including Postgraduate Research students) and will take approximately 20 minutes to complete in total. The course consists of a welcome video, interactive information and a quiz section. 

There is an additional Induction course 'Health and Safety Induction refresher course 2024 - 2027' (this course is for existing staff) and refreshes knowledge on basic Health and Safety topics; this course is to be recompleted every 3 years.

This 30 CATS first-year option module is an introduction to the modern social and political history of sub-Saharan Africa. The course takes a chronological approach, covering three broad periods: the nineteenth-century precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial eras. Starting with a discussion of the idea of ‘Africa’, students will familiarise themselves with the changing nature of African trade and commerce after the ending of the slave trade; with the character and development of political authority in the nineteenth century; with the establishment of colonial rule through treaty and conquest; with the effects of colonialism on colonised African societies; with the growth of anti-colonial sentiments and the emergence of nationalisms; and with the impact of decolonization and the formation of postcolonial states. The final lectures and seminars will explore the nature of postcolonial African states, and include discussion of issues such as the Rwandan genocide and ‘development’ in Africa.

Weekly lectures will provide a chronological framework. Seminars elaborate the themes from the lectures, but concentrate on regional case studies and debates within the historiography.

This 30 CATS first-year option module is an introduction to the modern social and political history of sub-Saharan Africa. The course takes a chronological approach, covering three broad periods: the nineteenth-century precolonial period, colonial rule, and the postcolonial period. Starting with a discussion of the idea of ‘Africa’, students will familiarise themselves with the changing nature of African trade and commerce after the ending of the slave trade; with the character and development of political authority in the nineteenth century; with the establishment of colonial rule through treaty and conquest; with the effects of colonialism on colonised African societies; with the growth of anti-colonial sentiments and the emergence of nationalisms; and with the impact of decolonization and the formation of postcolonial states. The final lectures and seminars will explore the nature of postcolonial African states, and include discussion of episodes of violence and of ‘development’ in Africa.

Weekly lectures will provide a chronological framework. Seminars elaborate the themes from the lectures, but concentrate on regional case studies and debates within the historiography.

This 30 CATS first-year option module is an introduction to the modern social and political history of sub-Saharan Africa. The course takes a chronological approach, covering three broad periods: the nineteenth-century precolonial period, colonial rule, and the postcolonial period. Starting with a discussion of the idea of ‘Africa’, students will familiarise themselves with the changing nature of African trade and commerce after the ending of the slave trade; with the character and development of political authority in the nineteenth century; with the establishment of colonial rule through treaty and conquest; with the effects of colonialism on colonised African societies; with the growth of anti-colonial sentiments and the emergence of nationalisms; and with the impact of decolonization and the formation of postcolonial states. The final lectures and seminars will explore the nature of postcolonial African states, and include discussion of episodes of violence and of ‘development’ in Africa.

Weekly lectures will provide a chronological framework. Seminars elaborate the themes from the lectures, but concentrate on regional case studies and debates within the historiography

This 30 CATS second-year option module introduces students to major debates in the history of the Cold War in Africa, aiming to set these issues within their historical, social and cultural contexts over the period from 1945 to the 1990s. After the opening weeks set up the context of decoloniation and superpower rivalry in Africa, the rest of the course takes a roughly chronological apporoach to explore various case studies and thematic issues. We will look in depth at upheavals in Congo and Zanzibar which demonstrated the fragile state of the continent immediately after decolonisation, the wars in Angola and the Horn of Africa, and the attempts of the white minority regimes in Rhodesia, South Africa, and the Portuguese colonies to retain power. While the course pays close attention to the policies of the United States and the Soviet Union, it also highlights the role played by other Cold War actors, like China and Cuba. Moreover, we will uncover the agency exercised by Africans in the global Cold War: were they simply superpower proxies or did they turn the Cold War order to their own advantage? Finally, the course will consider the aftermath of the Cold War in Africa: did the fall of the Berlin Wall bring a new dawn to the continent or did it reignite frozen conflicts in the 1990s?

This 30 CATS final-year undergraduate advanced option deals with one of the most significant episodes in world history: the French Revolution. Promethean and tragic, it has inspired and haunted imaginations throughout the modern era. 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times', wrote Charles Dickens in A Tale of Two Cities, and, indeed, historians still argue over its paradoxical legacies. For while it inaugurated human rights, universal manhood suffrage and civil equality, it also unleashed terror, authoritarianism and empire. The French Revolution is especially challenging to study since it bequeathed the very terms we use to analyse it. Debates about liberal and social forms of democracy, the viability or dangers of Enlightenment ideals, and the necessity or gratuitousness of violence to bring about democracy all grew out of the French Revolution itself. To study the French Revolution is to put our own conceptual categories and values into question.

This module treats the origins, course and legacies of the French Revolution. It draws on a wide range of sources: primary, scholarly, literary and cinematic. Themes include ideas, emotions, inequality, freedom, capitalism, gender, race, colonialism, religion, terror and war. It is inspired by the belief that studying the French Revolution can help us better understand the challenges of modern democratic and capitalist societies. By making modernity more legible, it can make our future more navigable.

This 30 CATS final-year undergraduate advanced option deals with one of the most significant episodes in world history: the French Revolution. Promethean and tragic, it has inspired and haunted imaginations throughout the modern era. 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times', wrote Charles Dickens in A Tale of Two Cities, and, indeed, historians still argue over its paradoxical legacies. For while it inaugurated human rights, universal manhood suffrage and civil equality, it also unleashed terror, authoritarianism and empire. The French Revolution is especially challenging to study since it bequeathed the very terms we use to analyse it. Debates about liberal and social forms of democracy, the viability or dangers of Enlightenment ideals, and the necessity or gratuitousness of violence in efforts to bring about democratic justice all grew out of the French Revolution itself. Studying the French Revolution invites us  to scrutinise our own values and explore the possibilities and pitfalls associated with them.

This module treats the origins, course and legacies of the French Revolution, including that of its slave colony Saint Domingue (the Haitian Revolution). It draws on a wide range of sources: primary, scholarly, literary and cinematic. Themes include Enlightenment ideas, emotions, inequality, freedom, capitalism, slavery, gender, race, colonialism, religion, terror and war. It is inspired by the belief that studying the French Revolution can help us better understand the challenges of modern democratic and capitalist societies. By making modernity more legible, it can make our future more navigable.

100 years after the end of the First World War, one might be tempted to ask if there is anything left to say about this conflict. Yet, the contemporary relevance of an historical topic is unusually clear in the case of First World War studies. The conflict continues to intrude on the public sphere of former belligerent societies, and in many instances, historians have been called upon to engage in controversies that have produced more heat than light. Indeed, it seems that World War I has gained in importance since the 1990s. The growing interest in commemoration and the increased ‘social demand’ addressed to professional historians account, to a certain extent, for the dynamism of First World War studies. Indeed, as we conclude the centennial commemorations of the war, the history of what George F. Kennan called “the great seminal catastrophe of the twentieth century” remains a vibrant field of investigation. 

Overview

Gandhi printed his most famous work, Hind Swaraj (1909), in South Africa. Why? This course takes the history of printing technology as the starting point for rethinking the history of empire. Beginning with the East India Company and ending in Qing China, we follow an unlikely band of printers, publishers, authors and readers. We re-examine major themes in the global history of empire, from science and religion to slavery and nationalism. Throughout this course, books are treated as material objects, something which is easy to forget in the digital age. Books were written on, cut up, censored and burned. With this in mind, there is a strong focus on students developing practical skills. We will learn the techniques of the book historian, hunting for clues in the margins, examining bindings and illustrations. And with these skills in place, students will begin to read a selection of fascinating primary sources in a completely different light. From scientific journals and legal manuals, to abolitionist papers and anticolonial pamphlets, the history of empire starts to look very different from the perspective of the printing press.

This 30 CATS final-year Advanced Option module examines the history of southern Africa from the nineteenth century to the present, engaging with a range of approaches in history and the social sciences. The course is structured around four themes which are central to the history and historiography of the region: labour and migration; urbanization and urban life; family, kinship and domestic struggles; and political movements and protest. Structured around these four themes, seminars combine chronological and thematic coverage with analysis of the lives of individual men, women and children. We will examine social life, economic activity, culture and politics using secondary sources and a range of primary sources, including biography, memoir, novels, ethnography, government documents, and the reports of international and non-governmental organisations. Central to our analysis will be consideration of how key social categories and identities, including race, ethnicity, gender and age, have been constructed and challenged over time and how these factors have shaped the lives of southern Africa's people.

The module engages with classic and cutting-edge scholarship in southern African studies and provides students with the skills and opportunity to engage in independent research in the field of African history.

Content Note

Please be advised that, while many historical subjects involve distressing themes, this module—focusing on the history of racial slavery—will frequently engage with material that is especially painful and violent in nature. Violence, in its many forms, is central to the history we will study.

We will approach this material with care, respect, and sensitivity toward the lives of the individuals and communities we examine. Please also be aware that some primary sources may contain profane or offensive language, and older historical writing may use outdated or harmful terminology. These terms will not be spoken aloud in our discussions.

Module Overview

Through the study of contemporary documents and nuanced scholarship, this module traces the development of racial slavery from the colonial U.S. through to the Civil War. Students will examine the social, cultural, religious, and economic strategies African Americans used to survive under slavery.

This is an intensive, source-based course that engages deeply with a focused set of historical problems. Students will gain hands-on experience working with a wide range of primary sources, developing key skills in historical analysis.

We will also situate U.S. slavery in a broader hemispheric context, considering connections such as the illicit slave trade with Latin America. The course explores slavery as a system deeply embedded in industrial capitalism, and examines both violent and non-violent forms of resistance.

Students will engage with diverse perspectives, including those of White enslavers and non-slaveholding poor Whites. Finally, we will follow the path by which debates between abolitionists and proslavery advocates ultimately fractured the nation and led to war.

The aim of this module is to further extend and refine competence in modern Spanish. Emphasis is placed on the four key skills of reading, listening, speaking and writing and on the deepening of both grammatical understanding and the appropriate use of advanced linguistic structures, vocabulary, and register in spoken and written discourse. The course aims to reinforce your mastery of the language in a wide range of authentic situations. At the end of the course you will be able to understand discourse about concrete and abstract topics, to give presentations about different topics, to report on the results of your independent reading and research, and to state your point of view and support it with solid arguments. You will make use of authentic resources from around the Hispanic world, including films, books, articles, newspapers, television and radio. You will complete a range of self-study activities through our multimedia VLE (Moodle) and take part in our virtual language exchange with students in Latin America and Spain.