ML2STA: Society, Thought, and Art in Modern Europe

Module code: ML2STA

Module provider: Languages and Cultures; School of Humanities

Credits: 20

Level: Level 2 (Intermediate)

When you'll be taught: Semester 2

Module convenor: Dr Athena Leoussi, email: a.s.leoussi@reading.ac.uk

Module co-convenor: Dr Veronica Heath, email: V.Heath@reading.ac.uk

Pre-requisite module(s):

Co-requisite module(s):

Pre-requisite or Co-requisite module(s):

Module(s) excluded:

Placement information: NA

Academic year: 2024/5

Available to visiting students: Yes

Talis reading list: Yes

Last updated: 21 May 2024

Overview

Module aims and purpose

This module aims to give students a systematic historical, multi-disciplinary, and cross-national, comparative understanding of the key ideas, institutions and images of modernity. It examines the birth of modern humanity in late eighteenth-century Europe, in the fulcrum of the Enlightenment and Romanticism, and the revolutionary changes that these great intellectual movements wrought in all spheres of thought and social life – political, scientific, religious, economic, and aesthetic (the arts). The module further shows a) the contributions of different European nations to the re-evaluation of tradition and innovation, b) the diffusion of modernity beyond the Western world (Westernisation) to Asia and Africa and c) its transformation and revitalisation by non-European influences, that would give rise both to multiple modernities and the connectivities of our global world. Finally, it shows art’s leading role in the transformations of modernity, by creating its icons and central symbols. 

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the module, it is expected that students will be able to: 

1. Evaluate the European origins of modernity, the political, economic, religious, moral, cognitive,  and artistic forms it took, via the contributions of different European nations to its creation and analyse its diffusion outside Europe, by identifying non-European, including non-Western, contributions to modern culture, and by comparing and contrasting different national (European and non-European) responses to modern ways of thinking, behaving and creating art;  
2. Identify both the key thinkers whose ideas and values moulded the modern age, outlining the main tenets of their thought, and those of the critics of modernity: 
3. Identify and analyse the icons of modernity: those visual images which have captured essential features of modernity, assessing how they embody the changes and tensions involved in the passing of traditional society and the rise of modern society: 
4. Demonstrate an ability to use concepts from history, art history and the social sciences in analysing the complex problems stemming from modernity. 

Module content

By using an inter- and multi-disciplinary perspective that combines history, art history, politics and sociology, the module examines the late eighteenth- and nineteenth-century roots of some of the most central ideas, values and institutions of contemporary Europe and our modern world. It explores the deep transformations in the conditions of human life which modernity has produced since the European Enlightenment through the study of: - First, the great thinkers who dared imagine new forms of human consciousness, collective identity and life in common, including Immanuel Kant, Tom Paine, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Auguste Comte, Johann Gottfried Herder, Adam Smith, Charles Darwin and Sigmund Freud. The module examines key themes associated with these thinkers, their impact, and their legacy in the contemporary world: the critical spirit; liberty, democracy and citizenship; the evolution of human rights; cosmopolitanism and inter-/transnationalism; ethnicity and the nation-state; public secularism, cultural pluralism and religious toleration; the conflict between religion and science; the rise of the scientific method; evolution and the scientific study of mankind; the application of science in technology and rise of the new industrial economy; the struggle principle (Darwin) and the pleasure principle of human existence (Freud). - Second, the classic criticisms and assessments of the intended and unintended consequences of the modern transformations of society associated with Ferdinand Tönnies, Karl Marx, Émile Durkheim, and Max Weber. This part of the module examines the erosion of traditional closed communities; the rise of the city; the cultural origins of industrial capitalism; the decline of a common culture; the phenomena of anomie, individualism, consumerism and alienation; and the socialist critique of industrial, capitalist modernity. - And third, the works of art which came to embody the most salient features of modernity thereby becoming the icons of the ideals and discontents of this age, such as Delacroix’s Liberty Guiding the People, Manet’s Dead Christ with Angels, Pellizza’s The Fourth Estate, Munch’s Madonna, Boccioni’s The City Rises, and Picasso’s Guernica. 

Structure

Teaching and learning methods

The module is taught through lectures and seminars/tutorials, depending on the number of students taking this module. Seminars/tutorials will involve individual and group presentations, again, depending on student numbers. 

Study hours

At least 14 hours of scheduled teaching and learning activities will be delivered in person, with the remaining hours for scheduled and self-scheduled teaching and learning activities delivered either in person or online. You will receive further details about how these hours will be delivered before the start of the module.

Please note the independent study hours above are notional numbers of hours; each student will approach studying in different ways. We would advise you to reflect on your learning and the number of hours you are allocating to these tasks.

Semester 1 The hours in this column may include hours during the Christmas holiday period.

Semester 2 The hours in this column may include hours during the Easter holiday period.

Summer The hours in this column will take place during the summer holidays and may be at the start and/or end of the module.

Assessment

Requirements for a pass

Students need to achieve an overall module mark of 40% to pass this module.

Summative assessment

Penalties for late submission of summative assessment

The Support Centres will apply the following penalties for work submitted late:

Assessments with numerical marks

• where the piece of work is submitted after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): 10% of the total marks available for that piece of work will be deducted from the mark for each working day (or part thereof) following the deadline up to a total of three working days;
• the mark awarded due to the imposition of the penalty shall not fall below the threshold pass mark, namely 40% in the case of modules at Levels 4-6 (i.e. undergraduate modules for Parts 1-3) and 50% in the case of Level 7 modules offered as part of an Integrated Masters or taught postgraduate degree programme;
• where the piece of work is awarded a mark below the threshold pass mark prior to any penalty being imposed, and is submitted up to three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline), no penalty shall be imposed;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): a mark of zero will be recorded.

Assessments marked Pass/Fail

• where the piece of work is submitted within three working days of the deadline (or any formally agreed extension of the deadline): no penalty will be applied;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension of the deadline): a grade of Fail will be awarded.

The University policy statement on penalties for late submission can be found at: https://www.reading.ac.uk/cqsd/-/media/project/functions/cqsd/documents/qap/penaltiesforlatesubmission.pdf

You are strongly advised to ensure that coursework is submitted by the relevant deadline. You should note that it is advisable to submit work in an unfinished state rather than to fail to submit any work.

Formative assessment

Formative assessment is any task or activity which creates feedback (or feedforward) for you about your learning, but which does not contribute towards your overall module mark.

Reassessment

Additional costs