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Cold War Culture: Literature, Film & Theory in Post-War Europe - ENG00019M

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  • Department: English and Related Literature
  • Credit value: 20 credits
  • Credit level: M
  • Academic year of delivery: 2023-24
    • See module specification for other years: 2024-25

Module will run

Occurrence Teaching period
A Semester 1 2023-24

Module aims

·To introduce the advanced study of the new cinemas of post-war Europe

·To explore the historical, cultural and intellectual interrelations between these cinemas and contemporary literary culture

·To place these interrelations in the context of the political reconstruction of post-war Europe and the rise of the Cold War

·To develop an appropriate critical, historical and theoretical framework for the analysis of individual literary and film texts

·To develop individual and collaborative skills of argument and presentation

Module learning outcomes

Subject content

·The textual and contextual analysis of post-war European film and literature; a grasp of the formal and technical questions raised by individual texts; an understanding of the broader aesthetic and political implications of these issues; a grasp of the critical field currently engaged in this area of research

Academic and graduate skills

  • The capacity to identify relevant models of critical and theoretical analysis and to use them to produce sophisticated textual and contextual creadings; the ability to carry on individual research in this field, to present it in seminars and to discuss it with seminar members

Indicative assessment

Task % of module mark
Essay/coursework 100

Special assessment rules

None

Indicative reassessment

Task % of module mark
Essay/coursework 100

Module feedback

For more information about the feedback you will receive for your work, see section 12 of the department's Guide to Assessment (PDF , 1,244kb).

Indicative reading

Films by Rossellini, Fellini, Visconti, Rosi, Bertolucci, Bresson, Godard, Truffaut, Fassbinder, Schl¶ndorff; literary works by Boito, Lampedusa, Moravia, Levi, Bernanos, Roch©, Fontane, Boll, Grass.


The information on this page is indicative of the module that is currently on offer. The University constantly explores ways to enhance and improve its degree programmes and therefore reserves the right to make variations to the content and method of delivery of modules, and to discontinue modules, if such action is reasonably considered to be necessary. In some instances it may be appropriate for the University to notify and consult with affected students about module changes in accordance with the University's policy on the Approval of Modifications to Existing Taught Programmes of Study.