- Department: History
- Credit value: 20 credits
- Credit level: H
- Academic year of delivery: 2024-25
The modules will explore the ways in which heroic reputations were constructed, and the political, social and cultural significance of these reputations in Britain from the later eighteenth to the later twentieth centuries. Admiration for heroic figures like Nelson, David Livingstone, Florence Nightingale and Captain Scott played a key role in mobilising public enthusiasm in support of military, imperia(list), religious or humanitarian causes; in articulating ideals of masculinity (and sometimes femininity); in stimulating a fascination with adventure; and in offering inspiring role models for citizens and new generations to look up to. The cult of heroes was closely linked to Victorian and Edwardian notions of patriotism, of moral character, of religion, gender identity and racial difference.
In analysing the making of heroes and the functioning of heroic cultures, we will be examining the role of ideology, but also the ways in which heroic images and reputations were disseminated, through text, through visual imagery, and through the proliferating mass media (newspapers, film, etc.). Our concern will be with the image and reputation of heroes in their own lifetimes - including their own role in building that image - but also with their ‘afterlives’, the and sometimes contradictory meanings they acquired for later generations - and with how conceptions of heroism were affected by, for example, the mass wars of the twentieth century, and the decline of European empires. Heroic reputations were often contested: we will think also about how heroes were criticised or debunked, and how cultural conceptions of the heroic were challenged. The module will focus especially on hero figures who were active in the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, taking the figures of Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), General Gordon (1833-1885), David Livingstone (1813-1873) and Captain Scott (1868-1912) as our central examples, but these will be placed in a longer context going back to the eighteenth century, and there will be scope to explore a range of other examples.
Module 1 will introduce the study of heroes and heroic cultures generally and will then concentrate principally on Florence Nightingale and General Gordon. Module 2 will expand the field by focusing particularly on the explorer heroes David Livingstone and Captain Scott and on twentieth-century developments.
Students taking this module must also take the second part in Semester 2.
Occurrence | Teaching period |
---|---|
A | Semester 1 2024-25 |
The aims of this module are:
Students who complete this module successfully will:
Students will attend a 1-hour briefing in week 1 and a 3-hour seminar in weeks 2-4, 6-8 and 10-11 of semester 1. Weeks 5 & 9 are Reading and Writing Weeks (RAW). Students prepare for and participate in eight three-hour seminars in all.
Seminar topics are subject to variation, but are likely to include the following:
Task | % of module mark |
---|---|
Essay/coursework | 100 |
None
For formative work, students will produce a text commentary.
The summative assessment will consist of two parts, to be submitted together:
a) Two text commentaries of 500-750 words; and
b) One 1,500-word essay.
The commentaries comprise 50% and the essay 50% of the overall mark for this module. Summative assessments will be due in the assessment period.
Task | % of module mark |
---|---|
Essay/coursework | 100 |
Following their formative task, students will typically receive written feedback that will include comments and a mark within 10 working days of submission.
Work will be returned to students in their seminars and may be supplemented by the tutor giving some oral feedback to the whole group. All students are encouraged, if they wish, to discuss the feedback on their formative work during their tutor’s student hours. For more information, see the Statement on Feedback.
For summative assessment tasks, students will receive their provisional mark and written feedback within 25 working days of the submission deadline. The tutor will then be available during student hours for follow-up guidance if required. For more information, see the Statement of Assessment.
For semester time reading, please refer to the module VLE site. Before the course starts, we encourage you to look at the following items of preliminary reading: