Biography and British Social History 1870-1939 3301-ZKB245
An analysis of the relationship between social and cultural developments in Britain and individual life stories on the basis of selected biographical texts of a variety of kinds (autobiography, diaries, letters, fictional autobiography, biography). Themes examined include: traditional rural lifestyles and their disappearance, the influence of urbanisation and changing patterns of urban life, changing views on and practices in education, developments in material culture and their influence on social organisation, changes in family patterns and relationships, the genesis and development of mass culture, the first world war and its social impact in Britain, social and political ideas and behaviour, growth of ethnic and other subcultures, British attitudes to the outside world.
Type of course
Prerequisites (description)
Learning outcomes
Knowledge
- students acquire advanced information about British social history 1870-1939 and will develop their analytical skills.
- students improve their knowledge of the English language at the C1+ level.
- students acquire greater awareness of the complexity and plurality of the systems of culture operating in 19th-century Europe;
- students extend their knowledge of the codes of culture underlying contacts between representatives of different cultures;
Skills
- students improve their ability to interpret, analyze and synthesize the linguistic, cultural, social, historical and economic dimensions of selected phenomena;
- students can recognize cultural symbols and use the codes of culture in interpersonal communication;
- In class discussions students acquire skills of expressing their thoughts in a clear, coherent, logical and precise manner, with the use of language which is correct grammatically, lexically and phonetically.
Social competences
- students consciously participate in their national culture, respect the cultural heritage of Europe, and understand its diversity;
- students assume an attitude of tolerance toward others, understand the specificity of culturally-conditioned behaviour, and respect the opinions of others.
Assessment criteria
Continual assessment based on attendance and participation in class discussion [20% of overall mark] and submission of an essay: a critical assessment of an agreed life-writing text, 1,000-1,500 words [80% of overall mark], marked on the basis of the student’s knowledge about forms of biographical writing, English social history in the relevant period and evidence of an ability to form independent judgements about social developments.
Bibliography
Texts which may be discussed include:
Vera Brittain, Testament of Youth, 1933 (Testament of Friendship, 1940; Testament of Experience, 1957).
Patrick Leigh Fermor, A Time of Gifts, 1977.
Margaret Forster, Hidden Lives, A Family Memoir, 1995.
J. A. Froude, Reminiscences of Carlyle, 1881.
R. Gittings, The Nature of Biography, 1978.
Ralph Glasser, Growing up in the Gorbals, 1986 (Gorbals Boy at Oxford, 1988; Gorbals Voices, Silent Songs, 1990).
G. and W. Grossmith, The Diary of a Nobody, 1892.
Richard Hoggart, An Imagined Life, Life and Times 1959-1991, 1993.
Laurie Lee, Cider with Rosie, 1959
Nigel Nicolson, Portrait of a Marriage, 1973.
Daisy Noakes, The Town Beehive - A Young Girl's Lot, Brighton 1910-1934, 1984.
George Orwell, Down and Out in Paris and London, 1933.
Samuel Smiles, Lives of the Engineers, 1861-1862.
George Sturt, The Wheelright's Shop, 1923.
L. Strachey, Eminent Victorians, 1918.
L. Strachey, Elizabeth and Essex, 1928.
Flora Thompson, Lark Rise to Candleford, 1945 (Lark Rise, 1939; Over to Candleford, 1941; Candleford Green, 1943).
Beatrice Webb, Diaries, 1956.
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: