American Studies MA

This module offers an overview and analysis of the various approaches to American Studies. It requires students to develop a reflexive understanding of the development of American Studies as a field of enquiry.

Literary (textual) criticism, visual culture, and cultural/intellectual/political history - along with interdisciplinary work – will be discussed in a seminar setting.

Moving chronologically across more than 200 years of American culture, each week a different departmental expert in a particular American Studies discipline will assign and discuss some examples of her/his published work (an article or book chapter), discussing not only the content, but also how the work fits within the field of American Studies, and the process of writing and researching in this area. These readings will accompany a key article that defined or changed that particular area of American Studies.

Students will be encouraged to recognise particular methodologies and approaches, with a view to testing out and developing their own preferred intellectual approaches along the way, in a coursework essay and in the dissertation proposal. The focus will be on issues, figures, events and texts (visual as well as written) that have been “stopping places” in the development of American Studies: points where disciplines have come together or have been added to the founding literature/history axis.

This module is worth 20 credits.

This module consists of the selection, research and writing up of a topic in the field of American and Canadian Studies, chosen after consultation with the Course Director and other appropriate staff members.

This is a compulsory core module worth 60 credits.

Experiences of and ideas about madness, insanity, and mental illness have varied and changed radically within American history and culture. This module will survey and analyse these changes from the mid-19thcentury to the present. We will consider how and why medical authority, gender, and class have all impacted the way in which mental illness is understood, and consider the significance of changing approaches to treatment. Sources used on this interdisciplinary module range from medical accounts and psychiatric theory to memoir, fiction and film. The aim is to place representations of mental illness in their historical context, and to ask what they reveal about related ideas about identity, conformity, social care and responsibility.

This module examines the making of US foreign policy in the post-Cold War period, from the end of the Cold War to the present.

It examines the grand historical narratives of American international relations and considers in depth the drivers behind the foreign policies pursued by Presidents:

• George H. W. Bush
• Bill Clinton
• George W. Bush
• Barack Obama
• Donald Trump

It considers whether the post-1989 period has constituted a break from previous traditions in US foreign policy or whether there has been an essential continuity through the war on terror and beyond. It does this through an examination of the impact of economics, geopolitics, ideology and security issues on post-1989 strategy in different regions of the world, as well as the impact of a new international environment marked by the demise of bipolarity and the rise of globalisation.

This is an optional module worth 20 credits.

This module examines North American short stories and novels and their film adaptations.

We'll look at the contexts in which both the literary and the cinematic texts are produced as well as to the analysis of the texts themselves.

In particular, the module takes an interest in literary texts whose film adaptations have been produced in different national contexts to the source material.

This is an optional module worth 20 credits.

The magazine has been one of the most accessible and influential cultural forms in America since the mid-18th century. From the wide-ranging political and literary magazines of this founding period through the emergence of specialised and mass-market periodicals in the 19th century to the counter-cultural and consumerist magazines of the 20th century, this distinctive mode of publication has reflected the tensions and ideals of a rapidly developing society. Using a broad range of representative magazines from different eras, this module will encourage students to get to grips with how American culture has shaped, and been shaped by, the periodical, and it will also introduce them to some of the unique literary and institutional qualities of the magazine. Primary sources covered on this module are likely to include The Dial (est. 1840), Harper's (est. 1850), The New Yorker (est. 1925), Life (est. 1936) and Rolling Stone (est. 1967). Looked at in the context of their times, such sources show us how Americans have long engaged with and debated their own identity through the prism of print, as well as the ways in which this self-definition has changed across time. Moreover, alongside the magazine's regular testing of new political and cultural concepts we will be able to see how the periodical form itself embraced other emerging media, including illustration, photography, and popular music. The main content-spine through each week will be a focus on changes in the nature of American journalism, the rise of modern advertising, and the development of the short story as a form, as well as the interactions between these three elements. In addition to the standard lecture/seminar set-up, the module will also incorporate a series of workshops focusing on hands-on study of hard copies of particular publications.

This course will consider the development of ‘ethnic’ and new immigrant literature in the United States from the early twentieth century to the present day. It will do so by positioning literary works within their wider historical, political and cultural context.

The course will examine the dominant ideas and concerns of a range of texts from life-writing and poetry to drama, short fiction and the novel by writers from a range of ethno-cultural backgrounds, including Irish, Jewish, Italian, Caribbean and Asian American.

Issues for discussion will include:

• the claiming of the United States by new immigrant and ‘ethnic’ writers
• race and ethnicity
• gender, class and sexuality
• labour and economic status
• the uses and re-writing of American history and ‘master narratives’
• the impact of US regionalism
• the ways in which writers engage with the American canon
• multiculturalism and the ‘culture wars’
• the growth of ‘ethnic’ American writing and Ethnic Studies as academic fields.

The course will analyse works by such writers as:

• Jacob Riis
• Mario Puzo
• Philip Roth
• Jamaica Kincaid
• Bharati Mukherjee
• Sandra Cisneros.

This is an optional module worth 20 credits.

This module introduces you to the wide range of interdisciplinary research happening in the Faculty of Arts. We invite you to ‘think outside the box’ in relation to your own research, while learning key research techniques and methods. The module aims to:

• introduce the ideas, practices, complexities, and opportunities of interdisciplinary research in the arts
• enable you to practice critical self-reflexivity about the conventions and expectations of your own disciplines in relation to those of others
• train you in core research skills necessary for graduate-level study
• develop your confidence in communicating research findings to non-specialist audiences

You will build on your existing research skills gained from your university career to date. Furthermore, you will develop a more nuanced understanding of your own research practice, inspiring you to explore different approaches questions. In addition, you will develop an understanding of professional practice in areas such as:

• academic publishing
• knowledge exchange
• dissertation planning and writing
• professional communication

This module is worth 20 credits.

This module helps postgraduate students recognise the range of careers and opportunities that an Arts and Humanities MA/MRes can provide.

It highlights the skills and abilities present within these programmes and provides examples of the successful application of these skills. Students will explore how subjects within the arts can be ‘applied disciplines’ that serve to be impactful in wider society through research and engagement.

Through ‘live brief’ assessments, students work in groups, utilising their Arts and Humanities skill sets, to present and produce a consultancy report for a range of organisations, including SMEs/Third-sector.