Germany

How has over 300 years of colonialism left its mark on Britain? Whilst some scholars assert that the British were indifferent to empire – that empire was acquired in a “fit of absence of mind” (JR Seeley) – others point to the many traces of empire left in British society and culture to this day. This course analyses these effects and legacies by focusing on the artefacts of empire. Empire seems to be everywhere across British history: in consumer goods and fashion, the built environment and the domestic interior, advertising, visual media and museums, as well as institutions such as the monarchy and the BBC. But is this culture of empire, or simply a random mix of influences from around the world? To what extent is this material culture mediated by narratives of colonial power and racial superiority? This course considers the conquest of Ireland in the 16th and 17th centuries and the onset of slavery in the Caribbean, then looks at the colonization of North America and parts of the Pacific, before moving through the British Raj in India and onto the colonial conquests of Africa and the Middle East, finishing with the end of empire after 1945 and the imperial nostalgia that feeds Brexit. Throughout the course the focus is on cultural objects, their context, and their interpretation.

The course covers the variety of cinematic representations of National Socialism and the Holocaust, including an overview of the different filmic approaches used to represent and refer to the Third Reich. Students examine the most intense cinematic production phase of German history, which is the time between Hitler’s coming to power in 1933 and the end of the Second World War in 1945. Students examine movies by filmmakers such as Riefenstahl and Steinhoff, who created propaganda films glorifying the Nazi movement, as well as movies by Chaplin and Lubitsch who sought to fight the Nazi regime with satirical strategies. Students then analyze the equally wide spectrum of movie production after 1945. Some of the films discussed include: TRIUMPH OF THE WILL, TO BE OR NOT TO BE, SHOAH, SCHINDLER'S LIST, TRAIN OF LIFE, and INGLOURIOUS BASTARDS. Assessment is based on participation in working groups and a final exam.