Module Directory

This final year module examines the shifting cultural memory of the war in Britain from 1945 to the present day.

Students are introduced to concepts and theories of cultural memory that they will go on to apply to representations of the war that are studied. The memory of the war is traced from 1945 to the current day, with themes examined including the popularity of the war film, the mobilisation of the Second World War in Britain's subsequent wars, the growth of the wartime anniversary, museums and memorials, and the 'memory wars' that have been a central aspect of the Brexit debate since 2016.

The aims of the module are:

• To introduce students to models of, and debates regarding, the formation and circulation of cultural memory.


• To introduce students to a range of primary sources in order to study the cultural memory of the Second World War in Britain.


• To enable students to explore the cultural memory of the Second World War in Britain, considering which experiences were represented, and which were marginalised.


• To enable students to develop a level of expertise appropriate to the final year of their degree in the cultural memory of Britain in the Second World War.

By the end of this module, students will be expected to be able to:

1. Analyse and debate the historiography of the experience and cultural memory of Britain in the Second World War.


2. Read and analyse a range of primary sources regarding the experience and cultural memory of Britain in the Second World War.


3. Demonstrate familiarity with the major events of Second World War Britain, and with the ways these have been represented in popular culture during the war and since 1945.

As a final year module, the emphasis is on the analysis of primary sources and a detailed engagement each week with key secondary sources. Students are expected to familiarise themselves with the relevant theory, historical period or event under examination each week in order to enable to focused analysis, debate and discussion.

Syllabus

• An Island Nation and its stories: Signal events of the Second World War.


• Defining our terms: cultural memory, popular memory and myth.


• From the people's war to the officer's war: British war films in the 1940s and 1950s.


• If Churchill was a woman: myth-making in Britain's wars of the 1980s and 1990s.


• The commemorative turn; the rise of the wartime anniversary.


• The Blitz Experience: British museums and the Second World War.


• Whose stories? The BBC People's War website.


• What we remember and what we forget: Whose stories matter?


• Telling tales about 'the war': the 21st century and the rise of the populist.


• Return to Dunkirk: Britain, Brexit and the memory of the Second World War.

This module will be delivered via:

• One 2-hour seminar per week.