Module Description: 

In this module, we will explore how the First World War (1914–1918) impacted on the arts and culture across a selection of European countries, including but not limited to France, Germany and Italy. Topics under examination may include how poets, writers and artists responded to the war, both as mobilised soldiers and on the home fronts; how novel forms of propaganda developed and were consumed such as ‘trench newspapers’, posters, and newsreels; and how the publishing, art and film industries responded to the war. This module will incorporate various disciplinary perspectives from comparative literature and film studies to cultural history and material culture to provide students with a holistic understanding of the diverse ways in which culture (broadly defined) was mobilised both in support and in opposition to the conflict. 

 

Aims and Learning Outcomes: 

The aim of the module is to offer students a thorough grounding in the diverse ways that culture (broadly defined) was mobilized during the years of the First World War in a selection of European societies. Students will develop and hone their skills in critical analysis, historical research, formulation of advanced arguments and oral communication.  

 

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


	gained a critical understanding of how writers and artists responded to the First World War; 
	
	
	engage in critical analysis of a range of primary sources; 
	
	
	evaluate and critique a wide range of scholarly literature on the subject; 
	
	
	formulate and communicate well-informed arguments both in writing and orally. 
	
 

Suggested Reading: 

Indicative Bibliography 

Aulich, Jim and John Hewitt, Seduction Or Instruction?: First World War Posters in Britain and Europe (Manchester University Press, 2007) 

Buelens, Geert, ed., Everything to Nothing: The Poetry of the Great War, Revolution and the Transformation of Europe (Verso, 2016) 

Einhaus, Ann-Marie and Katherine Isobel Baxter, eds., The Edinburgh Companion to the First World War and the Arts (Edinburgh University Press, 2017) 

James, Pearl, ed., Picture This: World War I Posters and Visual Culture (University of Nebraska Press, 2009) 

Kramer, Alan, Dynamic of Destruction: Culture and Mass Killing in the First World War (Oxford University Press, 2007) 

Marsland, Elizabeth A., The Nation's Cause: French, English and German Poetry of the First World War (Routledge, 1991) 

Nelson, Robert L., German Soldier Newspapers of the First World War (Cambridge University Press, 2011) 

Parati, Graziella, ed., Italy and the Cultural Politics of World War I (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2016) 

Paris, Michael, ed., First World War and Popular Cinema: 1914 to the Present (Edinburgh University Press, 1999) 

Roshwald, Aviel and Richard Stites, eds., European Culture in the Great War: The Arts, Entertainment and Propaganda (Cambridge University Press, 1999) 

Saunders, Nicholas, Trench Art: Materialities and Memories of War (Routledge, 2003) 

Siebrecht, Claudia, The Aesthetics of Loss: German Women's Art of the First World War (Oxford University Press, 2013) 

Sherry, Vincent, ed., The Cambridge Companion to the Literature of the First World War (Cambridge University Press, 2005) 

Suvini-Hand, Vivienne, Mirage and Camouflage: Hiding Behind Hermeticism in Giuseppe Ungaretti's L’Allegria (Troubador, 2000) 

Tholas-Disset, Clémentine and Karen A. Ritzenhoff, eds., Humor, Entertainment, and Popular Culture during World War I (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015) 

Winter, Jay, Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning: The Great War in European Cultural History (Cambridge University Press, 1995) 