Unit information: Culture in Revolution: From Latin America to the USSR in 2018/19

Unit name	Culture in Revolution: From Latin America to the USSR
Unit code	HISP20110
Credit points	20
Level of study	I/5
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director	Dr. James Hawkey
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of Hispanic, Portuguese and Latin American Studies
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

This unit focuses on the relationship between revolution, culture, nation building, as well as different approaches to socialism in Mexico, the Soviet Union, and Cuba. It also examines potential links between socialist revolutions and their legacy in the international arena. Throughout the unit emphasis will be placed on the interaction of politics and artistic production and the extent of their engagement with the revolutionary process. Students will study a combination of history (how did each country evolve? What were the antecedents to Revolution? What ideas about an alternative future for the country were circulating?), cultural history (what did pre-revolutionary culture look like and why?), and cultural production during early revolutionary periods (what were the major concerns about participation? What did the revolution stand for?). Students will interrogate concepts such as ideology and participation against the backdrop of shifting ideas about the role of culture in society in Mexico, the Soviet Union, and Cuba.

Throughout this unit students will gain experience in analysing various forms of visual culture (art, architecture, sculptures, theatre) and learn how these texts can illuminate changing ideas of nations in political flux.

Intended Learning Outcomes

Successful students will be:

1. knowledgeable about a significant cultural, historical or linguistic subject related to the language they are studying;
2. skilled in the selection and synthesis of relevant material;
3. able to evaluate and analyse relevant material from a significant body of source materials, usually in a foreign language, at a high level;
4. able to respond to questions or problems by presenting their independent judgements in an appropriate style and at a high level of complexity;
5. able to transfer these skills to other working environments, including study at a foreign university and on work placements during the year abroad
6. able carry out independent research appropriate to level I.

Teaching Information

This unit will be taught by 2 weekly hours of in-class teaching (one hour lecture, one hour seminar)

Assessment Information

This unit will be assessed by

• one 2000-word essay (50%) testing ILOs 1-6
• one 2-hour exam (50%) testing ILOs 1-5

Reading and References

• Acton, Mary. Learning to Look at Paintings
• Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities
• Keen, Benjamin &Haynes, Keith. A History of Latin America
• Fitzpatrick, Sheila. (ed.) Cultural Revolution in Russia, 1928–1931. Indiana University Press, 1978
• Fitzpatrick, Sheila. The Cultural Front. Power and Culture in Revolutionary Russia. Cornell University Press, 1992.
• Freeze, Gregory. Russia: a History
• Gordon-Nesbitt, Rebecca. To Defend the Revolution Is to Defend Culture: The Cultural Policy of the Cuban Revolution. PM Press. 2015
• Locke, Adrian. Mexico: A Revolution in Art, 1910-1940. Royal Academy of Arts. 2013