THE UNIVERSITY of EDINBURGH

DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2021/2022

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : School of History, Classics and Archaeology : History

Undergraduate Course: Culture and the Arts in Post-war Scotland (HIST10390)

Course Outline
SchoolSchool of History, Classics and Archaeology CollegeCollege of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) AvailabilityNot available to visiting students
SCQF Credits40 ECTS Credits20
SummarySince the Second World War, culture and the arts have occupied increasingly visible and important roles in Scottish society. This class explores culture and the arts in relation to changing practices of the arts and ideas about the role of culture in society, broader social change, and debates around Scottish national identity. By exploring these interactions between the arts and society, students will develop new perspectives on the history of post-war Scotland.
Course description Since the Second World War, culture and the arts have occupied increasingly visible and important roles in Scottish society. The introduction of state funding for the arts through the Arts Council of Great Britain, increased leisure time arising from a range of wider social and economic changes, and effects of the upheavals and challenges of the 1960s resulted in culture becoming a significant part of local and Scottish-national government policy. During the same period, the arts became a crucial space in which to test out, express and challenge ideas about and representations of Scots and Scotland. This class explores culture and the arts in relation to changing practices of the arts and ideas about the role of culture in society, broader social change, and debates around Scottish national identity. The first part of the class explores key concepts, themes and developments in culture and the arts in the period c. 1945-1997, including the creation and development of cultural policy, the challenges and upheavals of the 1960s, and the growing use of culture in urban regeneration and city branding. The second part of the class applies these understandings to examples of the arts in practice, with students having the opportunity to examine a range of dramatic performances, theatres, visual arts, films and television programmes, and arts festivals. By exploring these interactions between the arts and society, students will develop new perspectives on the history of post-war Scotland.
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements A pass or passes in 40 credits of first level historical courses or equivalent and a pass or passes in 40 credits of second level historical courses or equivalent.
Before enrolling students on this course, Personal Tutors are asked to contact the History Honours Admission Administrator to ensure that a place is available (Tel: 504030).
Course Delivery Information
Academic year 2021/22, Not available to visiting students (SS1) Quota:  0
Course Start Full Year
Timetable Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) Total Hours: 400 ( Seminar/Tutorial Hours 44, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 8, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 348 )
Assessment (Further Info) Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment) Coursework:
4,000 word Essay (40%)
4,000 word Written Assignment (40%)
2,500 word Detailed Source Analysis (20%)
Feedback Students will receive written feedback on their coursework, and will have the opportunity to discuss that feedback further with the Course Organiser during their published office hours or by appointment.
No Exam Information
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. demonstrate command of the body of knowledge considered in the course;
  2. read, analyse and reflect critically upon relevant scholarship;
  3. understand, evaluate and utilise a variety of primary source material;
  4. develop and sustain scholarly arguments in oral and written form, by formulating appropriate questions and utilising relevant evidence;
  5. demonstrate independence of mind and initiative; intellectual integrity and maturity; an ability to evaluate the work of others, including peers.
Reading List
Bartie, A., The Edinburgh Festivals: Culture and Society in Post-war Britain (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2013).

Bartie, A. & E. Bell, The International Writers' Conference Revisited: Edinburgh, 1962. Glasgow: Cargo Publishing, 2012.

Bell, E. & L. Gunn (eds.), The Scottish Sixties: Reading, Rebellion, Revolution? (Rodopi: Amsterdam, 2013).

Cowan, E. J. (ed.), The People's Past: Scottish Folk. Scottish History (Edinburgh: E.U.S.P.B., 1980)

Galloway, S. and H.D. Jones, 'The Scottish dimension of British arts government: a historical perspective', Cultural Trends, 19:1 (2010), 27-40.

Hewison, R., Too Much: Art and Society in the Sixties, 1960-75 (London: Methuen, 1986).

Hutchinson, D., The Modern Scottish Theatre (Glasgow: The Molendinar Press, 1977).

McArthur, E., Scotland, CEMA and the Arts Council, 1919-1967: Background, Politics and Visual Art Policy (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 2012).

Maley, W., 'Representing Scotland in the 1970s', in B. Moore-Gilbert (ed.), The Arts in the 1970s: Cultural Closure (London: Routledge, 1994), 78-98.

Scullion, A., 'Glasgow Unity Theatre: The Necessary Contradictions of Scottish Political Theatre', in Twentieth Century British History, 13:3 (2002), 215-252.

Sinclair, A., Arts and Cultures: The History of the 50 Years of the Arts Council of Great Britain (London: Sinclair-Stevenson, 1995).

Stevenson, R. & G. Wallace (eds.), Scottish Theatre Since the Seventies (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1996).
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Not entered
KeywordsCulture and Arts in Postwar Scot
Contacts
Course organiserDr Angela Bartie
Tel: 0131 650 3768
Email: angela.bartie@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMiss Annabel Stobie
Tel: (0131 6)50 3783
Email: Annabel.Stobie@ed.ac.uk
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