Undergraduate Course: Culture and the Arts in Post-war Scotland (HIST10390)
Course Outline
| School | School of History, Classics and Archaeology |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 40 |
ECTS Credits | 20 |
| Summary | Since 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.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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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.
Students should only be enrolled on this course with approval from the History Honours Programme Administrator |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- demonstrate command of the body of knowledge considered in the course;
- read, analyse and reflect critically upon relevant scholarship;
- understand, evaluate and utilise a variety of primary source material;
- develop and sustain scholarly arguments in oral and written form, by formulating appropriate questions and utilising relevant evidence;
- demonstrate independence of mind and initiative; intellectual integrity and maturity; an ability to evaluate the work of others, including peers.
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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).
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Culture and Arts in Postwar Scot |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Angela Bartie
Tel: 0131 650 3768
Email: angela.bartie@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mrs Ksenia Gorlatova
Tel: (0131 6)50 8349
Email: Ksenia.Gorlatova@ed.ac.uk |
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