Cultural and Critical Theory (Aesthetics and Cultural Theory)

Designed to provoke critical reflection on the relationships between social
context, artistic style and philosophical reflection, the first unit, on Aesthetics and Philosophy, serves both to provide a grounding in the history of aesthetics for the less familiar, and a sophisticated, close and critical reading of pivotal texts from that history. The term’s work will trace the founding moments of modern aesthetics from Kant, through Schiller and Hegel and Schelling, to Nietzsche. It will then consider the conceptual insecurities and anxieties of high Modernism from Psychoanalysis, through the Frankfurt School, to Phenomenology. It will conclude with an examination of the connections and dissociations between Structuralism, Post-structuralism and Postmodernism

The second unit, on Cultural Theory, considers the developments in cultural theory through the last half of the C.20th to the present day, and hence deals with the key theoretical developments in Cultural Studies. It traces a route from the Marx-inspired Frankfurt School through the profound conceptual shifts wrought by Structuralism, Post-structuralism and the theorisation of identity politics. In this context, the course considers the ways in which the issues of gender, sexuality and ‘race’ have contributed to the development of cultural politics. The unit will conclude by inviting an assessment of the importance of cultural theory for conceptualising the Postmodern movement and its supercession.

The Core Course in Cultural Theory and Aesthetics is designed to embrace the needs both of those who have touched on its material before (with, for example, degrees in Cultural Studies, Visual Culture, or Art History), and those from other disciplinary backgrounds whose previous academic experience has provoked an interest in these questions, without addressing them directly. Taught sessions consist of both an intellectual contextualisation of the material, and a close reading, and sophisticated critique, of primary texts.

Structure of the Degree

The Core Course is delivered during the autumn and spring terms. In addition to the Core Course, students must complete a Research Methods course and an Elective Course before researching and writing a 20,000 word Dissertation.

• The Core Course, delivered over two terms, Cultural Theory and Aesthetics;

• a Research Methods Course, which prepares students to meet the challenge of identifying, delimiting, preparing for, and completing extended
research projects and their written outcome, and considers the distinctive
approaches taken by the different disciplines relevant to the field;

• an Elective Course – one of the following - chosen from three types of student experience -

• a one term MA unit drawn from the range of other degree programmes
offered to post-graduate students in the School of Historical and Critical Studies, in the Faculty of Arts and Architecture, of which the School is a part, or from further afield in the University ; OR

• a Higher Education Teaching and Learning Course which involves following a one term, third-year, Honours level, Undergraduate course unit, considering the course design and delivery issues with the responsible tutor, observing student progress, and delivering one lecture and conducting one seminar discussion; OR

• completing a 10,000 word Extended Essay with regular one-to-one tutorial supervision;

• and a Dissertation of 20,000 words (or equivalent – eg video, installation,
or other studio-based work supplemented by a 12,000 word critical reflection) in which the insights provided by the critical theory addressed in the Core Course are combined with each student’s disciplinary specialism in an investigation of a text, issue, or problematic that can be supervised within the School of the University.

The Dissertation is the culmination of the degree experience. It allows each
student to address an issue or text drawn either from the Core Course or from their disciplinary specialism, and to do so with the experience of having already approached other areas of inquiry (on the Elective Course) armed with the critical insights provided by the Core Course.

Mode of Attendance : Full-time: 1 year (max 5 years)