HS1787: Into the Vortex: Britain and the First World War

School History
Department Code SHARE
Module Code HS1787
External Subject Code 100763
Number of Credits 30
Level L6
Language of Delivery English
Module Leader Dr Toby Thacker
Semester Double Semester
Academic Year 2015/6

Outline Description of Module

This module explores Britain’s role in the First World War, and examines the impact the war had on British society and culture. It takes a twin track approach. On the one hand, it explores the military history of the war. On the other, it examines the cultural history of the war through the study of literature, art and music. We will pay particular attention to a selected group of artists whose work both embodied the experience of war, and shaped British views of the war. The writers, poets, painters and composers we consider – while many have taken on iconic roles in twentieth-century Britain – exemplify varied perspectives on the war. They have been chosen to represent the traditional and the modern, and to provide something of a cross section of British society in 1914. They include the poets Rupert Brooke and Hedd Wyn; the authors Vera Brittain, Siegfried Sassoon, and T. E. Lawrence; the painters Christopher Nevinson, Paul Nash and Stanley Spencer; and the composers Edward Elgar and Hubert Parry. Studying these men and women and the work they produced either during the war, or in the years after 1918, provides a fascinating lens through which to explore the war’s effect on British society and culture. What was the involvement of these individuals in the war? How did they view the war’s progress? How is the war depicted in their work? In looking at the impact of the First World War on British society and culture, the module blends the military and social history of the period to examine how the British tried to come to terms with the war, how its progress was viewed, and how society responded to the war.

On completion of the module a student should be able to

  • Display a thorough knowledge of Britain’s military involvement in the First World War.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of differing interpretations of the political, social, and cultural history of Britain during the First World War and the immediate postwar period.
  • Display an ability to analyse selected cultural texts, including visual images, pieces of music, prose and poetry, and to relate these to their historical and political context.
  • Analyse how different art forms were used to embody the experience of war, and to shape wider public perceptions of this experience.

How the module will be delivered

A range of teaching methods will be used in each of the sessions of the course, comprising a combination of lectures and seminar discussion of major issues. The syllabus is divided into a series of major course themes, then sub-divided into principal topics for the study of each theme.

Lectures:
The aim of the lectures is to provide a brief introduction to a particular topic, establishing the salient features of major course themes, identifying key issues and providing historiographical guidance. The lectures aim to provide a basic framework for understanding and should be thought of as useful starting points for further discussion and individual study. Where appropriate, handouts and other materials may be distributed to reinforce the material discussed.

Seminars:
The primary aim of seminars will be to generate debate and discussion amongst course participants. Seminars for each of the course topics will provide an opportunity for students to analyse and further discuss key issues and topics relating to lectures.

Skills that will be practised and developed

  • Communicate ideas and arguments effectively, whether in class discussion or in written form, in an accurate, succinct and lucid manner.
  • Formulate and justify arguments and conclusions about a range of issues, and present appropriate supporting evidence
  • An ability to modify as well as to defend their own position.
  • An ability to think critically and challenge assumptions
  • An ability to use a range of information technology resources to assist with information retrieval and assignment presentation.
  • Time management skills and an ability to independently organise their own study methods and workload.
  • Work effectively with others as part of a team or group in seminar or tutorial discussions.

How the module will be assessed

Students will be assessed by means of a combination of one 1000 word assessed essay [15%], one 2000 word assessed essay [35%] and one two-hour unseen written examination paper in which the student will answer two questions [50%].

Course assignments:

  1. Assessed Essay 1 will contribute 15% of the final mark for the module. It is designed to give students the opportunity to demonstrate their ability to review evidence, draw appropriate conclusions from it and employ the formal conventions of scholarly presentation. It must be no longer than 1,000 words (excluding empirical appendices and references).
  2. Assessed Essay 2 will contribute 35% of the final mark for the module. It is designed to give students the opportunity to demonstrate their ability to review evidence, draw appropriate conclusions from it and employ the formal conventions of scholarly presentation. It must be no longer than 2,000 words (excluding empirical appendices and references).
  3. The Examination will take place during the second assessment period [May/June] and will consist of an unseen two hour paper that will contribute the remaining 50% of the final mark for this module. Students must write 2 answers in total.

Assessment Breakdown

Type % Title Duration(hrs)
Written Assessment 15 Assessed Essay 1 N/A
Written Assessment 35 Assessed Essay 2 N/A
Exam - Spring Semester 50 Into The Vortex: Britain And The First World War 2

Syllabus content

1. Britain’s entry into the First World War

2. An introduction to the selected artists

3. The opening campaigns on the Western Front, August-November 1914

4. Trench warfare and the failed offensives of 1915

5. ‘Easterners’ and ‘westerners’: Gallipoli and the ‘side shows’

6. The war at sea, 1914-1918

7. Slaughter on the Somme, 1916

8. Passchendaele, and the growing tension between civilian and military direction of the war in 1917.

9. The ‘Hundred Days’ and the Armistice

10. Memory, autobiography, and memorials to the dead.

Essential Reading and Resource List

Please see Background Reading List for an indicative list.

Background Reading and Resource List

Modris Eksteins, Rites of Spring: The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age (Bantam, 1989)Paul Fussell, The Great War and Modern Memory (Oxford University Press, 1975)Samuel Hynes, A war imagined: the First World War and English culture (Bodley Head, 1990)

Arthur Marwick, The Deluge: British Society and the First World War (Macmillan, 1991)

A. J. P. Taylor, The First World War: an illustrated history (Hamish Hamilton, 1963)Jon Silkin, The Penguin Book of First World War poetry (Penguin, 1996)

Richard Cork, A bitter truth: avant-garde art and the Great War (Yale University Press, 1994)

Jane Potter, Boys in Khaki, Girls in Print: Women’s Literary Responses to the Great War 1914-1918 (Clarendon Press, 2005)

Gary Sheffield and John Bourne (eds), Douglas Haig: War Diaries and Letters 1914-1918 (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2005)


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