EUR2020

Creating Europe

David Garrioch, Barbara Caine and others

8 points - Two lectures and one tutorial per week - Second semester - Clayton - No prerequisites

Objectives A student who has completed this course should have a knowledge of the competing visions of Europe over the last two hundred years and of attempts to create European institutions; an understanding of the role of the arts in the creation and shaping of institutions; a grasp of the principal debates over the creation of European institutions, and of the different cultural, national, and ideological positions that underlie them; an awareness of different disciplinary approaches, and of the way that each one contributes to our understanding of our society and its institutions; skills of critical reflection and use of evidence; an ability to use material from a range of disciplines and to apply interdisciplinary perspectives; skills of written and verbal communication.

Synopsis EUR2020 tells the story of attempts to create Europe-wide institutions and organizations. It looks at the way that novels, science fiction, poetry, utopian literature, art, architecture and cinema, have all been used to further this goal. At the same time, the course looks at the competing visions for Europe that have been presented by individuals and groups with very different goals and ideological perspectives. The course begins with the French Revolution and Napoleon's attempts to reshape Europe, and looks at the subsequent political, utopian, artistic, and literary responses to this across the nineteenth century. It considers the way that events in Central Europe, from the unification of Germany to the Third Reich and finally the reunification of Germany, have stimulated writers and artists to place their talents at the service of the European Idea. The course considers the outpouring of projects and visions that have followed each major war. It concludes with the creation of the European Communities and the step-by-step extension of the EEC, exploring above all the role of the arts in furthering this process.

Assessment A literature survey (500 words): 5% - One visual exercise (1000 words): 20% - One examination (2 hours): 30% - One long essay (2000 words): 40% - Classwork (reading tasks and verbal presentation): 5%

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