Undergraduate - UnitATS2521 - Conflict and Culture in Europe

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2013 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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6 points, SCA Band 1, 0.125 EFTSL

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Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Arts
Organisational Unit	Monash European and EU Centre
Offered	Clayton First semester 2013 (Day)
Coordinator(s)	Dr Natalie Doyle

Notes

Previously coded EUR2090

Synopsis

This subject reflects on European cultural and intellectual life from the 1880s to the start of the Second World War and its relationship to European experiences of violence. It starts by examining the crisis of liberalism (1880-1914) and its cultural expressions in philosophy and art. It discusses the advent of nationalism, imperialism, total war as well as the intellectual roots and cultural manifestations of left and right totalitarianisms (Fascism, Nazism, Stalinism). It introduces Nietzsche, Freud and the notions of will, power, subconscious, art for art's sake, modernist art, revolutionary art, revolutionary vanguard, race, masses. Students read texts representative of the period (philosophical, literary, sociological, political), as well as later analyses (Arendt, Primo Levi, Solzhenitsyn).

Outcomes

On completion of this subject students should:

Have a familiarity with, and an understanding of, significant features of Europe's cultural and intellectual development in the twentieth century
Have an understanding of, and an ability to apply, key terms and concepts relevant to the culture and intellectual life of the period
Be familiar with, and able to discuss, representative texts of the period, both expository and aesthetic
Be able to demonstrate competence in the following skills:

obtaining access to source materials and secondary writings through the library and other resources
writing (including planning, arguing on the basis of evidence, and documenting)
analysis and interpretation of cultural texts, including the application of appropriate terms and concepts for the discussion of content, form, and cultural and historical context
oral presentation of information and argument based on guided and independent reading
discussion of texts and oral presentations
assimilation of information and opinion from various sources for purposes of forming independent judgments
team work.

In addition, students taking the subject at third-year level should have some knowledge of different schools of thought concerning the ideas and cultural phenomena treated in the subject.