Cultures of Contemporary Great Britain I

The course draws on the tools of Cultural Studies to provide an analysis of English cultural production and expressive practices, with a specific focus on popular creative forms and narratives. Notably, it will explore how British identities have reshaped and hybridised themselves since the origins of the empire, responding critically to diversity and multiplicity. At a methodological level, the course will focus on the study of inclusive and plural mechanisms and narratives, with the aim to highlight how identities from the periphery managed to reshape what was once considered the centre of cultural production. Special emphasis will be placed on the theme of diversity in terms of experiences, identities and perspectives, which will be considered from an intersectional viewpoint and possibly linked to topics explored during the language courses. This approach is intended to foster an advanced understanding and critical awareness of the mechanisms at work within the British context, and to provide students with adequate methodological tools to interact effectively in English within inclusive and diversity-valuing environments.
Learning objectives include:
- advanced knowledge and critical understanding of a variety of English cultural practices, textual and artistic products (both spontaneous and codified) on diversity-related topics and the connected processes of cultural hybridisation;
- fruitful application of the tools of Cultural Studies to the context of contemporary Britain, along with the ability to trace the historical developments that contributed to shaping current issues related to the topics covered during the course;
- the ability to apply the knowledge acquired during Bachelor's studies (regarding the notions of empire, Englishness, Britishness, immigration and diaspora, and the contemporary age) to investigate concepts such as race, ethnicity, multiculturalism, cosmopolitanism, power, ideology, hegemony, discursive practices and consensus-building;
- the ability to critically analyse communication models across various media under the lens of identity, inclusivity and diversity, combined with the ability to identify good and bad practices in the contemporary context, supported by reasoned evaluations;
- the ability to research, select, summarise and compare relevant information, and to debate in the classroom/in groups on the texts and topics studied;
- the ability to formulate independent and critically reasoned judgements on a variety of cultural products and literary texts;
- the ability to compare and draw correlations between different contexts related to class, ethnicity, gender and the like, with a view to developing a pragmatic and authentic awareness of what it means to respect and include diverse identities.

This course will guide students in investigating the concept of identity in relation to contemporary British cultures and to the multiple influences, ideologies, religions and cultural practices which have developed in the UK since the beginning of the decolonisation process. This is in line with the goal of the Master's degree programme as a whole, which is to enhance the linguistic and cultural mediation skills acquired by students during the previous three-year programme. Students are also expected to learn how to identify the most suitable critical categories and methods of Cultural Studies to analyse the proposed cultural products. By the end of the course, students should possess not only adequate language skills, but also an array of methodological tools allowing them to critically select, organise and interpret various types of contemporary textual productions, including media, performative, musical and literary texts. Moreover, they should be able to identify the constituent parts of a text, in order to deconstruct it and learn to reproduce similar structures. Teamwork will be an integral part of the course, so students are also expected to learn to organise their work and collaborate in English.