English and drama
Capital Culture: Money, Commerce and Writing
Module code: Q3185
Level 6
30 credits in autumn semester
Teaching method: Seminar, Workshop
Assessment modes: Essay
What are the interconnections between literature and capitalism, and how can literary texts help us to understand them? We explore this question through reading a wide variety of literary and other texts drawn from the period of the rise of modern capitalism. We trace the responses of many kinds of writers to the emergence of modern commercial society including the celebration of trade and empire, concerns about social change, and the representation of labour and the critique of capitalism from Romantic poets, Gothic novelists, and other writers.
Topics addressed include:
- the commodity and the fetish
- labour, slavery and alienation
- subjectivity in capitalism
- sex and money
- consumption and consumerism
- the role of art and the artist in commercial society
- different ideas of value (economic and aesthetic).
Texts studied will include visual art, alongside novels, poetry, short stories, autobiography, journalism, essays and economic writings. Short extracts from the works of Adam Smith and Karl Marx will provide theoretical perspectives.
Module learning outcomes
- Demonstrate good comprehension of a range of writing from the module.
- Understand the interconnections between such texts and key themes addressed by the module.
- Identify a particular topic relating to module content, together with suitable texts, suitable for sustained investigation and analysis.
- Work independently to research his or her chosen topic, including in primary texts and relevant secondary criticism.
- Produce a long essay on his/her chosen topic, of a good scholarly standard, and presented in accordance with the usual academic conventions.