Module Information
Course Delivery
| Delivery Type | Delivery length / details |
|---|---|
| Seminars / Tutorials | 10 x 2 hour seminars 1 x 15 minute essay tutorial 1 x 30 minute project planning tutorial |
Assessment
| Assessment Type | Assessment length / details | Proportion |
|---|---|---|
| Semester Assessment | 1 X SOURCE ANALYSIS (1,500 WORDS) | 20% |
| Semester Assessment | 1 X PROJECT (5,000 WORDS) | 60% |
| Semester Assessment | 1 X ESSAY (1,500 WORDS) | 20% |
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this module students should be able to:
Demonstrate familiarity with the different ways that historians are able to use various types of visual sources.
Demonstrate an awareness of how to utilize these sources when examining political, economic, social and cultural developments.
Analyze and reflect critically on the relationship between the intentions of the creators of these sources and their value to historians, and also to compare and contrast different types of visual sources.
Construct and sustain historical arguments orally and in writing.
Work both independently and collaboratively and to participate in group discussions (not assessed).
Brief description
This module provides students with the skills to use a wide range of visual sources - political posters, advertisements, cartoons, films and others - to examine Russia under Stalin. The majority of the seminars will explore a particular type of visual source, focusing on both its general use for the historian as well as its value when examining specific aspects of the period in question. Other seminars will be devoted to analyzing a particular topic through several types of visual sources, comparing and contrasting the different visions provided.
Aims
Despite the proliferation of different types of images in the twentieth century, in many cases historians continue to treat them with suspicion, especially when `traditional' written sources are available. This module looks at a period of Russian history - the Stalinist period - which is particularly rich in visual sources to explore how historians can utilize them to examine the immense political, economic, social and cultural developments of the period.
Content
2: Political Posters
3: Film
4: Photographs
5: The Cult of Stalin
6: Promoting Economic Change
7: Everyday Stalinism: Advertisements and Cartoons
8: Art and Architecture
9: The Great Patriotic War, 1941-1945
10: Conclusion: Images of Stalinism
1 x 15 minute essay tutorial and 1 x 30 minute project planning tutorial
Module Skills
| Skills Type | Skills details |
|---|---|
| Application of Number | |
| Communication | Oral and written communication skills will be developed through seminars and feedback on written work. Literary skills will be assessed but oral skills will not. |
| Improving own Learning and Performance | Written work will be returned in tutorials where advice will be given on improving students' research techniques and essay writing skills. |
| Information Technology | Students will be encouraged to locate suitable material through library and on-line sources. Students will also be encouraged to word-process their work. |
| Personal Development and Career planning | This module will help develop written and oral skills. Other activities, including research, assessment of information and writing in a critical and clear manner, will further develop useful skills of analysis and presentation. |
| Problem solving | Students will be expected to locate and assess primary source materials. This skill will be assessed through the three pieces of work. |
| Research skills | Students will be required to carry out research for seminars and for the required pieces of work. Such research will be assessed in each of the three elements of assessment. |
| Subject Specific Skills | |
| Team work | Students will work together in seminar preparation and discussion. |
Notes
This module is at CQFW Level 6