Rennes - Master 1

M1 / Semestre 7 – Bloc 1 (Majeure) – B. Enjeux et pratiques disciplinaires
UE2 : Enjeux contemporains (Cultural Studies) - Cours de D. Haigron

Social conflict and communality: Class, gender, and race in contemporary British society and culture

British society is built on structural divisions based (mostly but not entirely) on class, gender and race, and its construction is driven by conflicts between categories of the population defending their respective interests in power relations, usually with an opposition between discriminated minorities and an hegemonic group. These conflicts have contributed to fostering communitarian identities and histories (Orgreave, Dagenham, #MeToo, Black Lives Matter, etc.), but have also found their place in collective national memory. This course will analyse social conflicts from a sociological and cultural perspective. The aim is to assess how they gained mythological status as defining landmarks, and how they participated in shaping British society. This will finally raise the question as to whether social conflict also —somehow paradoxically— helped build togetherness and communality, within or between the various sections of society.

Selected bibliography
BANYARD, Kat. The Equality Illusion: The Truth about Women and Men Today. Faber & Faber, 2010.
CANNADINE, David. The Undivided Past: Humanity Beyond our Differences. Alfred A. Knopf, 2013.
GILROY, Paul. There Ain’t No Black in the Union Jack: The Cultural Politics of Race and Nation. Routledge (1987), 2010.
HALL, Stuart, et al., eds. Representation. Sage & Open University, 2013.
JONES, Owen. Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class. Verso, 2016.
PANAYI, Panikos. An Immigration History of Britain: Multicultural Racism since 1800. Longman, 2010.
SKEGGS, Beverley. Formations of Class and Gender: Becoming Respectable. Sage, 1997.

Circulations and Cultural Transfers in Britain and its Colonial Empire - 02DF824

This course explores the modalities of circulation of knowledge, ideas and fashions during the long eighteenth
century (1650-1850). It analyses the effect of trade, communication, travel and exploration on their diffusion in
the colonial world. The concept of ‘cultural transfer’ (theorized in the 1980s by historians M. Espagne and
M. Werner) promotes a dynamic historical perspective, by allowing us to better understand the interactions
between cultures and societies, namely between the metropole and the colonies.
Through a diversity of primary sources, students will be introduced to the contexts and factors of Britain’s
colonial expansion and the shaping of colonial identities. The course will especially investigate the role of
individuals, groups and networks in the circulation and transmission of British values and practices in the
American colonies, through the prism of British club sociability.
Thanks to the readings, discussions and assignments in this course, students will learn about the issues of cultural
imitation, adaptation and ‘hybridization’ at stake in the process of cultural transfer. They will also get a deeper
understanding of historiographical debates on colonization and imperialism, national identity, cultural, racial and
gender ascendency.

02DMI812 - “Gender and Society in Eighteenth-Century Britain”

Course description
This course will introduce students with the place of gender in eighteenth-century British society. The period from the Restoration to the Romantic era was marked by major economic, political, social and cultural transformations, which had a deep impact on the definition, construction and representation of gender roles in British society. Students will engage with key concepts and issues regarding gender and learn about the changing historically-determined constructions of gender across the period of the long-eighteenth century. Through a wide range of primary sources, they will become familiar with various aspects of the everyday lives of eighteenth-century men and women (education, fashion, leisure, politics, etc.) as well as with emerging debates on gendered norms and practices (social performance, male hegemony and female agency). Through the readings, discussions and assignments in this course, students will also gain a deeper understanding of the traditions of women’s history and its relationship to histories of masculinity and gender.

Selected bibliography

 BARKER, Hannah & Elaine CHALUS (eds.), Gender in Eighteenth-century England: Roles, Representations and Responsibilities, London, New York: Longman, 1997. 
 BUTLER, Judith, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, 2nd (1999). New York and London: Routledge, 1990.
 CARTER, Philip, Men and the Emergence of Polite Society, Britain 1660-1800, London: Longman, 2001.
 COHEN, Michèle & Tim HITCHCOCK (eds.), English Masculinities 1660-1800. London & NY: Longman, 1999.
 FLETCHER, Anthony, Gender, Sex and Subordination in England, 1500-1800, London, 1987.
 HARVEY, Karen, The Little Republic: Masculinity and Domestic Authority in Eighteenth-Century Britain, Oxford University Press, 2012.
 SHOEMAKER, Robert B., Gender in English Society 1650-1850: The Emergence of Separate Spheres?, London: Longman, 1998.
 SCOTT, Joan W., “Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis”, American Historical Review 91 (1986): 1053–75.
 VICINUS, Martha, Separate Spheres, Bloomington, 1974.
 VICKERY, Amanda, The Gentleman's Daughter. Women's Lives in Georgian England, New Haven-London, Yale University Press, 1998.
 YLIVUORI Soile, Women and Politeness in Eighteenth-Century England: Bodies, Identities, and Power, Routledge, 2018.

Espace en supplément du cours de phonologie proposé aux étudiant.e.s de MEEF anglais