Cultural Studies study guide 2024/25
What you can study
The study of human cultures has never been as crucial as it is today, in our globalised and networked world. At the School of Modern Languages, we are passionate about the study of culture – particularly the literature, film, societies and shifting worldviews of the non-Anglophone Western world and its cultural relationship with the Global South.
You can find units on:
- literature and poetry
- cinema and visual culture
- gender, sexuality, and queer studies
- postcolonialism
Many of the units are comparative (MODL units), enabling you to study more than one culture at a time.
Pre-requisites
At UK universities, students specialise from their first year and rarely take units outside their degree subject. This means that:
- Year 1 units are suitable for all students.
- Year 2 units require some university study in a relevant discipline.
- Year 3 units require a strong background in a relevant discipline.
- Masters-level units require three years of study in the discipline.
Feature units
-
Contemporary European Cinema (TB1) MODL10009
Comparative British & Continental European cinema, exploring diverse topics from the low-budget Cornish thriller, to Asian-British comedy and the James Bond blockbuster in IMAX.
-
Introduction to Visual Cultures: from Bristol to the World (TB2) MODL10019
Get to know the city of Bristol through weekly guided and self-guided field trips around the city to see visual culture and theory in action.
-
City Futures: Migration, Citizenship, and Planetary Change (TB2) – UNIV10005
What does it mean to be a Global Citizen? To be part of a global community? These are the kinds of questions you’ll explore in this unit.
Literature and Culture
Year 1
Pre-requisites: suitable for all students.
Teaching Block 1
- Approaches to Poetry - ENGL10026
- Comparative Literature: What is it and how can we practise it? – MODL10016
- Critical Issues (for English Literature) - ENGL10017
- French Cultures in Context – FREN10030
- German Literature and Film: Genres, Texts, Contexts – GERM10035
- Key Moments in Lusophone History and Culture – HISP10015
- Medieval and Renaissance Italy – ITAL10034
- The Making of the Hispanic World – HISP10014
- Understanding Russia: Literature & Visual Culture – RUSS10042
Teaching Block 2
- City Futures: Migration, Citizenship, and Planetary Change – UNIV10005
- Introduction to Visual Cultures: from Bristol to the World – MODL10019
- Representations of Francophone Cultures – FREN10013
- Understanding Russia: History & Identity – RUSS10041
Year 2
Pre-requisites: some university study in a relevant discipline (including History, Literature etc).
Teaching Block 1
- Dante’s Inferno - ITAL20047
- Italian Fascism – ITAL20045
- Migrations of Culture - MODL20024
- Race, Gender, and Intersectionality in Twenty-First Century France: Cultural Production, Politics, and Identity - FREN20072
- The Nineteenth-Century Russian Novel – RUSS20069
- Women and Nation – MODL23017
Teaching Block 2
- Burning Books: Radicalism Before the Revolution - FREN20065
- Colonial Worlds: Latin America and the Caribbean, 1400-1900 - HISP20122
- Contemporary Latin(x) American Poetry - HISP20115
- Destination Italy: Cultural Responses to Migration - ITAL20032
- Fairy Tales Across Borders – MODL20029
- Germany and Austria in Motion: Film, Society, and Identity – GERM20054
- Popular Representation and Institutions of Culture - MODL20026
- Renaissance Italy – ITAL20046
- Revolutionary Russia, 1881-1917 – RUSS20066
- Russian Orthodox Culture – RUSS20044
- The Essay: History, Genre, Media - MODL20030
Year 3
Pre-requisites: strong background of study in a relevant discipline and familiarity with the region for non-MODL units (e.g. France, Italy, Russia etc).
Teaching Block 1
- Indigenous Histories in Latin America - HISP30106
- Les Misérables: Readings and Receptions - FREN30030
- Me, Myself, and I: The Essais of Michel de Montaigne - FREN30114
- Russia and the World, 1991–present - RUSS30083
- Theatre and Theatricality in Russian Society – RUSS30085
- Visibility Matters: Identity, Diversity, and Power in the Cultural Marketplace – GERM30081
Teaching Block 2
- Communism in Europe – MODL30001
- Dante: Purgatorio and Paradiso – ITAL30059
- Decadence, Decay and Rebirth: Russian & Czech Literature, 1870-1914 – RUSS30084
- Dress and Identity in Russia through the Ages – RUSS30086
- Institutions and Anti-Institutions in Italy in the 1960s and 1970s - ITAL30055
- Intermedia Encounters in Poetry – HISP30104
- Studying and Making Early Printed Books – MODL30040
- Surrealism: Pleasure and Provocation in 1920s Textual and Visual Culture - FREN30040
- Transnational Narrative in pre-modern cultures – MODL30041
MA-Level units
Pre-requisites: 3 years of undergraduate study in a relevant discipline and approval from the School of Modern Languages. Students may take only one per TB.
Teaching Block 1
- Institutions of Culture – MODLM0022
- The Rise of the Novel in Nineteenth-Century Europe – MODLM2035
- Theorizing Violence: Colonial Encounters and Anti Colonial Reactions – MODLM0025
Teaching Block 2
Cinema
Year 1
Pre-requisites: suitable for all students.
Teaching Block 1
- Contemporary European Cinema – MODL10009
- German Literature and Film: Genres, Texts, Contexts – GERM10035
- Understanding Russia: Literature & Visual Culture – RUSS10042
Teaching Block 2
- Classics of European Cinema – MODL10010
- Introduction to Visual Cultures: from Bristol to the World – MODL10019
Year 2
Pre-requisites: suitable for all students.
Teaching Block 1
Teaching Block 2
Year 3
Pre-requisites: requires some background of study in film/cinema.
Teaching Block 1
Teaching Block 2
You may also be interested in:
Application queries
Contact the Centre for Study Abroad inbound team if you have any queries about the application process for the study abroad programmes:
Phone: +44 117 39 40207
Email: cfsa-inbound@bristol.ac.uk