| CODE | PPL2019 | ||||||||||||
| TITLE | Politics in Literature and the Arts | ||||||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 02 - Years 2, 3 in Modular Undergraduate Course | ||||||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 5 | ||||||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 8 | ||||||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Policy, Politics and Governance | ||||||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | Important political themes and issues have often been addressed with great insight in literary works, such as Swift's 'Gulliver's Travels', Golding's 'Lord of the Flies' (tyranny), Tommasi's 'Il Gattopardo' (regime change), Kim's 'Lost Names' (oppression), Lessing's 'The Grass is Singing' (racism). Furthermore, artistic works, architecture and urban plans are frequently potent political symbols reflecting the values, tastes and self-perception of leaders and political elites. These twin considerations are the starting points of the study unit, which draws students towards an appreciation of how dissidents, social critics and governments themselves utilise artistic and literary representations of politics to criticise, inform, educate, lampoon, celebrate and mythologise for political ends. This study-unit is essentially divided into two. The first part comprises a series of classroom lectures and on-site visits to explore the different ways how works of literature, art, architecture, music and cinematography have influenced the world of politics. The second part consists of radio programmes, produced by the lecturer on Campus FM, featuring a wide array of themes related to politics, literature and the arts. Students will have the opportunity share their views via the Virtual Learning platform. These radio programmes - encapsulating the participation of political scientists, authors and art critics. – will serve as an agenda setting for students’ engagement and on-line discussions. Study-unit Aims The study-unit is not intended either as artistic appreciation or technical instruction: rather, we are interested in discovering the political content, contexts and contests of artistic representations of politics, with a view to understanding better the range and depth of political action. This is a study-unit taught by political scientists for students of politics. Learning Outcomes 1. Knowledge & Understanding: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - discern and appraise the political messages embedded in great works of literature, music, film, public buildings and monuments; - identify the link between these and broader themes in politics and policy-making, including political legitimation, regime succession, propaganda and collective memory. 2. Skills: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - observe the composition and selected key details of political works in print, film or stone; and - write brief, well-informed commentaries about selected works. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings - Campus FM, Il-Politika u l-Muzika (2015). - Campus FM, Il-Politika fil-Films (2016). - Campus FM, Il-Politika fil-Letteratura (2017). - Campus FM, Il-Politika fl-Arti Viziva (2018). - Micallef, M.A. (2008), The Politics of Art, Malta: Progress Press. - Vassallo, MT (2017), Politics and Music: The Maltese Experience, in Vassallo, MT (ed) Public Life in Malta II, Malta: University of Malta. |
||||||||||||
| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture and Visit | ||||||||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
|
||||||||||||
| LECTURER/S | Kurt Borg Mario Thomas Vassallo |
||||||||||||
|
The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2025/6. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
|||||||||||||