Unit information: 1984 and Beyond: The Rise and Fall of European Totalitarianism in History and Fiction (Level H Special Subject) in 2015/16

Unit name	1984 and Beyond: The Rise and Fall of European Totalitarianism in History and Fiction (Level H Special Subject)
Unit code	HIST37014
Credit points	20
Level of study	H/6
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director	Dr. Furst
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of History (Historical Studies)
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

The dissident Andre Amalrik wrote in the 1970s a pamphlet entitled: Will the Soviet Union live until 1984? It became one of the most widely-read oppositional pieces in both East and West. Apart from demonstrating the strength of literature in the face of oppression, it also bore witness to the power of fiction in analysing totalitarianism and creating commonly accepted codes for its understanding. Fiction predicted, mirrored and made sense of the Soviet and German experience of dictatorial regimes and terror. It thus provides the historian with an extremely powerful path into the world of European totalitarianism - its perception, experience and commemoration. This course looks at classic works of fiction, which warned, chronicled and processed European society's experience of dictatorship and uses these works as vehicles to explore the different facets that produced this experience.

Aims:

• To place students in direct contact with the current research interests of the academic tutor

• To enable students to explore the issues surrounding the state of research on European totalitarianism in history and fiction

• To develop further students ability to work with primary sources

• To develop further students abilities to integrate both primary and secondary source material into a wider historical analysis

• To develop further students ability to learn independently within a small-group context.

Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of the unit students should have:

• Developed an in depth understanding of European totalitarianism in history and fiction

• Become more experienced and competent in working with an increasingly specialist range of primary sources

• Become more adept at contributing to and learning from a small-group environment.

Teaching Information

• 10 x weekly 2 hour seminar

• Tutorial feedback on essay

• Access to tutorial consultation with unit tutor in office hours

Assessment Information

1 x 3500 word essay (50%) and 1 x 2 hour exam (50%)

Reading and References

• Evgenii Zamiatin, We

• Lion Feuchtwanger, Success

• Heinrich Mann, The Subject

• George Orwell, 1984 and Animal Farm

• Bernhard Schlink, The Reader

• Anatolii Rybakov, Children of the Arbat