| Unit name | Celebrity Culture: Icons, Industry and Aesthetics |
|---|---|
| Unit code | ENGL30110 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | H/6 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
| Unit director | Dr. Abs Ashley |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units) |
None |
| Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units) |
None |
| Units you may not take alongside this one |
None |
| School/department | Department of English |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
Why is this unit important?
The study of celebrity may be new, but the cultural fascination with fame and the famous is ancient. This transhistorical unit explores notions of celebrity – its bodies, images, aesthetics, texts and industries – and offers provocative interdisciplinary possibilities for thinking about issues of performance, affect, gender, race, sexuality, class, and visual and cultural representation.
How does this unit fit into your programme of study?
Exploration units offer thought-provoking and engaging investigations into key topics, including period-focused, thematic, and trans-historical options. You will hone your abilities as a researcher able to navigate skilfully a range of databases and archives, as well as engaging effectively with more advanced critical and theoretical perspectives. Exploration units ask you to both rethink the familiar and meet the unexpected, and encourage you to develop depth as well as breadth of critical understanding.
An overview of content
In the first half of the unit, lectures will introduce a wide variety of speakers, not just from English, but from disciplines such as History, Law, Film and Music; in seminars, students will encounter a wide variety of creative nonfiction, commentary and cultural theory, including works by writers such as Walter Benjamin, Susan Sontag, bell hooks, Zadie Smith and Claudia Rankine. Along the way, the unit encourages us to think about the economics of celebrity; questions of spectacle and spectatorship; the relationship between the local, national and transnational; the ways in which celebrity bodies are presented and represented as both archetypal and exceptional; the role of celebrity in constructing and critiquing gender and race; the relationships between celebrity and technologies, both historical and contemporary; the politics of fame. The second half of the unit focuses more closely on particular case studies, in preparation for the summative portfolio submission.
How will students, personally, be different as a result of the unit
Engaging with the unit will enable students to explore and evaluate an eclectic range of culture and media, from medieval iconography to 21st century communications. Students will work through challenging questions of genre and identity, and complete the unit with an enhanced understanding of their discipline’s potential applications.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of the unit, students will be able to:
The unit is taught by seminars and a programme of cohort sessions. Teaching includes group discussion, research and writing activities, and peer dialogue. Students are expected to attend all timetabled teaching, engage with the reading, and participate fully with the weekly tasks and topics. Learning will be further supported through the opportunity for individual consultation.
Tasks which count towards your unit mark (summative):
Group project (30%) [ILOs 1-4].
2,500 word portfolio (70%) [ILOs 1-3].
When assessment does not go to plan
When required by the Board of Examiners, you will normally complete reassessments in the same formats as those outlined above. However, the Board reserves the right to modify the format or number of reassessments required. Details of reassessments are confirmed by the School/Centre shortly after the notification of your results at the end of the year.
If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.
If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. ENGL30110).
How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours
of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks,
independent learning and assessment activity.
See the University Workload statement relating to this unit for more information.
Assessment
The assessment methods listed in this unit specification are designed to enable students to demonstrate the named learning outcomes (LOs). Where a disability prevents a student from undertaking a specific method of assessment, schools will make reasonable adjustments to support a student to demonstrate the LO by an alternative method or with additional resources.
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit.
The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. For appropriate assessments, if you have self-certificated your absence, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (for assessments at the end of TB1 and TB2 this is usually in the next re-assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any exceptional circumstances and operates
within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.
