Module Information

This new module is designed to widen the range of option modules available to human geography students at Level 3. The module reflects the current research interests of Peter Merriman, who is a new member of academic staff. It also reflects the broader research and teaching themes of other members of the Historical and Cultural Geography Research Group.

In this course students will examine the cultural and historical geographies of landscapes of modernity in twentieth century Britain. The module will start with an introduction to contemporary geographical writings on 'landscape', 'modernity', and British national identities, before tracing the geographies of specific sites and subject-positions which have been associated with modern life in twentieth century Britain. Specific lectures will focus on: sites of British modernity before 1900; the expansion of suburbia; the links between countryside preservation and modern planning between the wars; the expansion of leisure and the 'writing' of the landscape through guidebooks; cultures of landscape during World War Two; and the reconstruction of post-war Britain. The module aims to show how particular understandings of Britishness and British modernity (and their common equation with Englishness) have continually been challenged and resisted in different periods through the cultural activities of Welsh, Scottish and Irish subjects. The module will examine various counter-modern practices and sites, from the emergence of 'anti-modern' sentiments associated with particular conservation, organic, environmental and architectural movements, to the geographies of groups who are frequently excluded from hegemonic accounts of Britishness - such as ethnic minority groups, the young, homosexuals, new age travellers, other nationals, and subjects of empire. The final lecture will examine the geographies of 'sites' and 'sensibilities' which have frequently been associated with 'postmodern' geographies, whether they be heritage museums, motorways, airports or shopping centres.