Rethinking Cold War Cultures Re-examines key elements of 'Cold War thinking', looking for similarites as well as differences between the ways in which social and cultural life was imagined and experienced in the East and the West. Uses contemporary texts to probe constructions of 'otherness', and interrogate a variety of strategies for living with, escaping from or dismantling Cold War structures. Topics include cultural control, political and social theory, utopia and disutopia, gender, science, popular culture and the upheavals of 1968 and 1989. Society and Culture in the Cold War Students choose from a menu of short case studies in a number of different national, transnational and thematic contexts. Topics include popular culture, travel writing, Americanisation, literature, feminism, peace movements, anti-communism, socialist consumerism, and the ideology of planning.
Areas studied include the USA, Britain, western and eastern Europe, Russia and East Asia.
Knowledge of a relevant language is encouraged, and tuition is available for students wishing to improve their language skills in preparation for their dissertation. There are no examinations. All rights reserved.