British Culture and Society 2025-2026 (Semester 1): Course Outline
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Week
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Date
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Topic (Lecture, Tue 1.00-3.00, MBG13)
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1
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9 Sep
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Introduction: Summer 2025 in the UK: a time of malaise?
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2
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16 Sep
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The political party system in Great Britain
The Conservative Party in government: Brexit, covid and performativity
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3
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23 Sep
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Government in crisis: the resistible rise and predictable fall of Boris Johnson, and how Britain passed Through the Looking Glass
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4
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30 Sep
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Labour from government to opposition and back to government again
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5
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7 Oct
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A walk through Edinburgh
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6
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14 Oct
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Reading Week (no classes)
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7
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21 Oct
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Nae Yet! Scottish independence and the rise and fall of the Scottish National Party 1 (1320-2014)
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8
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28 Oct
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Nae Yet! Scottish independence and the rise and fall of the Scottish National Party 2 (2014-2024)
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9
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4 Nov
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Reading and built environment culture in the UK:
Prize giving in the Arts - the cases of the Booker and Stirling prizes
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10
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11 Nov
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British Cinema Part 1: Scotland viewed in and through cinema
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11
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18 Nov
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British Cinema Part 2: Looking at Britain through film
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12
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25 Nov
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Course review and questions
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13
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2 Dec
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14
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Essay submission
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Assessment
Assessment for BCS 1 is by submission of an analytical essay of 2000-2500 words, on a topic of your choice concerning cultural, social or political life in the UK.
by electronic submission through Canvas.
Sample topics:
• Nature of democracy/governance in the UK (could include the role of the prime minister, Parliament, cabinet, the parties and the 2024 general election, how government operates)
• Implications of the Scottish independence movement or the prospects for political and cultural change in all the UK as a consequence
• Brexit - the referendum, its aftermath, the reasons for the vote, what is likely to happen as a consequence, can it ever be wound back now Brexit supporters no longer run government
• A British film study or film-maker study
• A contemporary British writer / artist / architect or influential book / artwork / building / built environment.
• Another relevant topic of your choice - submit a proposal. Can be historical, contemporary, political, cultural.
The following is a select reading list that may help you to find readings on the topics you are interested in.
Reading (General: British Society)
Oakland, John. 2019. British Civilisation: An Introduction (9th ed.) Routledge McCormick, John. 2018. Contemporary Britain. Red Globe Press.
Christopher, David P. 2015. British Culture: An Introduction (3rd ed.) Routledge
Reading (Themes in Culture and Society)
Baucom, Ian (1999) Out of Place: Englishness, Empire and the Locations of Identity (e-book), Princeton University Press.
Beal, Joan (2010) An Introduction to Regional Englishes: Dialect Variation in England, Edinburgh University Press.
Bell, Eleanor and Miller, Gavin (eds) Scotland in Theory: Reflections on Culture and Literature, Rodopi.
Brown, Ian. 2020. Performing Scottishness: Enactment and National Identities. Palgrave Macmillan. Devine, Tom. 2017. Independence or Union: Scotland’s Past and Scotland’s Present. Penguin.
Devine, Tom. 2012. The Scottish Nation: A Modern History. Penguin.
Geoghegan, Peter. 2014. The People’s Referendum: Why Scotland Will Never Be the Same Again.
Luath Press.
Gibson, Marion, Tower, Shelley and Tregidga, Garry eds (2012) Mysticism, Myth and Celtic Identity, Routledge.
MacWhirter, Iain. 2014. Disunited Kingdom: How Westminster Won a Referendum but Lost Scotland.
Cargo Publishing.
McLeod, Wilson (ed.) (2006) Revitalising Gaelic in Scotland, Dunedin Academic Press
Nic Craith, Máiréad (1997) Watching One’s Tongue: Aspects of Romance and Celtic Languages, Liverpool University Press.
Nic Craith, Máiréad (2002) Plural Identities, Singular Narratives: the Case of Northern Ireland, Berghahn.
Nic Craith, Máiréad (2003) Culture and Identity Politics in Northern Ireland, Palgrave.
O’Toole, Fintan. 2019. Heroic Failure: Brexit and the Politics of Pain. Apollo.
Pittock, Murray (1999) Celtic Identity and the British Image, Manchester University Press.
Pittock, Murray (2011) Scottish and Irish Romanticism, OUP, Oxford.
Ray, Celeste (2001) Highland Heritage: Scottish Americans in the American South, The University of North Carolina Press.
Watson, Moray and MacLeod, Michelle (2010) The Edinburgh Companion to the Gaelic Language, Edinburgh University Press.
West, Gary (2012) Voicing Scotland: Culture and Tradition in a Modern Nation, Luath Press.
Whitely, Paul, Harold D Clarke & Matthew Goodwin. 2017. Brexit: Why Britain Voted to Leave the European Union. Cambridge University Press.
Reading: British Film and Cinema
McFarlane, Brian & Anthony Slide, ed. 2014. The Encyclopedia of British Film, 4th ed. Manchester University Press.
Murphy, Robert, ed. 2009. The British Cinema Book, 3rd ed. BFI/Palgrave.
Catterall, Ali & Simon Wells. 2001. Your Face Here: British Cult Movies since the Sixties. Fourth Estate. Monk, Claire & Amy Sargeant. 2002. British Historical Cinema. Routledge.
Petrie, Duncan. 2000. Screening Scotland. BFI Publications.
McArthur, Colin. 2003. Braveheart, Brigadoon and the Scots. IB Tauris.
Rowbotham, Sheila & Huw Beynon. 2001. Looking at Class: Film, television and the working class in Britain. Rivers Oram Press.
Dyja, Eddie. 2010. Studying British Cinema: The 1990s. Auteur.
Fitzgerald, John. 2010. Studying British Cinema: 1999-2009. Auteur.
Leggott, James, ed. 2008. Contemporary British Cinema: from Heritage to Horror. Wallflower Press. Higson, Andrew. 2010. Film England: Culturally English Film-making Since the 1990s. IB Tauris.
Barton, Ruth. 2019. Irish Cinema in the Twenty-first Century. University of Manchester Press.
Hill, John. 2006. Cinema and Northern Ireland. British Film Institute