Liberal Arts - International Foundation

Module description

The aim of this module is to provide you with an understanding of four areas of study within the Humanities (Visual Culture; Film Studies; Literary Studies; and History of Ideas) and an outline of the way that they are studied at university.  Many of the lectures are in the form of an overview of the subject or cover topics (such as Modernism) which are of relevance to more than one subject.  While you must attend and participate in all classes, you need only write assignments on two of the four subjects meaning that you can effectively specialise if you wish. The module serves as an introduction either to one of the four subjects or to an overall Liberal Arts course or Liberal Arts-related course (such as the KCL Liberal Arts BA, Culture, Media and Creative Industries BA or Digital Culture BA). 

Assessment details

You are assessed through a combination of an essay (30%), a mini-exam (20%) and a final exam (50%).

Educational aims & objectives

• To provide an introduction to the study of key Liberal Arts subjects which will give you a solid basis equivalent to A-Level study as a minimum
• to provide an overview of the six subjects that comprise the module: History of Art; Film Studies; Literature Studies; Philosophy; Religious Studies; and History of Ideas
• to develop your understanding of important concepts from these six subjects, such as mise-en-scène; the auteur; trope; the death of the author; visual culture; the male gaze; the period eye; postmodernism; post-colonialism; trompe l'oeil; the cosmological argument; deontological ethics; the Evil Demon; New Religious Movements; the secularisation thesis; Catharism; the Radical Enlightenment
• to develop your understanding of the relationships between the study of religion, the sociology of religion, the history of art, the history of ideas and philosophy
• to develop your understanding of the main theoretical approaches to the study of film, literature and the history of art
• to develop your understanding of the connections and contrasts between different disciplines and methodologies in the humanities

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, you will be able to demonstrate the intellectual, transferable and practicable skills appropriate to this level of module and in particular will be able to:

• understand key terms, ideas and concepts in the six key subjects
• differentiate between a range of perspectives and approaches to the six key subjects
• research a topic, extract and synthesise information from a range of written and spoken sources, and formulate a guided response
• analyse and critically assess information from a variety of texts and come to an informed conclusion with limited guidance
• defend their own positions taken on key issues and debates
• understand lectures in English and actively participate in seminars
• research, develop and deliver a presentation around the topic of a lecture, during a seminar
• demonstrate increased experience of working creatively and flexibly as part of an academic group
• demonstrate appropriate linguistic skills in defined and predictable contexts.

Suggested reading list

History of Ideas

• Isaiah Berlin, The Roots of Romanticism (Princeton, 2001)
• Jonathan Israel, A Revolution of the Mind: Radical Enlightenment and the Roots of Modern Democracy (Princeton, 2001)

Religious Studies

• Alan Aldridge, Religion in the Modern World (2007 or 2012)
• Roger Eastman The Ways of Religion: An Introduction to the Major Traditions (1999)

Philosophy

• Peter Singer, A Companion to Ethics (1993)
• Meister. C. and Copan, P., (eds) Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Religion (2012)

History of Art

• Linda Nochlin, ‘Why have there been no great female artists?’ Art News 69 (1971)
• Michael Baxandall, Painting and Experience in Fifteenth-century Italy: A Primer in the Social History of Pictorial Style (1972)

Literature Studies

• Secondary sources
• Jacqueline Rose, The Case of Peter Pan, or, The Impossibility of Children’s Fiction (1984)
• Bill Ashcroft et al., The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literatures (2002)

Film Studies

• Laura Mulvey, ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’ (1975)
• Leo Braudy, Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings (2004)

General Arts/Philosophy

• Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logical of Late Capitalism (1991)

Useful websites

• Tate http://www.tate.org.uk/
• Art Monthly http://www.artmonthly.co.uk/
• The Courtauld Gallery http://www.courtauld.ac.uk/gallery/index.shtml

Literature Studies

• London Review of Books http://www.lrb.co.uk/
• The Times Literary Supplement http://www.the-tls.co.uk
• The British Library http://www.bl.uk/

Film Studies

• British Film Institute http://www.tate.org.uk/
• Sight and Sound http://www.bfi.org.uk/taxonomy/term/467
• Cahiers du Cinema http://www.cahiersducinema.com/

Religious studies/Philosophy

• http://plato.stanford.edu/
• http://www.religionfacts.com

History of Ideas

• Dictionary of the History of Ideas at http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupid?key=olbp31715

Module description disclaimer

King’s College London reviews the modules offered on a regular basis to provide up-to-date, innovative and relevant programmes of study. Therefore, modules offered may change. We suggest you keep an eye on the course finder on our website for updates.

Please note that modules with a practical component will be capped due to educational requirements, which may mean that we cannot guarantee a place to all students who elect to study this module.

Please note that the module descriptions above are related to the current academic year and are subject to change.