Each two-hour session will consist of a lecture, discussion, and critical analysis of sources related to Liverpool's transforming cityscape in literature and film. Students will also visit the Museum of Liverpool. Analysing primary and secondary sources about the City’s history will encourage students to make valued judgments and informed discussions. Students will develop transferable skills relevant to employment, i.e. teamwork, interpersonal skills, oral presentation skills, and critical thinking.
Module leader: Michael Gill
Michael has worked and studied at the University of Liverpool since 2009. His research includes media analysis of historical events, international labour laws, international relations, and social history. His current research uses working-class writers with links to Merseyside as case studies to explore changing literary trends in 1930s, 40s, and 50s.
Aims
- To develop confidence in understanding and communicating complex ideas
- To develop skills in research and collaborative learning
- To learn about aspects of Liverpool's history through literary and visual representations.
Content
The following topics will be considered on the module:
- From Redburn to Regeneration: How literature portrays the port of Liverpool
- Moneylenders, Dockers and Slummies: Reading Liverpool in the early decades of the twentieth century
- Filmed for posterity: Of time and the city
- Liverpool on film in the 1980s: Boys from the Blackstuff, and No Surrender
- Visit to the Museum of Liverpool to explore the artefacts on display to analyse how the city depicts its transformation through the ages
- Representations of Liverpool in the 21st Century.
Structure
The module will be delivered over a three-week period in six two-hour sessions (four hours per week, total 12 hours contact time). The course will be both theoretical and practical in nature, with the sessions focused on giving the students as much hands-on experience as possible, and encouraging them to apply their ideas throughout.
Each session will take the form of an interactive seminar, mini lecture, or workshop. The students will demonstrate an awareness of how the city of Liverpool is represented in literature, film, and television. Students will have ample opportunities to demonstrate an increased mastery of research, communication, and analytical skills through the tasks and group discussions completed throughout the course.
In addition, it is expected that students will spend 38 study hours outside of the classroom contact hours on activities including assigned reading, optional reading of areas of personal interest, homework tasks, web research and preparation for assessment.
The indicative schedule is as follows:
Session one: From Redburn to Regeneration: How literature portrays the port of Liverpool
The course will begin with some general information about the module, including the aims and information regarding the assessment. Then it moves on to consider the importance of how literature portrays the port of Liverpool, particularly the dock area. The class will close read extracts from several books and discuss if their depictions provide fair or bias reflections of the city of Liverpool.
Session two: Moneylenders, Dockers and Slummies: Reading Liverpool in the early decades of the twentieth century
This session looks specifically at the industrial heartland of the Liverpool's waterfront and further afield. As a group, we will read extracts from primary and secondary source material about the communities who lived in close proximity to the city's port, including first-hand accounts from workers and sailors who resided in the city.
Session three: Filmed for posterity: Of Time and the City
The film Of Time and the City by filmmaker and writer Terence Davies is a personal journey that captures more than two decades of Liverpool's transformation in the mid-20th century. This session analyses several clips from the documentary to discuss how Davies captures the changing cityscape and how it informs our knowledge of Merseyside's history. In addition, the group will consider interviews with the writer, together with reviews from the media and film industry.
Session four: Liverpool on film in the 1980s: Boys from the Blackstuff, and No Surrender
The 1980s in Liverpool was a time of contrasts. High unemployment, a decrease in industry, rising social tensions, regeneration, success, and despair in the sporting world, whilst providing the world with innovative music and entertainment. This session explores how the television drama by screenwriters such as Alan Bleasdale and Jimmy McGovern depicted the mixed fortunes of the city by using humour, seriousness, and compassion.
Session five: Visit to the Museum of Liverpool to explore the artefacts on display to analyse how the city depicts its transformation through the ages
"The Museum of Liverpool reflects the city's global significance through its unique geography, history and culture." This week we will visit the museum as a group to investigate if or how the city of Liverpool uses historical representations in film and literature to promote its image in the present day.
Session six: Representations of Liverpool in the 21st century
In this final session, the group will read and examine extracts from a 21st century novel by a Liverpool author and, reflecting upon the sources analysed in previous weeks, consider how it compares to earlier works. The second part of the class will be dedicated to one part of the module assessment and consist of group or individual presentations.
Teaching methods
The teaching approach will include the following:
- Taught sessions
- Small group working
- Group discussions
- Presentations
- Workshops
- Site visits to museum.
Assessment
Assessment will be by:
- Two 10-question multiple choice/short answer questions, one paper to be taken (50% of final mark)
- 15 minute group presentation, or 5-10 minute individual presentation/Q&A session (may be live, audio or video) (50% of final mark).
Standard University policies apply with regard to late submission of assessments.
Learning outcomes
On completion of this module, students will be able to:
- Develop confidence in understanding and communicating complex ideas in written and spoken language
- Research a topic within the subject area, be better able to work collaboratively in this research, and to produce a piece of work based on that research
- Demonstrate knowledge of Liverpool’s history, and how this can be understood through visual and literary representations.
Skills
Key skills that will be developed:
- Analytical skills - group discussion and written assignments will allow students to critically evaluate a range of primary and secondary sources
- Research skills, through activities in class and preparation for assessed assignments
- Communication skills, developed orally in group discussions, activities in class, and presentations; and in writing by production of assessed assignment.
Reading
The University Library website provides access to many relevant books and electronic books, as well as academic journals and databases.
Recommended pre-course reading
- Aughton, Peter, Liverpool: a people's history (Preston: Carnegie, 1990)
- Belchem, John, Biggs, Bryan, Liverpool: city of radicals (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2011)
- Conolly, Jez, Whelan, Caroline, World Film Locations: Liverpool (Bristol: Intellect Books, 2013) (Available at the University of Liverpool as an E-book)
- Cossons, Neil, Jenkins, Martin, Liverpool: seaport city (Hersham: Ian Allan, 2011)
- Free, Marcus, ‘On the edge: the Irish in Britain as a troubled and troubling presence in the work of Jimmy McGovern and Alan Bleasdale’, Irish Studies Review Vol. 19, No. 1, February 2011, 55–64
- Hanley, James, Boy (any edition) (Extracts for session provided by module lead)
- Lane, Tony, Liverpool: city of the sea (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1997) (Available at the University of Liverpool as an E-book)
- Melville, Herman, Redburn, being the sailor-boy confessions and reminiscences of the first voyage of the son of a gentleman, in the merchant service (Any edition) (Extracts for discussion provided by module lead)
- Museum of Liverpool, Liverpool: the story of a city (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2012)
- O'Mara, Pat, The Autobiography of a Liverpool Irish Slummy (Any edition)
- Paterson, Richard, Boys from the blackstuff (London: British Film Institute, 1984)
- Rees-Jones, Deryn, Murphy, Writing Liverpool: Essays and Interviews (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2007) (E-book (2012))
- Roberts, Les, ‘Film, Mobility and Urban Space: A Cinematic Geography of Liverpool’
- Sutherland, Philomena, 'Sectarianism and Evangelicalism in Birmingham and Liverpool, 1850– 2010', in Protestant-Catholic Conflict from the Reformation to the 21st Century: The Dynamics of Religious Difference
- Worpole, Ken, Doctors and Detectives: popular reading, popular writing (London: Verso, 1983).
Core texts
- Bleasdale, Alan, Boys from the Blackstuff (Cheltenham: Thornes, 1985) (Extracts for sessions provided by module lead)
- Conolly, Jez, Whelan, Caroline, World Film Locations: Liverpool (Bristol: Intellect Books, 2013) (Available at the University of Liverpool as an E-book)
- Koresky, Michael, Terence Davies (Urbana: University of Illinois, 2015) (Available at the University of Liverpool as an E-book)
- Rees-Jones, Deryn, Murphy, Michael, Writing Liverpool: Essays and Interviews (2007) (Available at the University of Liverpool as an E-book (2012)).
Useful websites
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