This module will look at how ideas of “resistance” are translated into political action. What are the modalities, costs and consequences of this process? We will look at specific instances of resistance to political authority and examine the techniques of resistance employed, the assumptions that underpin these techniques, and the tensions and problems that arise as ideas are actualised in political reality. Studying historical examples of “resistance” will help us reflect on the complex relationship between theory and practice in political reality.

As part of the “Resistance in Practice” module, students can choose between submitting an academic essay on a historical instance of “resistance” and performing a “practice of resistance”. We envision that such “practices of resistance” could involve poetry, theatre, painting, sculpture, video, film, photography, music and other forms of artistic expression. The “practice” has to be a “documented practice”, which means that students have to submit not just the “performance” but also a portfolio in which they reflect on what they did and why. Early on in the module, students interested in submitting a “documented practice” for assessment discuss their ideas with the module convenor, and they will continue to work on their projects with the help of a supervisor.

100% coursework.

• Benjamin, W. The Work of Art in an Age of Mechanical Reproduction, London: Penguin, 2008.
• Debord, G. Society of the Spectacle, London: Rebel Press, 1992.
• Gandhi, M.K. The Story of My Experiments with Truth: An Autobiography, London: Penguin, 2007
• Gandhi, M.K. Selected Political Writings, Indianapolis: Hackett, 1996
• Kamalipour, Y.R. Media, Power and Politics in the Digital Age: The 2009 Presidential Election Uprising in Iran, Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2010
• Kotkin, S. (with a contribution by Jan Gross) Uncivil Society: 1989 and the Implosion of the Communist Establishment, New York: Random House, 2009
• Kubik, J. The Power of Symbols against the Symbols of Power, Philadelphia: Penn State University Press, 1994
• Pleyers, G. Alter-Globalization. Becoming Actors in the Global Age, Cambridge: Polity Press, 2011
• Ranciere, J. The Politics of Aesthetics, London: Continuum, 2006.
• Weigel, G. The Final Revolution: The Resistance Church and the Collapse of Communism, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992

See the library reading list for this module

No information available

No pre-requisites