HST6072 Voices of the Great War: Gender, Experience and Violence in Great Britain and Germany, 1914-1918

15 credits, Semester one
Module leader 2024-25: Benjamin Ziemann

Module summary

This module is focused on the gendered nature of the war experiences from 1914 to 1918. Both men and women were affected by the turmoil and the violence of the Great War, either through their front line service or through their roles as mothers, wives or carers of soldiers, as nurses in military hospitals or as victims of atrocities against civilians. The module will take a comparative approach, analysing German and British examples. Special attention will be paid to the analysis of primary sources (letters, diaries, images) which shed light on these experiences, and to the methodological consideration of their possibilities, advantages and pitfalls.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, you will be able to:

Demonstrate an ability to identify major topics and historiographical debates in the history of gender, war and violence in Britain and Germany 1914-1918, and their significance for an understanding of wider issues of the history of violence in twentieth-century European history
Demonstrate an ability to assess critically key concepts in gender history and in the history of violence and their significance with regard to the history of the Great War
Demonstrate an ability to manipulate, weigh and assess primary sources from the First World War, particularly ego-documents such as letters and diaries
Demonstrate an ability to formulate and articulate historical arguments both orally, before the members of the seminar, and in written form in assessed work

Assessment methods

Assessment type - % of final mark

3,000 word essay - 100%

You will complete a 3,000 word essay on a topic related to one of the module's key themes. You will define your own essay topic in discussion with your tutor.

Additional learning and teaching information

Teaching and indicative seminar plan:

The module will be taught in five, two-hour classes. You will also have individual tutorial contact with the module tutor in order to discuss your assessment for this module.

Selected reading:

Bourke, Joanna, Dismembering the Male: Men's Bodies, Britain & the Great War (Chicago. London, 1996)
Daniel, Ute, The War from Within. German Working Class Women in the First World War (Oxford, 1997)
Grayzel, Susan R., Women's identities at war. Gender, motherhood, and politics in Britain and France during the First World War (Chapel Hill. London 1999)
Roper, Michael, The Secret Battle. Emotional Survival in the Great War (Manchester 2009)
Grayzel, Susan R., Women and the First World War (Harlow, 2002)
Jay Winter (ed.), The Cambridge History of the First World War, 3 vols, Cambridge 2014 (ebook)
Bernd Ulrich and Benjamin Ziemann (eds.), The German Soldiers of the Great War. Letters and Eyewitness Accounts (Barnsley, 2010)

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