This module is not currently running in 2024 to 2025.
Writers have been contemplating the emotional power of literature since antiquity. The current surge of scholarly interest in the emotions, their cultural transformations, and encodings is however unprecedented. The creative writing process is often linked to strong feelings, pains, and desires, while literary characters like Medea, Romeo and Juliet, Werther, or Mr Darcy have come to embody specific emotions such as love, hate, jealousy, shame, guilt, or grief. Our aim in this module will be to explore this growing, interdisciplinary area of research by engaging with a range of diverse fictional and autobiographical works from the eighteenth century to the present (incl. by authors like Goethe, Brontë, Duras, C.S. Lewis, Barthes, Condé) in close conjunction with selected classic and contemporary theoretical texts (incl. by thinkers like Rousseau, Schopenhauer, Leys, Nussbaum, Coplan, Brinkema). This will allow us to address the following questions: What is an emotion? Do emotions change over time, or do they essentially remain the same, while it is our attitudes towards them that change? Do the ways we feel have an influence on the moral choices we make? And, most importantly, who is this self who feels, and how do their feelings relate to the manifold ways in which they can be expressed?
Total Contact Hours: 20
Private Study Hours: 280
Total Study Hours: 300
Main assessment methods
This module will be assessed by 100% coursework.
80% Essay (4000 words)
20% in-class presentation (15 minutes)
Students will also be encouraged to develop their own projects in close consultation with the convenor.
Reassessment methods
100% coursework
Essay (5000 words)
The University is committed to ensuring that core reading materials are in accessible electronic format in line with the Kent Inclusive Practices. The most up to date reading list for each module can be found on the university's reading list pages: https://kent.rl.talis.com/index.html
See the library reading list for this module (Canterbury)
The intended subject specific learning outcomes. On successfully completing the module students will be able to:
1 Gain a critical overview and understanding of modern European Literature in light of a theory of the emotions;
2 Engage thematically and comparatively with a range of literary and theoretical texts from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds and in a broad chronological scope;
3 Demonstrate a profound understanding of key philosophical concepts through analysis of the role of affects and emotions in the texts;
4 Demonstrate a systematic and critical understanding of classic and recent criticism relating to texts and contexts studied on the module.
The intended generic learning outcomes.
On successfully completing the module students will be able to:
1 Demonstrate an advanced ability to undertake analysis of texts and contexts;
2 Demonstrate an advanced ability to read closely and critically, and to apply a range of critical terms and methodologies;
3 Demonstrate refined written communication skills, including the structuring of a sustained and original argument;
4 Present ideas and arguments in a clear and structured way;
5 Become more critically aware about cultural and historical differences.
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