Interrogating the Self

• Credit value: 30 credits at Level 7
• Convenor: Dr Ann Lewis
• Assessment: a 5000-word essay (100%)

How did concepts of the self and the subject come into being and what is implied by each of them? In this module we provide you with a historical overview and theoretical grounding on the European origins of modern subjectivity, how they have impinged upon and shaped definitions, interpretations and uses of culture, and the reasons of their coming under attack in the twentieth century.

The first part of the module is offered to all students on the MA/MRes Modern Languages and Comparative Literatures. In the second part you will divide into different proposed strands according to your own area of interest (whether comparative or focused on a specific culture) and the expertise available in the School of Creative Arts, Culture and Communication. This second part will vary year by year depending on the interests of incoming students and the availability of academic staff.

Indicative syllabus

Part 1

• The emergence of the modern self
• Writing the self: Jean-Jacques Rousseau
• Negotiating gender: Annie Ernaux, the modern woman

Part 2

Strand A: Comparative literature: gender, prostitution and identity in French and Japanese contexts

This comparative strand brings together literary and audiovisual texts across cultures (France and Japan) and through time (from the eighteenth to twenty-first centuries). This contrasting series of primary materials - from the established first-person narration of the eighteenth-century novel to experimental hybrid genres of the 1990s - allows us to consider the idea of interrogating the self in the context of changing cultural and gender stereotypes. We will analyse how the representation of sex work is used to explore questions of personal identity and individual freedom/enslavement while also serving as a metaphor for broader social and political relationships, often connected to ideas of nation and modernity.

Strand B: German studies

This strand examines the construction, denial and dismantling of the self in twentieth-century German literature. The sessions will explore representations of human, gendered and animal subjectivities, and analyse the innovative narrative techniques employed in pioneering works of fiction.

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

• competently reflect and critically engage with the categories associated with the category of the self and its Western, European origins
• understand the philosophical and political differences between the categories of the self and the subject
• understand the main critiques of the category of the subject in the twentieth century, ranging from surrealism, structuralism, psychoanalysis, poststructuralism and queer studies
• understand the impact of these critiques for the understanding of culture
• be able to make comparisons and connections across time periods, spaces and disciplines
• analyse and critically assess some of the dominant themes, salient authors and cultural objects within your chosen strand and cultural tradition
• demonstrate skills in close textual analysis
• show critical awareness of the meanings and functions of cultural production within the social and cultural contexts of their production and reception
• engage with complex cultural and historical criticism material.