Texts and Interpretation

• Credit value: 30 credits at Level 7
• Convenor: Dr Margarita Palacios
• Assessment: a 4000-word essay preceded by a 200-word description

The main aim of this module is to help you understand the different philosophical traditions which inspire research and interpretation within the field of psychosocial studies. Leaving behind metaphysical notions of truth and objectivity, we will explore different hermeneutical traditions which acknowledge the centrality of contexts, power structures and subjective/discursive positions in the process of meaning formation and production of knowledge. Key concepts to be discussed are language, discourse, meaning, context, desire and power.

Indicative syllabus

• De-colonising knowledge: power, context and the idea of interpretation
• Dialogical approaches: hermeneutics, pragmatism and phenomenology
• Marxist tradition: ideology, alienation and hegemony
• Semiotics, structuralism and deconstruction
• Psychoanalysis: being, language and desire