Teaching Responsibility
LJMU Schools involved in Delivery:
Humanities and Social Science
Learning Methods
Seminar
Tutorial
Module Offerings
7107ENGLIT-JAN-MTP
Aims
To explore to an advanced level how objects and bodies shape everyday life and the construction of identities.
To investigate at a level commensurate with post-graduate study how the social agency of objects and bodies is negotiated in different cultural and historical contexts.
To critically examine and understand the diversity of representations of the material world and the human body in different cultural and historical contexts.
To undertake advanced study of historical examples and contemporary theories of materiality, things, the body and somatic experience, drawing both on literary theory and related disciplines.
Module Content
Outline Syllabus:
It is easy to assume that the study of literary texts and theories is a rarefied and disembodied activity. Historically, academic and intellectual activity have been heavily influenced by traditions of religious supernaturalism, or other forms of cultural and philosophical dualism or idealism, which have supported this detachment from the material world or disembodiment. This module explores those aspects of literary and cultural history that have offered resistance to this disembodiment and immateriality through intense concentration on the human body and/or the material world. The module addresses a range of primary texts to show that this tension between mind and matter has often been represented in literature, and that the ways it has been addressed are highly variable historically. This is a useful way of introducing how different theories or methods can be used to address similar diverse historical phenomena or groups of representations at an advanced level of study.
It is easy to assume that the study of literary texts and theories is a rarefied and disembodied activity. Historically, academic and intellectual activity have been heavily influenced by traditions of religious supernaturalism, or other forms of cultural and philosophical dualism or idealism, which have supported this detachment from the material world or disembodiment. This module explores those aspects of literary and cultural history that have offered resistance to this disembodiment and immateriality through intense concentration on the human body and/or the material world. The module addresses a range of primary texts to show that this tension between mind and matter has often been represented in literature, and that the ways it has been addressed are highly variable historically. This is a useful way of introducing how different theories or methods can be used to address similar diverse historical phenomena or groups of representations at an advanced level of study.
Module Overview:
On objects, the module introduces students to object-orientated ontologies and the social biography of things. Thematerial turn in literary studies has led to a renewed interest in objects in daily life and their significance in works ofliterature of different period. The module will also explore theories of subject and object relations. On bodies, themodule deploys a variety of theoretical perspectives, from gender theory to the medical humanities, to trace theliterary history of the body, and to analyse sexuality, race, and class at a corporeal level. The module will examine arange of primary texts across historical periods to examine fundamental questions about the relationship of thematerial and the corporeal to culture, society, and self.
On objects, the module introduces students to object-orientated ontologies and the social biography of things. Thematerial turn in literary studies has led to a renewed interest in objects in daily life and their significance in works ofliterature of different period. The module will also explore theories of subject and object relations. On bodies, themodule deploys a variety of theoretical perspectives, from gender theory to the medical humanities, to trace theliterary history of the body, and to analyse sexuality, race, and class at a corporeal level. The module will examine arange of primary texts across historical periods to examine fundamental questions about the relationship of thematerial and the corporeal to culture, society, and self.
Assessments
Essay
Essay