This module explores the new field of cultural emotion studies. We will look at a range of social & psycho-social scientific approaches to the role of emotion in public life. We will analyse the relationship between processes of identity formation and representation through a range of case studies drawn from commodified popular media cultures (film, TV, radio and social networking).

• Provide an overview of the range of socially oriented approaches employed to understand the affective dynamics of emotions in organisations, as symbolic interaction and in mainstream representation

   

• Provide students with a historical and sociological understanding of changing conceptions of subjectivity oriented to notions of the self.

   

• To provide students with the tools to critically analyse the symbolic and ideological functions of emotional representation in social processes of mediation including entertainment and politics

Students who successfully complete this module will be able to:

•       Reflect critically on the social and cultural emphasis on emotion and to comment on the potential ideological effects of this

•       Apply a range of critical and theoretical approaches to pertinent examples in order to present a critically astute discussion of key ideas

•       Deploy appropriate vocabulary in the discussion of individuality, the self and subjectivity

•       Articulate convincingly their own perspectives on selected positions and theories

•       Produce advanced written commentary on related material which demonstrates a strong capacity for independent thinking

• Demonstrate an advanced understanding of relevant research resources and to make use of these in relation to individual assessment work

• Sociological, media & cultural studies and psychoanalytically informed approaches to the analysis of emotions in politics, popular culture and peoples’ understanding of the self

   

• Debates on the role and impact of emotionalization in popular culture and politics

   

11 x 2 hour sessions, including a lecture followed by a seminar of group exercises and wider class discussion of reading.

Weekly critical reading in preparation for seminar discussions and exercises.

Craib, I. (1994) The Importance of Disappointment London, Routledge.

Farrell, K. (1998) Post-Traumatic Culture: Injury and Interpretation in the Nineties  (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press).

Frosh, S. (1991) Identity Crisis: Modernity, Psychoanalysis and the Self

 (London: Macmillan).

Furedi, F. (2004) Therapy Culture: Cultivating Vulnerability in and Uncertain Age (London: Routledge).

Gorton, K. (2006) A Sentimental Journey: Television, Meaning and Emotion.

Lasch, C. (1979) The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations (London & New York: W W Norton).