Module: CRI6107-20 Literature and Evil

Credit Value: 20

Module Tutor: Dr Fiona Peters

Module Tutor Contact Details: F.Peters@bathspa.ac.uk

1. Brief description and aims of module:

‘Evil’ is a term we can be forgiven for using unthinkingly; notions that are utilised on multiple levels, the personal, political and in everyday cultural life. However until recently, due to both the familiarity and the emotions that these concepts evoke, they have not been fully appropriated into academic discourse. Thus, it demands to be problematised and approached critically to discover what (if anything) might lie at its core. Evil has recently become a burning issue in contemporary literary and cultural debate, focusing around the social and cultural reactions to, and construction of, the discourses that utilise it to appropriate the moral, political and social ‘higher ground’. Utilising a variety of theoretical approaches, the course will draw on and develop many areas from within literature while it will utilize critical and theoretical texts. The module will both introduce new ideas and apply the theoretical approaches and methodologies that you have learn during your degree in order to analyse and explore the representations and effects of evil and wickedness through a range of both literary and other texts, the various manifestations of mass media, literature, philosophy, religion and political discourses. The module will consist of lectures, texts and seminar activities that will allow you to (in consultation with the tutor) specify areas of interest on which to focus for the assessments. Through the reading of critical texts and the indicative key texts the module will pose certain questions of the notion ‘evil’ in order to examine:

1. The perception and representation of evil – how has it been defined and explored in literary, philosophical, political, theoretical and other writings?

2. The ethics of evil – can or should we consider it to be an integral part of human subjective and cultural identity?

3. The universality of evil – is the ‘nature’ of evil static or changeable? Under what conditions and with what implications might our cultural understanding of this concept change?

4. The contemporaneity of evil in popular culture and politics – how and where does this concept manifest itself today?

2. Outline syllabus:

Each section of the module considers critical and theoretical approaches to the issue of evil and its representation through a series of named ‘blocks’ which may include:

• Testimony

• Surveillance

• Psychopathology

• Radical Evil

• Intentionality and History

• Guilt and Responsibility

3. Teaching and learning activities:

The module is taught through a combination of lectures, seminars and workshops.

Assessment Item 1:

• Assessment Type: CW

• Description: Essay/Critical Reflection (2,500 words)

• % Weighting: 50

Assessment Item 2:

• Assessment Type: CW

• Description: Web based project (2,500 words)

• % Weighting: 50