Module: ENG6105-20 Literature and Psychology

Credit Value: 20

Module Tutor: Sam Walton

Module Tutor Contact Details: s.walton@bathspa.ac.uk

1. Brief description and aims of module:

This module explores the rise of psychology and its relationship with Anglo-American literary writing from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. This timescale will give you space to examine the development of the study of the mind in order to better understand the dramatic changes which have taken place in science, medicine and culture and to assess their relevance in the present day. The course addresses significant trends in psychology, focusing on themes including perceptions of sanity and insanity; doctor-patient relations; the changing nature of institutions; the racialised, gendered and sexualised aspects of mental illness and its treatment; the relationship between knowledge and power; anti-psychiatry; and the rise of ‘Mad Studies’.

Through lectures, seminars, film-screenings, online reading and optional field trips you will investigate the representation of psychology in literature, the influence of psychological understanding on literary aesthetics, and the impact of literature on developments in psychology. As you will see, over the last century and a half, literature has been used to test or challenge new theories and diagnoses, as well as to engage readers in debates about medical ethics, controversial new treatments and the politics of medicalisation.

The module assumes no previous background in psychology, and aims to be as engaging for those of you who are new to psychological study as to those with existing strengths in this area.

2. Outline syllabus:

The texts will be studied in loosely chronological order (with the exception of the historical novel, Regeneration. Lectures will fall into blocks defined by the following themes:

• The Female Malady: Diagnosis in the 1890s

• Trauma and the Rise of Psychoanalysis, 1900-1920

• ‘Shocks of Hospitals and Jails and Wars’: American Institutions and Anti-Psychiatry

• Colonialism and Insanity

• Madness and Formal Innovation

• Mad Studies

3. Teaching and learning activities:

The module is taught through a series of lectures, seminars, film screenings and workshops. There may be an optional fieldtrip to Glenside Hospital Museum in Bristol and/or the Freud Museum, the Wellcome Museum, and Bethlem Hospital Museum in London.

Assessment Item 1:

• Assessment Type: CW

• Description: Reflective commentary (1500 words)

• % Weighting: 30

Assessment Item 2:

• Assessment Type: CW

• Description: Essay: 3,500 words

• % Weighting: 70