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Department of Cultural Studies
English Literature & Culture

Mourning and Melancholia

Course Information

Nr. Name Type Time Room Lecturer
154525 Mourning and Melancholia 2 HS We 12:15 - 13:45 R. 3.208 Schmitt

Sigmund Freud’s essay “Mourning and Melancholia” constitutes a landmark in psychoanalytic thought and the conceptualisation of the emotional process of mourning and the pathological condition melancholia. Freud distinguishes between the two and points out that mourning can be a normal and healthy reaction to the loss of a loved person or of an abstract ideal. Melancholia, in turn, is a more complex, chronic form of unhealthy mourning in which the object of loss is not quite clear – it is the condition later described as depression. Freud’s essay has proven influential in a range of scholarly disciplines, ranging from psychology to philosophy and literary & cultural studies. In this seminar, we will trace Freud’s impact on a variety of thinkers and look at expressions and representations of mourning, grief and melancholia in British cultural history and beyond. We will read theories of mourning, grief and loss as well as literary texts and films that deal with these issues. The more abstract guiding question for this seminar will be in how far we can identify mourning and grief as particular cultural forms? To find an answer to this question, we will engage with theories of grief and mourning in the work of thinkers such as Freud, Melanie Klein, Judith Butler, Eugenie Brinkema and Paul Gilroy. In addition, we will discuss literary texts and memoirs by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Max Porter, Joan Didion and others as well as films by Paul Schrader and Lars von Trier.

Please note:

Personal attendance during the first session is mandatory to maintain enrolment status. Please direct all inquiries about vacancies to britkult.fragen.fk15tu-dortmundde.

Most texts and films will be made available on Moodle, the EF library and the video library. In addition, please purchase the following books before the start of the semester:

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Notes on Grief.4th Estate, 2022.

Tsitsi Dangarembga. This Mournable Body. Faber, 2020.

Max Porter. Grief Is the Thing with Feathers. Bloomsbury, 2015.

 

Introductory Reading:

Eugenie Brinkema. The Forms of the Affects. Duke UP, 2014.

Stephen Frosh. A Brief Introduction to Psychoanalytic Theory. Palgrave, 2012.

Regular attendance, participation in an expert group plus additional assignments depending on your course of studies.

Modules

Lehramtsstudiengänge

LABG G HRG/HRSGe GyGe/BK SP
2009 703, 704 601, 1001 601, 701, 702, 1001 703
2016 601, 703, 704 601, 1001 601, 701, 702, 1001 703

Angewandte Sprachwissenschaften &
Angewandte Literatur-/Kulturwissenschaften:

PO B.A.ALK B.A.AS M.A.ALK M.A.AS
PO ab WS 16/17 Kern: 6bc
Komp: 4a
Kern: 6bc
Komp: 4a
1abc, 2abc, 3b 2ba
PO ab WS 21/22 Kern: 6abc, 7c
Komp: 3abcd
Kern: 6bc
Komp: 4a
1abc, 2abc, 3b 2ab, 4b

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