Philosophy & Literature

This module explores the intersections of philosophy and literature in the areas of alienation, dislocation and the post-human. By bringing major works of literature into conversation with key philosophical texts, the course interrogates our imagination and articulation of the human condition as well as the idea of the monstrous. We will study four to five key literary texts in conversation with shorter weekly philosophical readings. The module invites students to consider how philosophy and literature offer different perspectives on questions of empathy, narcissism and the self, and how the construction of the self depends on a projection of the other. Students will develop their existing critical skills to examine the formation of identity and power structures in different cultural contexts, thinking about how human/non-human binaries affect the development of the subject in economic and political systems. The course encourages students to think of diverse cultural ideas of the monstrous, and how these different images operate in different forms of discourse. This module will be co-taught by Assoc. Professor Clare Hayes-Brady (English) and Assoc. Professor Danielle Petherbridge (Philosophy)