Emotions - HIS00216H

«Back to module search

Module summary

Emotions – love, hate, fear, anger - are often considered universal constants; common to humans in all times and places. Yet there has been significant variation in how emotions have been expressed, regulated and promoted in different periods and cultures. Emotions are commonly invoked in historical analysis: we might describe a particular era as an ‘age of anxiety’, or refer to the role of anger in political protest. Until relatively recently, however, historians did not tend to analyse the role, meaning and transformation of emotions in the past. This module will offer you the opportunity to engage with the dynamic and still developing field of the history of emotions.

The study of the emotions opens up a rich and varied set of historical questions, which we will address over the course of the semester. How do you research the history of something as seemingly intangible as emotions? What is the relationship between personal and collective emotion? How have ideas about emotions been used to reinforce social, racial and gendered hierarchies? Why has it been acceptable for men to cry openly in certain eras – for Achilles the greatest warrior of his age to weep copiously in Homer’s Illiad – but not in others? How and why have emotional cultures changed over time?

Module will run

Occurrence	Teaching period
A	Semester 2 2024-25

Module aims

The aims of this module are:

• To introduce students to the practice of comparative history;
• To enable students to acquire skills and understanding of that practice by studying a particular topic or theme; and
• To enable students to reflect on the possibilities and difficulties involved in comparative history

Module learning outcomes

Students who complete this module successfully will:

• Grasp the key approaches and challenges involved in comparative history;
• Understand a range of aspects of the topic or theme which they have studied;
• Be able to use and evaluate comparative approaches to that topic or theme; and
• Have learned to discuss and write about comparative history

Module content

Students will attend a 1-hour briefing in week 1, then a 1-hour workshop and a 2-hour seminar in each of weeks 2-4, 6-8 and 10-11 of the semester. Weeks 5 & 9 are Reading and Writing Weeks (RAW). Students prepare for and participate in eight 1-hour workshops and eight 2-hour seminars in all.

Seminar topics are subject to variation, but are likely to include the following:

1. Key concepts and approaches in the history of emotions
2. From excess to restraint? Narratives in the History of Emotions
3. Weeping, smiling and blushing: expressing and representing emotions
4. Forgetting acedia, finding empathy: Emotions lost and found
5. Men of feeling and stiff upper lips: Gender and emotion
6. The invention of romantic love?
7. Fear, courage and combat
8. An age of anger?

Indicative assessment

Task	% of module mark
Online Exam -less than 24hrs (Centrally scheduled)	100

Special assessment rules

None

Additional assessment information

For formative assessment work, students will produce an essay plan relating to the themes and issues of the module.

For summative assessment students will complete an Open Exam in the assessment period.

Indicative reassessment

Task	% of module mark
Online Exam -less than 24hrs (Centrally scheduled)	100

Module feedback

Following their formative assessment task, students will receive written feedback, which may be supplemented by the tutor giving some oral feedback to the whole group. All students are encouraged, if they wish, to discuss their feedback during their tutor’s student hours. For more information, see the Statement on Feedback.

For the summative assessment task, students will receive their provisional mark and written feedback within 25 working days of the submission. For semester 1 assessments, the tutor will be available during student hours of the following semester for follow-up guidance if required. For more information, see the Statement of Assessment.

Indicative reading

For semester time reading, please refer to the module VLE site. Before the course starts, we encourage you to look at the following items of preliminary reading:

• Katie Barclay, The History of Emotions: A Student Guide to Methods and Sources. (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020)
• Barbara H.Rosenwein, and Cristiani Riccardo What is the History of Emotions?. (John Wiley & Sons, 2017)
• Thomas Dixon, The History of Emotions: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2023).