Course Schedule and Catalog

Long Title: COMPARATIVE APPROACHES TO THE HISTORY OF EMOTIONS

Department: School of Continuing Studies

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This course will explore fundamental questions about the nature of feelings. Are emotions biologically encoded or culturally controlled reactions? Are emotions "felt" differently in other cultures or time periods or are emotions universal? Can emotions be perceived collectively or are they part of individual experience? Are women "more emotional" than men? Are emotions irrational or rational? In considering these questions in the context of a series of case studies from history, anthropology, archaeology, and linguistics, we will be engaging with some of the most complicated and enduring questions facing the student of liberal arts: what does the range of human experience tell us about the relationship between the body and culture, the individual and society, people and objects? Department Permission Required.