Why We Feel the Way We Do-- and What We Might Do About That |
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Why We Feel the Way We Do-- and What We Might Do About That |
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This course has been designed by a literary theorist, in consulation with colleagues in biology, psychology, philosophy and economics, to explore, interrogate and re-define what emotion is, how we use it, and what its relationship is to the academic work that we do. We will be studying
Together, we will think, talk and write our ways through this wide range of literary, cultural and scientific stories about emotion, reading and revising what they might mean. Students will be expected to contribute to the education of their colleagues as well as to those beyond the bi-co by participating in a weekly on-line forum, and by putting some of their writing on the web.
Course Requirements:
Weekly web postings by -- @ 5 p.m.
Three 5-pp. papers (all posted on-line; the second discussed and the third presented to the class)
Introduction to a collection of essays, written jointly with a group of your classmates
10-pp. final project and presentation to the class
Final Portfolio
Before attending the first class, read the opening essay on the Serendip website
Writing Descartes: Being and Thinking.
Post a short response on the course forum.
Week One: What have we here?
Lewis Carroll, "Jabberwocky."
Paul Grobstein I Am, and I Can Think, Therefore.... (2004)
James Averill, "I Feel, Therefore I Am--I Think." The Nature of Emotion: Fundamental Questions. Ed. Paul Ekman and Richard Davidson. New York: Oxford, 1994. 379-385.
| Weeks 2-3 The Biology: What's Emotion Look and Feel Like the Inside? Paul Grobstein |
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Charles Darwin, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872)
Antonio Damasio, Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain.New York: HarperCollins, 1994.
Candace Pert, Molecules of Emotion: Why You Feel the Way You Feel..New York: Schribner, 1997.
Joseph LeDoux, The Emotional Brain : The Mysterious Underpinnings of Emotional Life. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996.
Oliver Sacks?
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Weeks 4-6 The Psychology: Why and How is Emotion Expressed on the Inside? Kim Cassidy |
Sigmund Freud
William James
Carol Gilligan, The Birth of Pleasure
Jonathan Haidt, "The Emotional Dog and Its Rational Tail," Psychological Review 198 (2001): 814-834.
| Weeks 7-9 The Philosophy: What's the Thinking on These Feelings? Alan Baker |
 From Emotion Processing Research, University of Nevada, Las Vegas |
Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics
David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature.
Adam Smith, A Theory of Moral Sentiment.
Suzanne Langer, Philosophy in a New Key
Martha Nussbaum, Upheavals of Thought: The Intelligence of Emotions.New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
Spring Break
 From Francis Baker Alternative Process Conceptual Photography | Weeks 10-12 The History and Anthropology: How Have--and Do--Other Peoples, in Other Valleys, Make Sense of This? Katherine Rowe |
Reading the Early Modern Passions: Essays in the Cultural History of Emotion. Ed. Gail Kern Paster, Katherine Rowe and Mary Floyd-Wilson. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004.
| Weeks 13-14 The Economics and the Politics: What are the Applications of Emotion in Public Life? Mark Kuperberg |  |
Joseph LeDoux, ³Cognitive-Emotional Interactions in the Brain.² The Nature of Emotion. 216-223. ----. ³Emotional Processing, but Not Emotions, Can Occur Unconsciously.² The Nature of Emotion. 291-292. ----. ³Memory Versus Emotional Memory in the Brain.² The Nature of Emotion. 311-312. Richard Lazarus. ³The Stable and the Unstable in Emotion.² The Nature of Emotion. 79-85. (recurrent trait vs. evanescent state, vs. temperament, vs. relational meaning; acute emotions vs. moods) -----. ³Universal Antecedents of the Emotions.² The Nature of Emotion. 163-171, (biological universals, cultural variability, psychobiology of emotion process) -----. ³Appraisal: The Long and the Short of It.² The Nature of Emotion. 208-215. (need to focus on particular emotion; mistaken emphasis on minimal cognitive prerequisites; search instead for what differentiates among many emotions) -----. ³The Past and the Present in Emotion.² The Nature of Emotion. 306-310. (why/how emotional memories are elicited; connection between current encounter & memory; revises tradıl associationist approach w/ emotions as expressing core relational themes, expressing complex relationships, relevant to a personıs goal; have to do w/ scenarios of meaning: stories or plots) -----. ³Individual Differences in Emotion.² The Nature of Emotion. 332-336. (attend to environmental and personality variables in assessment) -----. Meaning and Emotional Development.² The Nature of Emotion. 362-366. (acquisition & organization of goals, relational meaning, and coping skills)shutting out, attending to, manipulating environment) R.J. Davidson, K. Scherer, H.H. Goldsmith, Handbook of Affective Sciences Ronald De Sousa, The Rationality of Emotion De Sousa, Not Passionıs Slave Langer, Philosophical Sketches B945.L273 P45 M. Lewis, J. Haviland, Handbook of Emotions BF561 .H35 1993 Amelie Rorty, Explaining Emotions Arlene Richards, Poetry and Psychoanalysis2.wpd On depression: Styron, Jamison, Solomon On sex, attachment, romantic love: Flaubert, Stendhal, Proust, Joyce (what more contemporary authors? Motherless Brooklyn?)
PORTFOLIO OF ALL WRITTEN WORK is also due in my mailbox.
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