Comparative Literature 691E - S- Emotion, Affect and Memory

This course explores the cultural politics of memory, affect and emotion at the intersection of two discourses: Postcolonial Theory, born of the history of decolonization, and Memory Studies, which grew out of the Holocaust and its aftermath. It considers comparative lexicons of trauma, working through, (in)visibility, otherness and "other others," resistance, solidarity and various types of memory including collective, cultural, post-, prosthetic, competitive, transcultural and multidirectional. Our readings will interrogate the possibilities and limitations of memory for articulating the individual subject and collective experience by examining the emerging role of affect and affective economies in literary analysis along the seamlines of empire. Among the other issues we will consider are the stakes of embodiment and assemblage, materialities and ephemera, regimes of expressivity and communities of sentiment. The final segment of the course will explore the history of emotion as it pertains to comparative literature, focusing on empathy and its critique, mirror neurons, and deliverance. Readings to include Sara Ahmed, Tarek el-Ariss, Aleida Assmann, Daniel Batson, Lauren Berlant, Stef Craps, Marianne Hirsch, Dominick LaCapra, David Palumbo-Liu, Brian Massumi, Michael Rothberg, Rei Terada and Edward Said.