Postgraduate Course: Varieties of the self (SCIL11046)
Course Outline
| School | School of Social and Political Science |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | The self is one of the fundamental concepts in the social sciences and a building block of sociological thinking. This course explores variations in the ways in which selves have been conceptualised and experienced in different times and places. In order to do so, it brings together the sociology and philosophy of the self, the sociology of social types, cultural sociology, and historical and auto/biographical research. The course aims to equip students with critical knowledge and understanding of the socially contingent character of the self and how we can best think about this.
The courses three components are a) critical discussion of key social theoretical and philosophical concepts of the self, b) critical engagement with the theoretical and empirical sociology of social types and c) investigation of selected historical figures to identify the uses of the theory for understanding how selves are shaped and experienced in relation to their social environments, in particular the role of the cultural models available to people in different times and locations. |
| Course description |
The concept of the self is one of the fundamental building blocks of sociological thinking. This course explores variations in the ways in which selves have been conceptualised and experienced in different times and places. It aims to equip students with critical knowledge and understanding of the socially contingent character of the self and how we can best think about this. Among the issues explored in the course is the critique of the concept of the self by postmodern, poststructuralist, feminist, and anticolonial scholarship, among others, for its essentialism and its ties to the European Enlightenment and European modernity. This contrasts with the subjective experiences of self which can be discerned within a broader timeframe and regional scope. Social scientific and historical debates have resulted in the discrediting of strongly disjunctive narratives about the birth, invention, or emergence of the self (or related terms such as subject, person, individual) in favour of a more open and continuous picture. Simple oppositions between Western and other forms of selfhood have also been rightly rejected. The key is that these questions can only be answered if we take account of empirical variety as well as conceptual argument. What are a manuscript-maker in sixteenth century West Africa, a poet nun in colonial Mexico, and a Mapuche person in contemporary Chile doing when they think or write about themselves? What do theories of the self capture and leave out when we use them to understand auto/biographical accounts by people so differently situated? As a social entity formed in relation to others and its environment, what role do prevalent/favoured social types and models of the good life have in experiences of self? How might we investigate the interplay between the language in which we talk about the self and material, sensorial/aesthetic experiences?
Indicative units/themes:
classical and contemporary sociological and philosophical theories of the self and their critiques (e.g. Mauss, symbolic interactionism, Goffman, Foucault, Stuart Hall, Nikolas Rose, Charles Taylor, Ricoeur, Benhabib, Hill Collins, Dorothy Smith, Anzaldúa) noting the overlaps and differences with related concepts such as person, subject/subjectification, identity, individual;
from subject positions in webs of discourse to bodies, emotions, aesthetic experience (zooming in on feminist and cultural sociological critiques)
sociological theory and research of social types (e.g. Simmel on the stranger, Kharkhordin on homo sovieticus, Walzer on the revolutionary saint, Oakley on the housewife, Steedman on the good working-class woman)
the narrative self and the study of auto/biography (e.g. Taylor, Ricoeur; Olney, Lejeune, Stanley, Tamboukou; Oakdale and Course; Paz, Glantz)
the spread of the therapeutic (the arguments and evidence around the influence of romanticism, psychoanalysis and the drive towards self-expression (e.g. Rieff, Lasch, Emirbayer, Walsh, Blum)
the socio-technical constitution of selves (e.g. Hirst and Woolley, Hunter and Saunders, du Gay, McFall)
Rivers, AI and non-human selves
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate a critical understanding of key theories and concepts of the self
- Show critical understanding of the theoretical and empirical research of social types
- Judge the benefits and limitations of theories and concepts of the self and social types for the analysis of varieties of the self in specific historical moments and locations
- Develop their own arguments based on the assessment and synthesis of theoretical and empirical evidence
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Reading List
Go, Julian (2016) Postcolonial Thought and Social Theory(Oxford Academic)
Sayers P. Margaret (trans) 1982. A Woman of Genius: The Intellectual Autobiography of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. (Lime Rock Press)
Simmel, Georg.1971. On Individuality and Social Forms: Selected Writings. III Social types, p. 141-214 (University of Chicago Press).
Oakdale, Suzanne, and Magnus Course (eds.). 2014. Fluent Selves: Autobiography, Person, and History in Lowland South America (University of Nebraska Press)
Taylor, Charles. 1989. Sources of the self. The making of the modern identity. (Harvard University Press) |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Cultivate close reading practices on original and secondary sources
Demonstrate critical understanding of complex, advanced concepts and theories
Apply analytical skills to the evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of arguments
Exercise critical capacities when evaluating evidence
Display intellectual autonomy when critically assessing concepts and evidence for interpreting the social world
Deploy effective communication skills for argumentation, discussion and debate |
| Keywords | Self,selfhood,social theory,cultural sociology,historical sociology,social history |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Angelica Thumala
Tel: (0131 6)50 6631
Email: Angelica.Thumala@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | |
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