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Instructors: Jun.-Prof. Dr. Monika Class
Event type:
online: Seminar
Displayed in timetable as:
05.874.410
Hours per week:
2
Credits:
8,0
Language of instruction:
Englisch
Min. | Max. participants:
- | 30
Registration group: ELC 410
Priority scheme: Senatsrichtlinie
Contents:
“Don’t worry, be happy,“ “I just want you to be happy,” “My goal in life is to be happy” – these common phrases indicate that happiness is something highly desirable. But there is a dark side to happiness.
Students in this course will develop a critical understanding of happiness as a dominant discourse in Western culture. They will acquire solid knowledge in the cultural theory of emotions and affect from a counterhegemonic point of view situated in feminist and queer studies. The course is guided by the question how dominant culture instrumentalises happiness. It is not designed to teach positive psychology, but to deconstruct happiness. In this spirit, students will engage thoroughly with the intellectually demanding theories of Sara Ahmed’s writings and in particular with her monograph The Promise of Happiness (2010). Students will apply these concepts to past and current media phenomena (films, blogs, prose fiction and other books) and practices as well as to social and political issues.
Recommended reading list:
Ahmed, Sara. The Promise of Happiness. Durham [n.c.]: Duke University Press, 2010.
Additional information:
You will find relevant information on twitter #positivepsychology
Digital teaching:
The course will be conducted in an online format (via the Learning Management System called JGU-LMS Moodle in asynchronic and synchronic weekly seminars):
https://lms.uni-mainz.de/moodle/login/index.php
If you have registered for the course, please go to Seminar 410 The Politics of Happiness on JGU-LMS Moodle, which is where you will find all announcements, information and materials for the course including a central forum for questions and answers regarding the course organisation.
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