Module POL2112 for 2019/0
- Overview
- Aims and Learning Outcomes
- Module Content
- Indicative Reading List
- Assessment
Undergraduate Module Descriptor
POL2112: Politics and Its Discontents
This module descriptor refers to the 2019/0 academic year.
Module Aims
This module will introduce students to the key theoretical positions of Nietzsche and Freud, and explore how their contributions to political theory grow out of these theoretical positions: Nietzsche’s pronouncement of the death of god; the aim of a transvaluation of all values (and how this can be read as a critique of Kant); perspectivism and genealogy (and how this can be read as a critique of Hegel); and the genealogy of morality as a dynamic struggle between active and reactive forces (informing the subsequent notion of will to power). Freud’s theory of the unconscious, revealed by dreams and parapraxes; repression, and the dynamic struggle between the pleasure principle of the unconscious and the reality principle of the conscious; the translation of this psychology of individuals into the psychology of groups, and in particular, political psychology, the mass psychology of fascism.
On successfully completing the programme you will be able to: | |
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Module-Specific Skills | 1. Critically assess the basic theories of Nietzsche and Freud 2. Understand how their respective political theories emerge from their basic theories 3. Compare the similarities between the theories of both thinkers, and contrast their differences |
Discipline-Specific Skills | 4. Critically reflect on how these theories relate to, and go beyond, the set of shared principles that inform the history of political thought that precedes them 5. Explain how the theories of Nietzsche and Freud challenge many of the assumptions of contemporary political science 6. Demonstrate an understanding of how the theories of Nietzsche and Freud inform some of the most significant critical discourses of contemporary political theory. |
Personal and Key Skills | 7. Critically analyse primary discoursive source material, based on the two textual analysis assignments 8. Study independently and manage time and assessment deadlines effectively 9. Communicate effectively in speech and writing 10. Demonstrate critical and analytical skills through tutorial discussions and module assessments 11. Demonstrate proficiency in the use of the internet, online journal databases and other IT resources for the purposes of tutorial and assessment preparation |
Module Content
Syllabus Plan
Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics:
- Key elements of Nietzsche’s thinking: the death of god, perspectivism and genealogy, the transvaluation of all values.
- A close reading of The Genealogy of Morality.
- Key elements of Freuds thinking: the unconscious (via dreams and parapraxes), the metapsychology of repression, and the struggle between the pleasure principle of the unconscious and the reality principle of the conscious.
- A close reading of Civilisation and its Discontents.
- A reading of The Mass Psychology of Facism, and a concluding comparison of the theories of Nietzsche and Freud.
Learning and Teaching
This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:
Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
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22 | 128 | 0 |
...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:
Category | Hours of study time | Description |
---|---|---|
Scheduled Learning & Teaching Activity | 22 | 11 x 2-hour seminars |
Guided Independent Study | 50 | Private study reading and preparing for seminars |
Guided Independent Study | 78 | Preparation for textual analysis assignments and essay including researching and collating relevant sources; planning the structure and argument; writing up the essay |
Online Resources
This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).
Indicative Reading List
This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.
Primary Texts
Freud, S. Civilisation and Its Discontents, translated by D. McLintock (London: Penguin, 2002)
Freud, S. Mass Psychology and Other Writings, translated by J.A. Underwood (London: Penguin, 2004)
Nietzsche, F. The Geanealogy of Morality, edited by K. Ansell-Pearson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994)
Secondary Texts
Adorno, T. “Sociology and Psychology I & II”, New Left Review, 46 & 47 (1967-68)
Ansell-Pearson, K. An Introduction to Nietzsche as Political Thinker (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994)
Le Bon, G. The Crowd (out of copywrite – available in multiple cheap editions)
Butler, J. Gender Trouble (London: Routledge, 1990)
Connolly, W.E. Political Theory and Modernity (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1988)
Deleuze, G. Nietzsche, translated by H. Tomlinson (London: Athlone, 1983)
Frosh, S. The Politics of Psychoanalysis (Basingstoke: Macmillan Press, 1999)
Gipps, R.G.T. and Lacewing, M. The Oxford Hanbook of Philosophy & Psychoanalysis (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019)
Marcuse, H. Eros and Civilisation (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1987)
Owen, D. Maturity and Modernity: Nietzsche, Weber and Foucault (London: Routledge, 1994)
Reich, W. Mass Psychology of Fascism, translated by V.R. Carfagno (Souvenir Press, 1997)
Stavrakakis, Y. (ed) Routledge Handbook of Psychoanalytic Political Theory (London: Routledge, 2020)
Wolfenstein, E.V.“Psychoanalysis in Political Theory”, Political Theory 24 (1996)