While statistics tell us that life is steadily getting better, many experience the contemporary through a kind of malaise, or in other words, feeling bad. This course examines how key sites of negative affect in today’s culture—illness, trauma and death—shape our understanding of feeling as a collective event. By focusing on a range of contemporary texts ranging across memoir, fiction, poetry and film, and from children’s media to reflections on old age, this course will explore how these texts conceive of negativity in ways that are exuberant, poignant, and audacious. Using critical insights and methodologies from affect theory, death studies, psychology and the medical humanities, we will investigate how negativity, often perceived as isolating or individualistic, can be a site for renewal, social connection, and increased self-knowledge. In so doing, we will ask questions like, what do these encounters with life’s limits tell us about how we conceive of our own lives? How do contemporary texts respond to historical traditions, theories and attitudes towards negativity and negative affect? And, can literature help us see that feeling bad can show us what’s good about living?
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion, students will have the knowledge and skills to:
- demonstrate familiarity with a range of contemporary literary texts across life writing, fiction and film;
- write and speak critically about literary texts in a range of genres;
- demonstrate an understanding of interdisciplinary debates and theoretical perspectives around negative affect; and
- critically analyse texts’ representation of illness, trauma, and death, in relation to their form and genre.
Indicative Assessment
- Participation (10) [LO 1,2]
- Essay 1 (1500 words) (30) [LO 2,3,4]
- Essay 2 (2500 words, + 500 word plan) (50) [LO 2,3,4]
- Essay Planning Task (500 words) (10) [LO 3,4]
The ANU uses Turnitin to enhance student citation and referencing techniques, and to assess assignment submissions as a component of the University's approach to managing Academic Integrity. While the use of Turnitin is not mandatory, the ANU highly recommends Turnitin is used by both teaching staff and students. For additional information regarding Turnitin please visit the ANU Online website.
Workload
130 hours of total student learning time made up from:
a) 36 hours of contact: 24 hours of seminars and 12 hours of tutorials.
b) 94 hours of independent student research, reading and writing.
Requisite and Incompatibility
Prescribed Texts
It Follows (dir. David Robert Mitchell)
In The Dream House (Carmen Maria Machado)
A History of My Brief Body (Billy Ray Belcourt)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (dir. Michel Gondry)
The Collected Schizophrenias (Esme Weijun Wang)
The Undying (Anne Boyer)
Severance (Ling Ma)
Grief is the Thing With Feathers (Max Porter)
Intervals (Marianne Brooker)
All of Us Strangers (dir. Andrew Haigh)
Preliminary Reading
Supplemental readings will be provided on Wattle.
Fees
Tuition fees are for the academic year indicated at the top of the page.
Commonwealth Support (CSP) Students
If you have been offered a Commonwealth supported place, your fees are set by the Australian Government for each course. At ANU 1 EFTSL is 48 units (normally 8 x 6-unit courses). More information about your student contribution amount for each course at Fees.
- Student Contribution Band:
- 1
- Unit value:
- 6 units
If you are a domestic graduate coursework student with a Domestic Tuition Fee (DTF) place or international student you will be required to pay course tuition fees (see below). Course tuition fees are indexed annually. Further information for domestic and international students about tuition and other fees can be found at Fees.
Where there is a unit range displayed for this course, not all unit options below may be available.
| Units | EFTSL |
|---|---|
| 6.00 | 0.12500 |
Offerings, Dates and Class Summary Links
ANU utilises MyTimetable to enable students to view the timetable for their enrolled courses, browse, then self-allocate to small teaching activities / tutorials so they can better plan their time. Find out more on the Timetable webpage.