It is often argued that the capacity to express shame is an indication that someone is possessed of a moral sense. However, despite the apparent universality of shame, the objects people are ashamed of, the ways in which people express their shame, and how the emotion is estimated differs in time and place. This course aims at introducing students with the history of emotions by looking at the history of shame in particular. We will look at historical strategies of shaming citizens, but also at the different ways shame was used to communicate certain desires. Furthermore, the course focusses on the ways in which this emotion interrelates with various important categories of historical analysis: honour, gender, sexuality, class and race. The first part of the course is dedicated to the nineteenth century, in particular Great Britain, in which we will discuss, among other things, the myths and realities of ‘Victorian prudishness’. During the second half of the course the scope will be widened, to also include material from 20th century history and non-European contexts. This course will be offered in English.
Cohen, Deborah, Family secrets. Shame and privacy in modern Britain (London 2013); Nussbaum, Martha C., Hiding from humanity. Disgust, shame and the law (Princeton, NJ 2004).
