EGH448 Confession

Aims/Description: 'Western man has become a confessing animal,' or so Michel Foucault contended. This module interrogates confessional acts in literature and culture across a wide historical span. (In previous years, we have reached back to St. Augustine's Confessions from the 4th century CE, right up to Hannah Gadsby's 2020 Netflix special, Douglas.) We focus in particular on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, exploring confession and related forms (including analysis, testimony and witness) across diverse contexts: sacred and secular law; medicine and addiction; enslavement and war; sex, scandal and sensation; neurodiversity. Writers studied in previous years have included: Thomas De Quincey, Mary Seacole, Oscar Wilde, Sigmund Freud, Vita Sackville-West and Black Elk.

Staff Contact: REGIS AMBER

Teaching Methods: Seminars, Independent Study

Assessment: Course work

Information on the department responsible for this unit (English):

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Teaching timetable

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Teaching methods and assessment displayed on this page are indicative for 2025-26.