IP304 Posthumous Geographies I: Underworlds

Module Overview

Physical, spiritual, allegorical, and psychological journeys through the underworld present a wide variety of problems. How does a trip through hell and back change the person undertaking the journey? What forces shape the imaginary design of such underworlds and their often terrible punishments? What narratives about the self and society are intertwined in such underworlds and how do they manifest themselves today in recovery narratives, our conceptions of organised crime, and experiences of incarceration? This transdisciplinary module examines such problems (and more) across a wide variety of material.

N.B. This module is complemented by IP305 Posthumous Geographies II: Paradises which explores similar problems but focuses instead on paradise spaces. You may take either module individually or both in succession.

Module aims:

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

articulate and discuss problems posed by underworld narratives.
critically analyse the dynamic between how such narratives have been inherited, reconfigured, and reshaped according to changing religious, political, and social concerns and how they, in turn, influence and often justify such cultural values.
examine underworld geographies from multiple perspectives (including spatial theory).
engage in sustained critical reflection on problems generated by underworld narratives.
apply advanced cognitive skills to build transdisciplinary knowledge that fosters transformative dialogue.
implement meta-cognitive skills in approaching complex contemporary problems.
collaborate in the creation of your own version of an underworld, showcasing the new problems it generates and engaging in analytical reflection.

This is a Year 2 and Year 3 Liberal Arts optional core module.

Available to Year 2 and Year 3 students in the School for Cross-Faculty Studies, and Year 2 and Year 3 external students.

Module Leader: Dr Bryan Brazeau

15 CATS

Term 1 | 10 weeks

2 hour workshop per week

Please note: Module availability and staffing may change year on year depending on availability and other operational factors. The School for Cross-Faculty Studies makes no guarantee that any modules will be offered in a particular year, or that they will necessarily be taught by the staff listed on these pages

Example syllabus:

Please note that this syllabus is purely indicative, and that actual module content may differ.

Introduction: Fame and its Discontents

Problem I: Individualism vs. Social Cohesion

“Lovers in a Dangerous Time:” Romantic Love and Political Stability
Hellish Punishments as Normalizing Discourses
Akrasia, Alcoholism, and Autobiography
“Bat out of Hell:” Infernal Liberty and Self-Reliance

Problem II: Fire and Brimstone - Space and Place Down Under

Hostile Environment: Ecological Allegories of Suffering
Body and Soul: Placelessness and Separation
Hell's Angels: Urban Battle Lines in the Québec Biker Wars
Carceral Geography and the Temporality of Imprisonment

Assessments:

There are four assessments on this module:

Assessment	Weighting	Description
Creative Group Presentation	25%	collaborative design and presentation of your own underworld
Underworld Challenges	15%	pop quizzes on module discussions and readings
Final Research Paper	50%	academic essay exploring a problem related to the concept or theme of underworlds
Participation and Preparation	10%	contributions in class and engagement with readings and preparation tasks

Illustrative reading list:

Aristotle. 2004. The Nicomachean Ethics. London: Penguin
Aquinas, Thomas. 1947. Summa theologica. Translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province. Benziger Brothers.
Bachelard, Gaston. 1958. The Poetics of Space. Translated by Maria Jolas. Boston: Beacon Press.
Bremmer, J.N. 2009. "Christian Hell: From the Apocalypse of Peter to the Apocalypse of Paul." Numen 56: 298-335.
Burkert, W. 2009. "Pleading for Hell: Postulates, Fantasies and the Senselessness of Punishment". Numen 56.2-3: 141-160.
Brown, Peter. 1988. The Body and Society: Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity. London: Faber & Faber.
Dante, Alighieri. 2002. The Inferno. Translated by Robert Hollander and Jean Hollander. New York: Random House.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. 2022. "Self-Reliance." In Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Edited by Edna Henry Lee Turpin. ebook.
Freccero, John. 1986. Dante: The Poetics of Conversion. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Foucault, Michel. 1967 / 1984. "Of Other Spaces". Translated by Jay Miskoweic. Diacritics 16.1: 22-27.
Jamison, Leslie. 2018. The Recovering: Intoxication and its Aftermath. New York: Little, Brown and Company.
Jensen, Derrick. 2004. "Criminals." In The Culture of Make Believe. New York: Context Books.
Laing, Olivia. 2013. The Trip to Echo Spring: On Writers and Drinking. New York: Picador USA.
Matthews, Robert. 2016. Doing Time: An Introduction to the Sociology of Imprisonment. Second edition. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.
Arp, Robert, and Benjamin McCraw, eds. 2015. The Concept of Hell. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.
Milton, John. 2020. Paradise Lost: A Norton Critical Edition. Edited by Gordon Teskey. New York: W. W. Norton and Comapny.
Moran, Dominique., Nick Gil, and Deidre Conlon, eds. 2013. Carceral Spaces: Mobility and Agency in Imprisonment and Migrant Detention. London and New York: Routledge.
Schneider, Stephen. 2009. Iced: The Story of Organised Crime in Canada. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons.
Marsden, William, and Julian Sher. 2007. Angels of Death: Inside the Biker Gangs' Crime Empire. London: Hodder & Stoughton.
Tuan, Yi-Fu. 1990. Topophilia: A Study of Environmental Perceptions, Attitudes, and Values. New York: Columbia University Press.
Virgil. Aeneid book VI; Georgics IV.