RELST-UA 561 - Confessional Culture from Augustine to Oprah

Institution:

New York University

Subject:

Description:

Traces the different uses and forms "the confession" has taken in Western culture. How has the confession evolved from a specifically religious practice to become a genre of self-making in a putatively secular modernity? A consistent concern is the way confessional practices have increasingly become linked to sex and sexuality. The range of texts and genres surveyed includes philosophical and religious treatises, political pamphlets, legal history of confession, psychoanalytic case studies, feminist consciousness-raising, coming-out stories, self-help literature, tell-all celebrity autobiographies, TV talk shows, YouTube, and film/video. What can we learn from the differences and similarities between these confessional modes, their cultural locations, their historical moments, and their ideological effects?

Credits:

4.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.nyu.edu

Phone Number:

(212) 998-1212

Regional Accreditation:

Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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