This is a mandatory course in the second semester of the Joint European Master Degree in Women’s and Gender History MATILDA at the Faculty of Philosophy at Sofia University.
The aim of this course is to introduce the significance of the application of gender aspect onto the history of emotions and more specifically onto the way ‘love’ was conceptualized in the philosophy and literature of Southeastern Europe. The course structure includes historical, anthropological and literary perspectives onto the notion of love. It starts with an overview of several canonical philosophical texts on Eros and the different types of love, such as Plato’s dialogues, Thomas Aquinas and Saint Augustine’s discussion between ‘passion’ and ‘affection’, and later key works, such as those of Decartes, Spinosa, Emmanuel Levinas, Hannah Arendt. The course includes also a glimpse on the Middle Eastern and Ottoman philosophers on love, such as Hafiz and Rumi, not forgetting to add the works of women- sufi and women-troubairtz which are devoted to the topic of love.
During each class the students are invited to reflect on texts by male and female writers from Southeastern European literatures from 19th and 20th c. They could use methodology methods from gender studies and literary history to define and problematize specific aspects of the notion of love and interpret them in different philosophical frameworks. Furthermore they learn to contextualize the literary works within historical periods and detect fluxes of cultural influences that came to the literatures of Southeast Europe during the Enlightenment together with the grand narratives of progress and civilization. A special emphasis is placed on the casus of the “love for the nation” and on the “liquid love” in the new global era.
This is a 30 hours course. The grade is based upon students participation in class and a final essay on a specific problem, related to the theme of the course.
- Teacher: Надежда Александрова