Simon Fraser University
Engaging the World

Course Outlines

Spring 2026 - HUM 321W B100

The Humanities and Critical Thinking (4)

The Affective Politics of Shame

Class Number: 2564

Delivery Method: Blended

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    Jan 5 – Apr 10, 2026: Tue, 2:30–5:20 p.m.
    Burnaby

  • Prerequisites:

    45 units.

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Study of the counter-traditions in human civilization and thought, including impulses and movements that critique and resist dominant value systems. Focuses on writers, artists and thinkers that break with their traditions creating new values, ideas, and forms of experience and expression. May be repeated for credit when a different topic is taught. Writing/Breadth-Humanities.

COURSE DETAILS:


THE AFFECTIVE POLITICS OF SHAME

What does it mean to speak of a cultural politics of affect? How are we to understand ‘emotions’ and ‘feelings’, generally conceived as the individual stirrings of the self, as being interconnected with culture and the social world? Are we responsible for our affects? Where does shame fit into this analysis?
In this course, we will examine shame as a lived experience (“in the body”) of individuals and social groups—an affect born from the exposure to the gaze of the other and questioning the meaning and value of the self; the conditions under which such experience is made possible; the relation of individual shame to collective shame; cultural understandings of shame (e.g., the Eastern notion of shame as a virtue); the mobilization of shame as an instrument of subjugation and social control, but also the occasion for the construction of a community and new possibilities of identities—the bond and ethics of shame. We will address the specificity of shame in relation to other cultural affects, such as hate, fear, pain, guilt, or disgust, in order to understand the political implications of what theorist Sianne Ngai has termed “ugly feelings.”
Our readings will include a novel, short stories, films, media, accounts on shame in the historical past and in the contemporary age, selections from critical theory and affect theory, to which students will contribute their own investigations into different social dimensions. We will begin with an analysis of the role of shame in relation to race through the discussion of Primo Levi’s memoir about Auschwitz and his survival from its genocidal structure, James Baldwin’s examination of the African American experience in a deeply racialized US society, Franz Fanon’s discussion of the shameful shattering of the self under the white gaze, but also the tenuous line between guilt and shame in confronting one’s implication in systems of dispossession. In Böll’s novel, we will then read about the dramatic effects of public shaming produced by media and public discourse, the role of State and institutions in invading the lives of private citizens in a socially torn 1970s West Germany, and will compare this account with the role of social media and the public institutions in our own age. We will carefully examine the injurious force of shame in containing gendered identities and sexualities (e.g., misogyny, sexophobia, homophobia, and honor killings) in the name of collective identities or in maintaining class hierarchies, and the different investment of shame and guilt onto individual psyches. But we will also consider how shame can help reconstruct shattered identities, help in the acknowledgment of past faults, or simply come together in working toward social justice. 
No prior knowledge in cultural theory or social theory is required for this course, but students should be open to engage in frank discussions of sensitive topics, even if from a position of non-knowledge, and be open to exercise critical thinking in all class activities.

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

At the end of the course, students will be able to demonstrate their proficiency in the following activities:

  1. Read and analyze Humanities texts critically, creatively, and to academic standards by using an interdisciplinary approach.
  2. Analyze the social and cultural politics of affect through the lens of shame across cultural boundaries.
  3. Think critically about shame in relation to subjectivity and in connection with other affects (e.g., hate, fear, pain, anxiety, disgust, and love).
  4. Think critically about the entanglement of shame with subjection, violence, and social hierarchies, but also the creation of a social bond and political action.
  5. Develop research skills in the interdisciplinary field of the Humanities.
  6. Develop a sustained, persuasive, logical and well-structured argument in academic essay writing.
  7. Communicate information and ideas clearly and confidently in oral activities.

Grading

  • Full attendance and active participation (attendance is mandatory – this is not an online course) 15%
  • Presentation (w/written report) 10%
  • Journal writing 24%
  • Draft final paper 5%
  • Final paper 20%
  • Final exam 26%

NOTES:

This course fulfills the Global Humanities requirements for the  


TEACHING MODE: Blended Learning. 
We will meet for 3 hours for class discussion for 12 weeks, while week 13 will take up the whole 4 hours for the final presentations. The remaining weekly fourth hour will be used by students as extra time for self-study, research, and writing assignments in addition to the time generally scheduled for such activities in an upper-division course.

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

Primo Levi, The Drowned and the Saved. Simon & Schuster, Reissue edition (2017)
ISBN: ‎ 978-1501167638

Heinrich Böll, The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum.  (Trans. L. Vennewitz). Penguin Classics (2009)
ISBN: ‎ 978-0143105404

James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time. Vintage (1992)
ISBN: 978-0679744726

Selected readings on Canvas or available electronically (in addition to those listed above): Aristotle, Xunzi, Fanon, Marx, Agamben, Primo Levi, James Baldwin, Levinas, Sartre, Sara Ahmed, Elspeth Probyn, Richard Hoggart, Alice Munro, Dionne Brand, and media articles.

Screenings:

  • A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness (Urdu: دریا میں ایک لڑکی: معافی کی قیمت) (2015) documentary film, directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
  • Bol (Urdu: بول, lit. 'Speak') (2011), written and directed by Shoaib Mansoor
  • Aligarh (Hindi: अलीगढ) (2015), directed by Hansal Mehta

REQUIRED READING NOTES:

Your personalized Course Material list, including digital and physical textbooks, are available through the SFU Bookstore website by simply entering your Computing ID at: shop.sfu.ca/course-materials/my-personalized-course-materials.

Registrar Notes:

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS

At SFU, you are expected to act honestly and responsibly in all your academic work. Cheating, plagiarism, or any other form of academic dishonesty harms your own learning, undermines the efforts of your classmates who pursue their studies honestly, and goes against the core values of the university.

To learn more about the academic disciplinary process and relevant academic supports, visit: 


RELIGIOUS ACCOMMODATION

Students with a faith background who may need accommodations during the term are encouraged to assess their needs as soon as possible and review the Multifaith religious accommodations website. The page outlines ways they begin working toward an accommodation and ensure solutions can be reached in a timely fashion.