This course explores the issues of honour, humiliation and revenge, focusing on Asian political history but with a strong global and comparative dimension. We will examine the notion of honour in different human societies, consider theories of how it may have developed and the role it plays in political and social structure. Special attention will be given to honour as a gendered concept, expressed in dramatically different ways for women and men. We will examine humiliation as a political technique of rulers and rebels, as a consequence of colonialism and other forms of domination and as an initiation device. We will address the variety of techniques used to humiliate, from insult and parody to physical humiliation, setting those techniques in the context of cultural conceptions of honour and ?face?. We will also consider the legal and emotional claims which those who claim to have been humiliated make on society in general. We will address the nature of revenge and assess the usefulness of?civilization? theories which claim to describe a social progression from revenge undertaken by the individual to deterrence and rehabilitation carried out by the state

Research essay, 6000 words (80%), Seminar participation (20%)

Permission of coordinator