230151 Processes of Civilisation: A History of Manners (S) (WiSe 2015/2016)

Taking Norbert Elias’ The Process of Civilisation (1939) as our widest theoretical framework, we are going to look at fictional and non-fictional texts from the 16th century to the present and ask how they try to teach audiences and readers ‘polite manners’. Elias’ study describes how the grotesque, violent and impulsive body of the medieval warrior turned into the well-mannered, strictly-disciplined and stiff-upper-lipped body of the Victorian gentleman (and -woman!) that releases neither tabooed matter (like urine, spittle, blood or tears) nor tabooed emotions (like rage, grief, pain, fear). ‘Nice girls don’t sweat!’, or as Sting says: ‘A gentleman will walk but never run’. Naturally (no, culturally) the civilised body is also a severely gendered body – Ben Jonson’s A Chaste Maid in Cheapside, Sherlock Holmes and Bridget Jones will serve us as examples (among others) to discuss these issues.

Bibliography

It is absolutely essential that all members of class read this summary of Norbert Elias' central ideas:
Stephen Mennell, Norbert Elias: An Introduction, Blackwell, 1989, pp. 29-111. (Stud-IP).
Additional texts will be made available.