This course explores the persistence of psychoanalytic concepts and interpretive frameworks in a range of present-day approaches to the study of literature and other modes of cultural production. Although Sigmund Freud’s ideas about the human mind have come under fire for their ethnocentrism, misogyny, and homophobia (among other pitfalls), they have also left indelible marks on contemporary critical thought, even in fields that have launched the most trenchant critiques of psychoanalysis, such as postcolonial studies, gender studies, and queer theory. Many of the key concepts in psychoanalysis—for example, the ego, the superego, the unconscious, libido, cathexis, narcissism, castration anxiety, the Oedipus complex, the pleasure principle, and the death drive—continue to crop up in contemporary critical discourse. Developments in neurology, cognitive science, and psychopharmacology have also called the psychoanalytic model of consciousness into question, but empirical studies of brain functions are still at pains to convey the cultural relevance of their findings in a language that can match the drama and intuitive force of the psychoanalytic account of personal becoming and intra- and interpersonal struggle.
The aims of the seminar are 1) to give students a firm grounding in key psychoanalytic concepts, starting with foundational texts by Sigmund Freud and Josef Breuer, then following up on the elaboration of Freud’s ideas by thinkers such as Melanie Klein, Karen Horney, Bruno Bettelheim, Jacques Lacan, and Donald Winnicott; 2) to trace those concepts through the critical traditions of Marxism, postcolonial studies, gender studies, and queer theory, focusing on pivotal moments in which those fields turned to psychoanalysis as a resource for their own theory-building; and 3) to encourage students to develop their own critical orientations toward these “undead” psychoanalytic ideas, assessing their benefits and risks for their own thinking and writing. The course will raise the question of the relevance of psychoanalytic models and the appropriateness of psychoanalytic approaches for literary and cultural production outside the largely Euroamerican domain in which psychoanalysis arose and has prospered.
Alison Bechdel’s graphic memoir Are You My Mother?: A Comic Drama will serve as an anchoring primary text, along with selections of short fiction, film, and popular culture. Many of these additional primary texts will be tied to Kenneth Kidd’s Freud in Oz: At the Intersections of Psychoanalysis and Children’s Literature, which will serve as an example of a sustained critical project situated within (and against) the discourse of psychoanalysis. In addition, we will read essays by Louis Althusser, Lauren Berlant, Judith Butler, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, Lee Edelman, Juniper Ellis, Frantz Fanon, Julia Kristeva, Catherine Malabou, Adam Phillips, Eve Sedgwick, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Suzanne Yang, and Slavoj Zizek.
Required Texts (wait until the first day of class to purchase)
Bechdel, Alison. Are You My Mother?: A Comic Drama. Mariner Books, 2013.
Freud, Sigmund. The Freud Reader. Ed. Peter Gay. Norton, 1995.
Kidd, Kenneth. Freud in Oz: At the Intersections of Psychoanalysis and Children’s Literature. U of Minnesota P, 2011. (available electronically from UHM library)
Assignments
Your grades for this seminar will be based on the following assignments:
5-minute in-class lightning-round presentation (15%)
abstract for final paper (15%)
literature review for final paper (20%)
timed conference-style presentation based on your paper (20%)
20 page final paper (30%)
Learning Outcomes
After this class you should be able to
identify and describe major developments in the history of psychoanalysis since Freud
identify and describe key concepts in psychoanalysis
design an independent scholarly project incorporating primary and secondary sources within a coherent theoretical framework
conduct oral presentations that effectively convey information and arguments to your audience
write clear, detailed, coherent analyses of literary texts, films, and other cultural artifacts for an academic audience
demonstrate sound argumentation in your writing
document sources accurately and responsibly in your writing using a standard academic style