106-403 Writing the Subject: Psychoanalysis and Other Stories

Credit Points

Coordinator

Semester

Contact

Subject Description

An examination of the influences of psychoanalysis on narrative representations of subjectivity and identity in twentieth-century literature and film, and the uses of psychoanalytic theory in the critical analysis of narrative texts. The subject provides an introduction to Freudian and Lacanian theories of the 'subject', including the 'psychopathologies' of neurosis, hysteria and schizophrenia, and some of the ways in which these theories have been challenged in both literary and critical texts.

Assessment

Written work of not more than 6000 words.

Prescribed Texts

Course reader available from the department.

• J M Coetzee, Foe. Penguin.
• M Foucault, The History of Sexuality (Vol. 1). Random House.
• S Freud, Two Short Accounts of Psychoanalysis. Penguin.
• S Freud, Case Histories: Dora and Little Hans. Pelican.
• C S Hall, A Primer of Freudian Psychology. Mentor.
• R Jones, Julia Paradise. Penguin.
• D Leader and J Groves, Lacan for Beginners. Icon Books.
• E A Poe, The Purloined Letter. Creative Ed.
• D M Thomas, The White Hotel.
• V Woolf, Ms Dalloway. Penguin.
• Film:, Vertigo.
• Film:, Terminator 2.