106-072 Reading the Subject: Freud/Lacan/Fiction

Note

Credit Points

HECS Band

Coordinator

Prerequisites

Usually admission to the Postgraduate Diploma or Fourth Year Honours in English or Cultural Studies, see Honours entry.

Semester

Contact

Subject Description

The subject provides an introduction to the basic tenets of Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalytic theory and some of the challenges and criticisms they have attracted. It examines the influences of psychoanalysis on representations of subjectivity and identity in 20th century literature, film and television; the uses of psychoanalytic theory for critical interpretation of fictive texts, and the uses of fiction for critical interpretation of psychoanalysis.

Assessment

Written work totalling 5000 words.

Prescribed Texts

A subject reader will be available.

• J M Coetzee, Foe. Penguin.
• M Foucault, The History of Sexuality (Vol. 1). Random House.
• P Gay (ed), The Freud Reader. Vintage.
• C S Hall, A Primer of Freudian Psychology. Mentor.
• E A Poe, The Purloined Letter. Creative Ed.
• D M Thomas, The White Hotel.
• V Woolf, Mrs Dalloway. Penguin.
• Films:, Vertigo; The Terminator; Terminator 2.
• Recommended reading: A Elliott, Psychoanalytic Theory: an Introduction. Blackwell.
• D Leader and J Groves, Lacan for Beginners. Icon.
• E Wright, Psychoanalyttic Criticism: Theory in Practice. Methuen.