106-403 Reading the Subject: Freud/Fiction/Lacan

Formerly available as 106-072. Students who have completed 106-072 are not eligible to enrol in this subject.

Usually admission to the postgraduate diploma or fourth year honours in English or cultural studies, see Honours entry.

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.

• have advanced research and analytic skills;

• develop critical and ethical self-awareness;

• have the ability to develop and communicate effective arguments in both oral and written form.

A classpaper presentation of 1000 words 10% and an essay of 4000 words 90% (due at the end of semester). A hurdle requirement of attendance and participation in a minimum of 9 seminars.

A subject reader will be available from the University Bookshop.

• J M Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians. Penguin.
• M Foucault, The History of Sexuality (Vol. 1). Random House.
• P Gay (ed), The Freud Reader. Vintage.
• D M Thomas, The White Hotel.
• V Woolf, Mrs Dalloway. Penguin.
• Film, Vertigo.
• Recommended reading: A Elliott, Psychoanalytic Theory: An Introduction. Blackwell.
• D Evans, An Introductory Dictionary of ­Lacanian Psychoanalysis. Routledge.
• C S Hall, A Primer of Freudian ­Psychology. Mentor.
• D Leader and J Groves, Lacan for Beginners. Icon.
• E Wright, Psychoanalytic Criticism: Theory in Practice. Methuen.