Reading the Subject: Freud/Fiction/Lacan

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2009:

Usually admission to the postgraduate certificate, diploma or fourth year honours in English, cultural studies, creative writing or gender studies.

For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Student Support and Engagement Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Overview, Learning Outcomes, Assessment and Generic Skills sections of this entry.

It is University policy to take all reasonable steps to minimise the impact of disability upon academic study, and reasonable adjustments will be made to enhance a student's participation in the University's programs. Students who feel their disability may impact on meeting the requirements of this subject are encouraged to discuss this matter with a Faculty Student Adviser and Student Equity and Disability Support: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/disability

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 acquired familiarity with the basic tenets of Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalytic theories of subject-formation and some of the ways in which they have been challenged and revised;
• have examined the influence of psychoanalytic perspectives on literary and film criticism in the twentieth century;
• have examined ways in which fictive texts can present critiques of psychoanalytic theories and practices.

A class paper 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.

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

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.

• 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.

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