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Psychoanalytic Theory in English Studies
Eng 495.02,Th 5:30-8:30
 Stevenson Hall 347B
Dr. Karen Coats

 
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Course Description:
 
This course will offer an introduction to contemporary psychoanalytic theory and its uses for academic inquiry. For the first half of the course, we will explore the fundamental concepts and principles of Lacanian psychoanalytic theory, including desire, drive, jouissance, the mirror stage, the four discourses, and the registers of the Real, the Imaginary, and the Symbolic. The remainder of the course will be devoted to exploring the ways in which these concepts can be usefully related to the various disciplines within English Studies. In addition, we will examine how psychoanalysis provides a productive framework (beyond historicism and rhetoricalism) with which to understand and theorize cultural concerns such as race, the body, and queer subjectivities.

Required Texts:
Freud, Sigmund: Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality
Lacan, Jacques: Ecrits: A Selection; The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis
Fink, Bruce: The Lacanian Subject
Nobus, Danny, ed.: Key Concepts of Lacanian Psychoanalysis
Felman, Shoshana: Jacques Lacan and the Adventure of Insight
Zizek, Slavoj: Looking Awry
Berman, Jeffrey: Risky Writing

                          Calendar                             Course Requirements