Senior Seminar

We will pursue an introduction to Freud’s basic works on the unconscious, dreams, the death drive, sexuality, and symptoms, by considering  the narrative, figurative, and argumentative dimensions of his case studies, his readings on literary and visual art, and his Interpretation of Dreams.   Freud referred to his theory of drives as his own “poetry” and often approached the case study as a story-teller.  Does the literary dimension of Freud’s work contribute to the controversy over whether his claims are ultimately justifiable? To answer this question, we have first to pursue some others:   Does he tell a story in order to make an argument, or are his arguments so many stories?  At stake is whether there is an argumentative dimension to his narrative writing. Does he sidestep the need to make arguments by using and analysing figures and telling stories?  Why are literary works so important to his analysis, and how do they relate to the structure of dreams and fantasy?  Finally, does Freud give us a way to think about the relationship between literature and argument?  Can we say that psychoanalysis is one name for that relationship?   Among the topics to be considered are repression, the unconscious, sexuality, Oedipus, rage, mourning, civilization, and war as they relate to basic questions of morality and aesthetics.

Required Texts:

General Psychological Theory,  Freud, Touchstone  Press
“The Wolfman” and Other Cases, Freud,  Penguin
Freud’s Writing on Art and Literature, Freud, Stanford
The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud, Basic Books
Totem and Taboo, Freud, Norton   (selections)
Civilization and its Discontents, Freud, Norton
Beyond the Pleasure Principle, Freud, Pacific Publishing Studio
Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality
Sophocles I, tr. David Grene, University of Press
Hamlet, Shakespeare
“The Sandman” from Tales of E.T.A Hoffmann, E.T.A Hoffmann
“The War” and “The Ravishing of Lol Stein,” Marguerite Duras

Film, “Strella”

Secondary Readings (to be found in course reader and on course website):

Sarah Kofman, Freud and Fiction; Peter Brooks, Psychoanalysis and Storytelling; Freud: A Collection of Critical Essays, ed. Richard Wollheim; Marcia Cavell, The Psychoanalytic Mind: From Freud to Philosophy; Christopher Bollas, “The Structure of Evil”; Jacqueline Rose, “Why War?”; Leo Bersani, selections from The Freudian Body; Jean Laplanche on drives.

Enrollment information: Seats are reserved for Comparative Literature seniors; all other students must waitlist. The waitlist for this course will be processed by instructor approval. As such, please provide Professor Butler with a brief paragraph explaining why you want to take the course, what year you are in, and your major. Your paragraph is due via email (jpbutler@berkeley.edu) by May 10th.