ENG 128 - Freud, Fantasy, and Interpretation

Semester Hours: 4

In this course we will examine Freud’s major psychoanalytic theories, first through his own writings, and then in the works of later theorists and students of culture who have applied Freud’s ideas to a stunning array of cultural phenomena, from Nazi fascism to fairy tales and contemporary cinema. We will discuss the relevance and application of psychoanalytic ideas to literary and film study, with a particular focus on the social and psychological constructions of masculinity and femininity and the impact of gender and sexual orientation on the production of cultural artifacts and, indeed, on culture itself. This course will particularly focus on the case study, which will not only include Freud’s own case studies, such as the “Wolf Man” and “Dora,” but also modern literary and film texts that were influenced by Freud’s work, such as Hitchcock’s Marnie and those that were contemporary with Freud and can be read as “case studies,” such as Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw.

Intellectual Perspective: HC