Literature and Psychoanalysis 2011-12
TERM 1
WEEK 1
Trauma and Seduction: the Beginnings of Psychoanalysis
1. Breuer and Freud, Studies on Hysteria (1895), in SE vol. 2 (PFL, vol. 3):
a/ chap. I, “On the Psychical Mechanism of Hysterical Phenomena: Preliminary
Communications” (1893),
b/ chap. 2, Case Histories : (3) “Miss Lucy R”, (4) “Katarina”.
2. Freud, “Psychopathology of Hysteria” (the Case of ‘Emma’), Project for a
Scientific Psychology, Part II, sections1-5, (1895), SE vol. 1.
3. Freud, “Further Remarks on the Neuro-Psychoses of Defence (1896), SE vol. 3.
4. Freud, letter to Wilhelm Fliess, 21/9/1897, The Complete Letters of Freud to
Fliess: 1887-1904, ed. J.M. Masson, (Harvard U.P., 1985). Photocopy provided.
WEEK 2
Narrating Trauma
1. Freud, Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis (1916-17),
Lecture 17 ‘The Sense of Symptoms”, Lecture 18 “Fixation to Traumas – the
Unconscious”, (SE 15, PFL 1)
2. E.T.A. Hoffmann, “Mademoiselle de Scudery” (1816), in The Tales of Hoffmann,
Penguin, 1982.
WEEK 3
Interpreting Dreams
Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams (1900), (SE 4 and 5, PFL 4), chapters 2, 3,4 and
6 (sections A, B, C, D and I).
WEEK 4
Narrating Dreams
1. Wilhelm Jensen, Gradiva: a Pompeian Fantasy (1903), trans. Helen M. Downey,
Green Integer, 2003. This includes Freud’s essay on Gradiva.
2. Freud, “Dreams and Delusions in Jensen’s Gradiva “ (1907), reprinted in the
above and also in SE vol. 9 (Art and Literature, PFL vol. 14).
WEEK 5
Sexuality and the Drives
1. Freud, “Infantile Sexuality”, Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (1905), SE 7
(On Sexuality, PFL 7).
2. Freud, Analysis of a Phobia in a Five-Year-Old Boy (“Little Hans”, 1909), SE 10
(Case Studies I, PFL 8).
3. Freud, “On the Sexual Theories of Children” (1908), SE 9, (On Sexuality, PFL 7).
WEEK 6
Reading Week
WEEK 7
Ego I: Body Ego, Skin Ego versus ‘Reality Ego’
1. Freud, The Ego and the Id. (1923), chapters 1, 2 and 3, SE 19 (On Metapsychology
PFL 11)
2. Didier Anzieu, “The Skin Ego’’, Psychoanalysis in France, ed. S. Lebovici and D.
Widlocher, NY,1980.
3. Entry on the ‘Ego’ in Laplanche and Pontalis, The Language of Psychoanalysis.
WEEK 8
The Copernican Revolution and The Return of Seduction
1a. Freud, “A Difficulty in the Path of Psychoanalysis” (1917), SE 17.
b. Letter to Fliess (on the concept of translation), 6th Dec. 1896, Freud-Fliess Letters,
ed. Masson (pp. 207-9). Photocopy provided.
2. Jean Laplanche, “The Unfinished Copernican Revolution” in Essays on
Otherness, ed. J. Fletcher, Routledge, 1999.
3. Jean Laplanche, “Towards a General Theory of Seduction”, ch. 3, New
Foundations for Psychoanalysis (1987).
4. William Blake, The Mental Traveller (any edition / internet).
WEEK 9
‘Ptolemaic’ versus ‘Copernican’ readings: Oedipus
1. Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannus (426 BC), translated as
Oedipus the King, trans. Thomas Gould, Prentice-Hall, 1970.
NB It is essential to use the Gould translation and notes.
2. Freud, extracts on Oedipus and Hamlet, The Interpretation of Dreams (1900) and
letter to Fliess, 15/10/’97 (ed. Masson). Photocopies provided.
WEEK 10
‘Ptolemaic’ versus ‘Copernican’ readings: Hamlet
Shakespeare, Hamlet
Freud, “Psychopathic Characters on Stage” (1905) (Art and Literature, PFL 14,
SE 7).
TERM 2
Weeks 1 - 3
Childhood Scenes and their Consequences
WEEK 1
Screen Memory and Transference
1. Freud, “Screen Memories” (1899), SE 3.
2. Freud, “A Special Type of Choice of Object Made by Men” (1910h), SE 11.
3. Freud, “Remembering, Repeating and Working-Through” (1914), “Observations
on Transference-Love” (1915), SE 12.
WEEK 2
Childhood Memories and the Sublimations of Art
1. Freud, “A Childhood Recollection from Goethe’s Dichtung und Warheit”, SE 17
(PFL 14).
2. Freud, Leonardo Da Vinci and a Memory of his Childhood (1910), (SE 11, Art
and Literature, PFL 14).
3. Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa (1505+, Louvre), London Cartoon: Madonna, St.
Anne and Child (1508, National Gallery), Madonna, St Anne and Child (1508+,
Louvre), St John the Baptist (1509, Louvre).
WEEK 3
Childhood Scenes and the Permutations of Fantasy
1. Freud, “A Case of Paranoia Running Counter to the Psychoanalytic Theory of the
Disease” (1915), SE vol.14 (On Psychopathology, PFL 10)
2. Freud, “‘A Child is Being Beaten’: A Contribution to the Study of the Origin of
Sexual Perversions” (1919), SE 17 (On Psychopathology, PFL, 10, SE 17).
3. Anna Freud, “Beating Fantasies and Daydreams” (1922), in The Writings of Anna
Freud, vol.1, 1922-35, London: The Hogarth Press, 1974.
4. Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “A Musical Instrument” (internet).
WEEK 4
The Frame of Fantasy
1. John Keats, “The Eve of St. Agnes” (1818), with missing additional stanza VIa, in
Romanticism: an Anthology, ed. Duncan Wu.
2. Thomas Hardy, The Well Beloved (1897), Wordsworth Classics.
3. Slavoj Zizek, “The Seven Veils of Fantasy” in The Plague of Fantasies, Verso
Books, 1997. Sections 1-3.
WEEK 5
Ego II: Narcissism and the Mirror Ego
1. Freud, “On Narcissism” (1914), SE 14 (On Metapsychology, PFL 11).
2. Jacques Lacan, “The Mirror Stage as Formative of the I Function, Écrits (The
Complete Edition), trans. Bruce Fink, Norton, 2002.
3. “If I continue gazing” (the mirror aria), Semele (1743), G.F. Handel. CD/video
(lecture).
4. Entries on “Narcissism” and “Primary Narcissism / Secondary Narcissism” in
Laplanche and Pontalis, The Language of Psychoanalysis.
WEEK 6
Reading Week
WEEK 7
Sado-Melancholia: Poe and the Eros of Mourning
1. Freud, “Mourning and Melancholia” (1917) SE 14 (On Metapsychology, PFL 11)
2. Edgar Allan Poe, Poems: “The Raven”, “Ullulume”, “Annabel Lee”
Tales: Ligeia, Morella, Berenice, Eleanora, The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
(1845), (Poe: Selected writings, ed. Galloway or any collection of Poe’s writings /
websites).
WEEK 8
Necro-Melancholia: Keats and the Exquisite Corpse
1. Maria Torok, “The Illness of Mourning and the Fantasy of the Exquisite Corpse”
(1968);
2. Maria Torok and Nicholas Abraham, “Mourning or Melancholia: Introjection
versus Incorporation” (1972), both in The Shell and the Kernel, vol.1, ed. Nicholas
Rand, University of Chicago Press, 1994.
3. John Keats, Isabella; or, The Pot of Basil (1818). Any edition / website.
WEEK 9
Poetry, Melancholia and the undoing of the Ego
1. Julia Kristeva, The Revolution in Poetic Language, extracts;
2. Kristeva, The Black Sun: Depression and Melancholia, chapter 1.
3. Kristeva, “On the Melancholic Imaginary”, Discourse in Psychoanalysis and
Literature, ed. S. Rimmon-Kenan.
4. John Keats, “Ode to a Nightingale”; “Ode on Melancholy” (plus cancelled first
stanza); “To Autumn” (1819), Romanticism: an Anthology, ed. Wu.
5. Gérard de Nerval, “El Desdichado” (1853), Les Chimères.
WEEK 10
The Compulsion to Repeat: Reading the Death Drive
1. Freud, Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1920), SE 18, (On Metapsychology, PFL
11). chapters 2 and 3.
2. Freud, “The Uncanny” (1919), SE 17 ( Art and Literature PFL 14).
3. E.T.A. Hoffman, “The Sandman” (1816), Tales of Hoffman, Penguin, 1982.