Tutor: John Fletcher

Freud’s Metapsychology: Trauma / Oedipus / Death Drive

The course is designed as an introduction to some of the fundamental theories and concepts of psychoanalysis for literary students with no previous knowledge of the work of Freud or the post-Freudians. Unlike most academic psychology courses, it will take a text-based and historical approach, tracing the development of Freud’s thought through close readings of key essays, clinical case studies, and associated literary works. Concepts will be traced through their evolution, abandonment, retrieval, revision in texts from the 1890s to the 1920s and beyond. The course will start with the origins of psychoanalysis in trauma theories of hysteria, their apparent replacement by developmental models of sexuality and the Oedipus complex and the return of trauma in Freud’s final theory of the repetition-compulsion and the death drive and his associated analysis of the aesthetics of the Uncanny. It will also address the critical and revisionary work of Jean Laplanche with its return to trauma and the theory of seduction. Though the main focus of the course is theoretical, it will look at three literary works that narrate or stage these concerns: Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, and two novellas by the early 19th century German Gothic writer E.T.A. Hoffmann, Mademoiselle de Scudery and The Sandman.

The course is a required foundation course for students taking the Literature and Psychoanalysis pathway, however it is also available to other MA students, and can count towards meeting the Critical Theory requirement of the MA in English Literature. The course starts on Wednesday of week 1, Term 1, so prospective students should prepare by reading the texts set for the first few weeks of term over the summer. Students considering taking the course should read Freud’s Five Lectures on Psychoanalysis, which is an exellent introduction to Freud's ideas and their developments and is available in an early out-of-copyright translation as a free download from http://www.rasch.org/over.htm

The first of these lectures covers the question of trauma with which the course begins.

An excellent, reader-friendly introduction for beginners is Josh Cohen's How to read Freud, Granta Books, available for only a few pounds on the internet (Amazon etc).

Texts
The Freud selections are taken from:

SE - The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, trans. and ed. James Strachey, vols. 1-24, London: The Hogarth Press, 1953-74. This is now available in Vintage Paperback.

PFL - The Pelican Freud Library, vols. 1-15, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1975-86. This is a paperback selected version of the Standard Edition of the James Strachey translation listed above. Its great advantage is that it groups material thematically (i.e. all the sexuality or literature material in the same volume) rather than chronologically as the SE does. This makes it cheaper and more convenient.

Unfortunately the PFL is now out of print, replaced by new individual translations commissioned by Penguin. These do not have an editorial or explanatory apparatus (no notes or index) and the different translators have not agreed a common translation for the same terms! So stick to the Strachey translation in SE or PFL where you can find them (try amazon.co.uk or Abebooks, biblio.com and similar websites). Copies of all set Freud texts both SE and PFL editions are available in the library in Short Loan Collection and the Grid. They have also been scanned and are available to download and print off for private study by students registered for the course from the scanned course extracts section of the library website that will be set up at:

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/main/electronicresources/extracts/en/en914/

However printing off scanned texts can be expensive, especially if you do it on campus (6p per page and rising). It often proves cheaper to buy some of the SE or PFL volumes, where this is a longer set text or a number of set essays from the same volume. You also end up with other related Freud essays and material in the same volume, rather than just a set of gradually deteriorating photocopies.

Recommended Purchases

SE volume 10 (Vintage Paperback) – Analysis of a Phobia in a Five-Year-old Boy (“Little Hans”), also in PFL volume 8 (Case Studies I: Little Hans and Dora);

SE vol 19 for The Ego and the Id and essays (the advantage of buying them is that you also get a number of other important Freud essays along with them that are not set texts but relevant to the course).

Sophocles, Oedipus the King, trans. Thomas Gould, Prentice Hall. This edition is crucial for both its translation and commentary by one of the few Classical scholars who is knowledgeable about psychoanalysis. Unfortunately it’s out of print, but can be got second hand at a reasonable price (websites, usually US so allow time for it to arrive).

E.T.A. Hoffmann, Tales of Hoffmann, trans. R. J. Hollingdale, Penguin Books, 1982, which contains the two novellas by Hoffmann we will be studying: Mademoiselle de Scudery and The Sandman.

For syllabus click Syllabus 2011-12 in Left Hand column.

Psychoanalysis Podcast Lectures