“The poet is the better psychologist, for he is swayed rather by sentiment than by reason, and always treats his subject in a partial fashion. He cannot discern deep shadows, because he is dazed by the blazing light and overcome by the benign heat of the subject.” --R. von Krafft-Ebing, Psychopathia Sexualis
Dr
Diane Long Hoeveler
Location: 247
Coughlin Hall
Phone: 288-3466
Office
Hours: T and Th 10-11 and 2-3 and by appt.
Class
meets T and Th 12:35-1:50
E-mail
Required readings : The Freud Reader , ed. Peter Gay (Norton) [FR]
- Peter Schaffer, Equus (Penguin)
- John Pielmeier, Agnes of God: A Drama (Samuel French)
- The Classic Fairy Tales , ed. Maria Tatar (Norton) [CFT]
- Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Random House)
- Anais Nin, Seduction of the Minotaur (Swallow Press)
Course packet [CP] of readings and supplementary materials available for purchase at Bookmarq
Additional information always available on the course's D2L site
COURSE OBJECTIVES: to critique literature using a variety of psychoanalytical methods; to become familiar with a number of key psychological texts and concepts and then to be able to apply them to an analysis of literary works.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS: an in-class essay midterm exam (25% of final grade); a 7-page research paper (25% of final grade); another research paper or project using film (25% of final grade); and a take-home final essay exam (25% of final grade).
COURSE POLICIES: Papers must be typed and double spaced. Late papers are not accepted except under extenuating circumstances. Extensions should be cleared with me beforehand.
PLAGIARISM: Using someone else's thoughts, ideas, or language in a paper without citing the source is plagiarism (this includes my formal lectures to the class). If in doubt, acknowledge your source. Departmental policy states that students caught plagiarizing will fail the course and be brought before an academic hearing board.
ATTENDANCE POLICY: This course subscribes to the MU College of Arts and Sciences attendance policy. After five absences your final grade will be lowered one-half grade. After three more absences it drops another half-grade. After a total of nine absences you will be withdrawn from the course.
GRADING SYSTEM: 92-100 = A; 88-91 = AB; 82-87 = B; 78-81 = BC; 70-77 =C
Some of the assigned readings, as well as specific criteria for writing assignments as well as samples of research projects are available in the CP.
Daily Schedule:
August
29: Introduction to course: readings, theoretical approaches, assignments
and course objectives [video: “Freud”]
August 31: Fairy Tales and the stages of psychosexual development: The Oral stage: “ Hansel and Gretel ” [CFT 184-90]; Bettelheim [CFT 273-80]; Shavit [CFT 317-31]; Freud, “ The Family Romance ” [FR 297-300]; also see chart on stages of psychosexual development in CP and on D2L
September 5: The anal stage : “ Little Red Riding Hood ” [CFT 3-24] and video; “Donkeyskin” [109-17] and video; Freud, “On Dreams ” [FR 142-71]; Freud, “ The Interpretation of Dreams ” [FR 129-41]
Sept 7: The Latency Stage : “Sleeping Beauty” [CP]; “Snow White” [CFT 74-89]; Gilbert and Gubar [CFT 291-96]
Sept 12: The Phallic Stage: “Maiden without Hands” [CP]; “Jack and the Beanstalk” [CP]; “The Little Mermaid” [CFT 216-32]; Freud, “ The Dissolution of the Oedipus Complex ” [FR 661-65]
Sept 14: The Genital Stage: “Beauty and the Beast” [CFT 25-41]; “Bluebeard” and “The Robber Bridegroom” [CFT 144-54]; Tatar [CFT 364-72] and video “On Fairytales”
Sept 19: CASE STUDIES : E. T. A. Hoffman, “ The Sandman ” {VIDEO}; and Freud, “ The Uncanny ” [both in CP]
Sept 21: Hoffman, “ The Mines at Falun ,” [CP]; Freud, “ On the Universal Tendency to Debasement in the Sphere of Love ” [FR 384-399]; and Freud, “ Character and Anal Eroticism ” [FR 293-96]
Sept 26: Tieck, “The Blonde Eckbert,” and Freud, “On Narcissism” [CP]; and “ Screen Memories ” [FR 117-28]
Sept 28: Poe, “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “Bernice,” “The Fall of the House of Usher,” [all in CP], and Freud, “ Mourning and Melancholia ” [FR 584-88]
Oct 3: Poe, “William Wilson,” “The Black Cat,” and Joyce Carol Oates, “The White Cat” [both in CP], and Freud, “ A Child is being beaten ,” also see handouts in CP on “A Child is being beaten”
Oct 5: Homosocial Bonding: Eichendorff, “The Marble Statue” [CP] and video clip of “Jules and Jim”; Freud, “The Theme of the Three Caskets ” [FR 514-21]; also see handout on Sedgwick in CP; PAPER #1 DUE
Oct 10: Christina Rossetti, “Goblin Market” [CP]; Freud, “Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality ” [FR 239-92]; Freud, “ Beyond the Pleasure Principle” [FR 594-625]
Oct 12: TRAUMA NARRATIVES : Equus , act one; and Freud, “Totem and Taboo @ [FR 481-513]; TAKE-HOME MIDTERM EXAM DUE
Oct 17: Equus , act two and video showing; and Freud, “ Repetition, Remembering and Working Through ” [CP]
Oct 19: MIDSEMESTER BREAK
Oct 24: Pulmeier, “Agnes of God,” act one; Freud, “ The Ego and the Id ” [FR 628-60]
Oct 26: “Agnes of God,” act two; Freud, “Splitting of the Ego in the Process of Defense” [CP]
Oct 31: VIDEOS of both “Agnes of God” and “Jolly Corner”
Nov. 2: Henry James, “ The Jolly Corner ” [CP]; and Freud, “ Instincts and their Vicissitudes ” and “ Repression ” and “ The Unconscious ” [FR 562-83]
Nov 7: Gilman, “Yellow Wallpaper” [CP]
Nov 9: video of “Yellow Wallpaper”
Nov. 14: STORIES ABOUT PSYCHOTHERAPY : Updike, “My love has dirty fingernails,” and Guest, “Ordinary People” [both in CP]
Nov. 16: Lindner, “The Girl who couldn't stop eating,” Updike, “Fairy Godfathers,” and Oates, “Psychiatric Services” [CP]
Nov. 21: MEMORY: “Do Androids dream of Electric Sheep?”
Nov 28: “Sheep” and video of “Bladerunner”; PAPER #2 DUE
Nov 30: Nin, Seduction of the Minotaur
Dec 5: Nin, conclusion
Dec 7: Course evaluation, summation
Dec 13 : Take Home Final Exam due in my office by noonPOSSIBLE TOPICS FOR RESEARCH PROJECTS:
- Fairy tales: choose a constellation of fairy tales and psychoanalyze them (Bruno Bettelheim = s book on fairy tales is the key research text here)
- The Oedipus Complex: examine in Sophocles, Shakespeare, and Freud
- The Electra complex: Sophocles, Freud, and O = Neill
- The Double in Otto Rank's theory and Poe's “William Wilson”
Analyze “Yellow Wallpaper” as an example of postpartum depression
Analyze “Goblin Market” as an oral fantasy
Memory in Ingmar Bergman's film “Wild Strawberries” and Erik Erickson's essayMemory in the SF film “Dark City”
Different approaches to feminine psychology (contrast the theories of Marie Bonaparte, Melanie Klein, and Helene Deutsch to those of Freud and Jung)
Examine the phenomenon of A beating fantasies @ and apply to literary works
The film “Jules and Jim” and its adaptation in “The Marble Statue”
A comparison of Poe's “Black Cat” and Joyce Carol Oates's story “The White Cat”
Examine the phenomenon of abuse fantasies and apply them to literary works (prevalence of incest, rape, torture, etc): Equus or Agnes of God are possibilities
Psychoanalyze the films of Alfred Hitchcock, Ingmar Bergman, Woody Allen?
More psychoanalyzing of Poe, Hoffman, Shelley, Stevenson
The neo-Freudians (Kristeva, Cixous, Lacan, etc) and their application to literary works
The neo-Jungians (see Our Ladies of Darkness by Joseph Adriano for a discussion of them)
Delve deeper into the theory of how fantasies work as sources for literary works (Jean LaPlanche is our source here; see handouts in CP)
Your choice: just clear it with me before you begin gathering material or writing
ENGLISH 171: LITERATURE AND PSYCHOLOGY
TAKE HOME EXAM QUESTIONS
DUE IN MY OFFICE (COUGHLIN 247) NO LATER THAN NOON ON DECEMBER 13
You have three options here. Choose one and submit at least five typed pages (please, no more and ideally no less).
OPTION ONE: ANALYTICAL LITERARY OPTION
Apply the four-part interpretive approach (formalist, ideological, historical, and psychological) to ONE story or novella we have read in class in order to demonstrate your mastery of literary interpretation skills. Either Androids or Minotaur would work very well for this option, as both are particularly dense and rich novellas with a variety of content to analyze.
OPTION TWO: PSYCHOLOGICAL OPTION
One of the goals of this course is to familiarize you with psychoanalytical concepts (primarily drawn from Freud) and to apply them to literary texts. Choose two or three of Freud's major essays or concepts and apply them to one of the stories we have read this semester (“Yellow Wallpaper” or “The Girl who couldn't stop eating” would work well here).
OPTION THREE: CREATIVE OPTION
Place two characters or authors in dialogue with each other about one of the central issues in the class: Poe and Hoffman about the nature of evil; Eichendorff and Tieck about the nature of male bonding; Nin and Dick about the nature of desire; Agnes and Alan about the nature of God; Freud and the Grimm brothers on the nature of fantasy. Use your imagination, but write a dialogue (like a play script), focused and tight, and not more than five pages (please).
ANOTHER SYLLABUS:
English 171: Literature and Psychology
Dr
Diane Long Hoeveler
Location: 247
Coughlin Hall
Phone: 288-3466
Office
Hours: T and Th 10-11 and 2-3 and by appt.
Class
meets T and Th 12:35-1:50
E-mail
Required readings: The Freud Reader, ed. Peter Gay (Norton)
The Essential Jung, ed. Anthony Storr (Princeton)
Mary, Mariaby Mary Wollstonecraft and Mathilda by Mary Shelley (Penguin)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert L. Stevenson (Oxford
)
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James (Norton)
The Deptford Trilogy by Robertson Davies (Penguin)
Other theoretical readings and
fairy tales are available through the Blackboard site.
ON RESERVE: Norman
Holland,
Benjamin Nelson, ed. Freud and the
20th Century [BF/173/F85/N37]
COURSE OBJECTIVES: to critique
literature using a variety of psychoanalytical methods; to become familiar with a number of
key psychological texts and concepts and then to be able to apply them to
literary works.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS: an
in-class essay midterm exam (25% of final grade); a 10-page research paper (25%
of final grade); a group-oral report to the class based on research (25% of
final grade); and a take-home final essay exam (25% of final grade).
ATTENDANCE POLICY: This course subscribes to the MU
GRADING SYSTEM: 92-100 = A;
88-91 = AB; 82-87 = B; 78-81 = BC; 70-77 =C
Some of the assigned readings, as well as specific
criteria for writing assignments and oral presentations are available on the
blackboard site. You must register for
the Blackboard site in order to receive class emails.
Daily Schedule:
August 26: Introduction to
course: readings, theoretical approaches, assignments and course objectives
English Department
