CRT5070

Lacan and subjectivity

Not offered in 1999

Claire Colebrook

8 points -2 hours per week -First semester -Clayton -Prerequisites: CRT2050/CRT3050 or PHL3050; or CRT2060/CRT3060 or PHL3060. (See Arts undergraduate handbook for details of these subjects)

Objectives On the successful completion of this subject students should have read widely in the unusual and difficult writings of Jacques Lacan; gained sufficient background in such areas as debates over Freudian theory, twentieth-century French thought, the events of May 1968 and the advent of feminism to be able to understand Lacan's contributions to psychoanalytic theory; learnt to use a series of techniques for detailed reading and questioning of Lacan's complex writings; developed their own independent arguments regarding Lacan's work; and accumulated the critical and expressive resources to write clear, concise, accurate and independent essays on topics related to this subject.

Synopsis The subject is designed to provide an introductory reading of the difficult psychoanalytic texts of the French psychoanalyst, Jacques Lacan. We will explore his accounts of: (1) the ego, subjectivity and otherness; (2) the unconscious and desire 'structured like a language'; (3) his understanding of the phallus and sexual difference. The subject will aim to show his relevance to: (a) philosophical accounts of subjectivity; (b) theories of literary and visual representation; (c) feminist theory.

Assessment Seminar paper (3000 words): 20% -Essay (3000 words): 80%

Prescribed texts

Descombes V Modern French philosophy
Gallop J Jacques Lacan
Grosz E Jacques Lacan: A feminist introduction
Irigaray L Speculum of the other woman
Lacan J Écrits: A selection
Lacan J Feminine sexuality
Lacan J The four fundamental concepts of psychoanalysis
Lacan J Seminar I, II and IV
Muller J and Richardson W Lacan and language
Roudiresco E Jacques Lacan and Co.
Wilden A The language of the self
Zizck S The sublime object of ideology

Back to the 1999 Arts Handbook