DHUM 27A28 - Politics, aesthetics and the unconscious

Prominent interpretations of Freud's groundbreaking concept typically reduce the unconscious to a strictly subjective, idiosyncratic, part of someone's mind, thus averse to any social or political understanding of it. These readings do not only fail to understand the radical relationality implied in the unconscious, but also lose sight of its political presuppositions and consequences. In this course, such presuppositions and consequences will be drawn from a close reading of texts by Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, Angela Davis, Franz Fanon as well as Chantal Akerman and Agnès Varda movies, and surrealist works from the 30's with the aim to sketch out potential forms of resistances against capitalist, colonial, patriarchal and totalitarian forms of domination. Some of the questions we will be discussing are: Which is the specific contribution of psychoanalysis to our understanding of the social contract? In what ways is the political field traversed by affects and movements that become more intelligible thanks to psychoanalysis?

Jessica PASSOS,Kristian SCHAEFERLING

Séminaire

English

Autumn 2022-2023

Active contribution to in-class discussions. 25% One in-class oral presentation prepared in group. 35% A final research paper (written communication, synthesizing course material). 40%