Universität Wien

090091 VO Area of Ancient Greek Literature (Prose) (2024S)

4.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 9 - Altertumswissenschaften
Moodle

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Details

Language: English

Examination dates

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

  • Tuesday 05.03. 18:30 - 20:00 Hörsaal 3 Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 5 Hof 3
  • Tuesday 19.03. 18:30 - 20:00 Hörsaal 3 Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 5 Hof 3
  • Tuesday 09.04. 18:30 - 20:00 Hörsaal 3 Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 5 Hof 3
  • Tuesday 16.04. 18:30 - 20:00 Hörsaal 3 Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 5 Hof 3
  • Tuesday 23.04. 18:30 - 20:00 Hörsaal 3 Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 5 Hof 3
  • Tuesday 30.04. 18:30 - 20:00 Hörsaal 3 Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 5 Hof 3
  • Tuesday 07.05. 18:30 - 20:00 Hörsaal 3 Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 5 Hof 3
  • Tuesday 14.05. 18:30 - 20:00 Hörsaal 3 Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 5 Hof 3
  • Tuesday 21.05. 18:30 - 20:00 Hörsaal 3 Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 5 Hof 3
  • Tuesday 28.05. 18:30 - 20:00 Hörsaal 3 Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 5 Hof 3
  • Tuesday 04.06. 18:30 - 20:00 Hörsaal 3 Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 5 Hof 3
  • Tuesday 11.06. 18:30 - 20:00 Hörsaal 3 Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 5 Hof 3
  • Tuesday 18.06. 18:30 - 20:00 Hörsaal 3 Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 5 Hof 3

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

This course directly engages both the continuing relevance of psychoanalysis to our contemporary world and the challenge presented by these critiques through a deeply historicized reading of fundamental texts in the psychoanalytic tradition.
In this course, we will squarely engage the questions of desire, language, and history in a range of ancient texts and modern commentators. In particular, we will read and comment on Oedipus Rex, Antigone, Artemidorus’s Interpretation of Dreams, as well as select poems of Catullus. Modern texts featured will include excerpts from Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams, Jokes and their Relation to the Unconscious, the Psychopathology of Everyday Life, and Beyond the Pleasure Principle, as well as Lacan’s Ethics of Psychoanalysis, and Foucault’s Subjectivity and Truth and History of Sexuality. Reference will also be made to a wide variety of other modern thinkers stretching from Judith Butler, to Žižek, Irigaray, and Kristeva.
This course has three specific goals. 1.) It will expose students and auditors in the class to new ways of thinking about both the ancient texts covered and the way they, in turn, can shape our understanding of their significance for psychoanalysis. 2.) It will familarize students with basic psychoanalytic concepts and key contemporary debates surrounding them. 3.) It will present specific theses on the relation between rationality and enjoyment as understood in the traditional confrontation between rhetoric and philosophy and the historicization of subjectivity.

Assessment and permitted materials

Students will have a take home exam. The exam will consist of three essay questions derived from material presented in the class. Students will choose one and develop a well-argued essay based on that topic. Students will be expected make reference both to primary source materials read in the class and topic covered in the lectures and discussions. The exam will count for 50% of the student evaluation.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

Students will be expected to attend the lectures and prepare readings for the class. They may read the texts in English, German, or the original language. Reading assignments and PowerPoint slides for each day’s lecture will be posted online.

Examination topics

Choose one the of the questions below. Write an essay of 2000 to 2500 words explaining your answer. Cite specific passages from the in-class readings to back up your position. A good essay should have an introduction, a thesis statement, and a conclusion. Please email me your essay not later than July 15th

1. Foucault and Freud have a complicated relationship. In part this can be seen in their respective readings of Artemidorus and in Foucault’s. Discuss how you understand psychoanalysis after Foucault’s History of Sexuality.
2. Freud was fascinated by Oedipus Rex. Lacan’s Ethics of Psychoanalysis focuses on Antigone. How does the focus on these two different Sophoclean tragedies produce different understandings of the aims of psychoanalysis?
3. In Beyond the Pleasure Principle, Freud introduces the concept of the Death Drive. It is key to Lacan’s concept of “enjoyment.” Define that concept and illustrate its use for literary studies by citing specific passages from Catullus and or Sophocles.

Reading list

Sophocles: Oedipus Tyrannus
Sophocles: Antigone
Catullus: Poems
Artemidorus: Interpretation of Dreams, Book 1
Freud: Interpretation of Dreams
Freud: Beyond the Pleasure Principle
Freud: Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious
Michel Foucault: History of Sexuality, vols 1, 2, and the first chapter of vol. 3

Association in the course directory

Last modified: Tu 25.06.2024 11:05