ENGL 249T(F) Hitchcock and Psychoanalytic Theory (W)

While Alfred Hitchcock is best known as the creator of many of Hollywood's most entertaining and enduringly popular movies, his films have also inspired a large body of impressively searching theoretical and critical work, particularly in the field of psychoanalytic film criticism. In this tutorial course, intended primarily for sophomores who have already taken an introductory course in cinema, we will use several of Hitchcock's films as the staging ground for explorations of psychoanalytic theory and its applicability to popular culture. We will not be concerned with applying psychoanalytic ideas to Hitchcock's life, as if they constituted the hidden key to the significance of his filmmaking. Rather, we will explore the ways in which psychoanalytic paradigms might illuminate the psychology and behavior of his characters, the narrative structures of his films, and the nature and dynamics of a spectator's engagement with the films. Topics to be discussed will include sadism and masochism, voyeurism, the uncanny, fetishism, incest and oedipal conflict, repression, and the strange itineraries of desire. No prior knowledge of psychoanalytic theory is assumed; indeed, this course is meant to serve in part as a brief introduction to Freudian theory, which will provide the focus of the opening weeks of the course. After this basic foundation has been laid, readings in psychoanalysis will focus on particular psychoanalytic concepts and phenomena which have special relevance to a given film. Assignments will include theoretical writing by Freud above all, but also contemporary feminist, queer, and film theory and criticism by such authors as John Berger, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Laura Mulvey, Tania Modleski, Christian Metz, Mary Ann Doane, and Stephen Heath. Films to be studied will include Rebecca, Strangers on a Train, Notorious, Spellbound, Shadow of a Doubt, Rear Window, Vertigo, and Psycho. A week's assignment, apart from writing, will normally comprise one film screening and one to three essays on psychoanalytic theory and/or film criticism.
Format: tutorial. Requirements: After two weeks in which we will meet as a group to discuss Freudian theory, students will meet with the instructor in pairs for one hour each week during the rest of the semester. They will write a 5- to 6-page paper every other week (five in all), and comment on their partners' papers in alternate weeks. Emphasis will be placed on developing skills not only in reading, viewing, and interpretation, but also in constructing critical arguments and responding to them in written and oral critiques.
Prerequisites: a 100-level English course (except English 150), and English 203 or English 204 or equivalent basic training in film analysis. Enrollment limit: 10 (expected: 10). Preference given to sophomores; first-year students who have placed out of the 100-level prerequisite and taken English 204 may also be admitted, as may upperclassmen if space permits.
(Post-1900)

Tutorial meetings to be arranged. TIFFT