This course offers an introduction to a major strand of contemporary Critical Theory tradition that developed through the intersection of Freudian psychoanalysis and French structuralism and poststructuralism. The focus of this course is on the exploration, transformation, and decentering of the controversial notion of the subject, particularly as it relates to the problems of structure, sign, narrative, and sexuality. This decentering of the subject led to a paradigmatic shift in contemporary theoretical discourse, with impact beyond the narrow domain of poststructuralist theory into a wide range of fields including literary and cultural criticism, feminist and queer politics, film studies, and Marxist theory. This course will cover a variety of readings from Saussure, Lévi-Strauss, Freud, Lacan, Barthes, Derrida, Copjec, Žižek, and Zupančič. The readings will be accompanied by a selection of films from Hitchcock, Lynch, Pasolini, Antonioni, Fiennes, and Nolan, amongst others, which will be discussed and analysed along with the readings.
Course Instructor: Adity Singh