This course investigates discourses of the self, both contemporary and historical, in a variety of genres, including philosophy, theory, literature, visual media, and new media, depending on the instructor and year. Topics to be covered may include any of the following: problems of the self, identity (racial, ethnic, gendered), self-expression, self-fashioning, self-destitution, and the limits of the self as an experience or a category. No prerequisites.

An introduction to the fundamental concepts of Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis, with particular attention to the rhetorical strategies shaping the articulation of such notions as the oedipus complex, fetishism, narcissism, sadism and masochism, mourning and melancholia, the death drive, the phallus, the objet petit a etc. While the texts of Freud and Lacan are the main focus of the class, we will also consider Judith Butler, Deleuze and Guattari, and Lee Edelman, as well as some of the most recent uses of psychoanalysis in critical race theory and trans studies.

Credit Restrictions

Students will receive no credit for RHETOR 120 after completing RHETOR 120. A deficient grade in RHETOR 120 may be removed by taking RHETOR 120.

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.