english
301 summmer 2002 sdsu
Marx
on the Shrink's Couch
/
Freud
at the Capitalist's
Bank
21st
Century Psychoanalytic & Marxist
Approaches to the Psychological
Novel
Dr.
William
A. Nericcio
Associate
Professor of English
& Comparative Literature,
Latin
American Studies and
Chicana & Chicano Studies, SDSU
Enjoying
the
class? Think it reeks?
Click
the mike and let the world know!
Sex
and Money? Money and Sex?
Regardless of which element comes first,
it would be hard to imagine a
human act, some facet of psychology
homo sapiens, that in some way
is not 'touched' or colored by one or the
other. And, needless to say,
said twin interests seem to figure
prominently in the wonderful world of
literature--that beautiful land where
writers reveal all the sweet, lovely
and ugly things that most of us spend half
of our life trying to hide.
In light of these curious tendencies, we
will spend our time sampling the
flavorful words of authors like Mary
Shelley, who in the midst of a torrid
sexual affair, sets out to write what
turns out to be the most famous,
if not first, science fiction novel in the
West--a remarkable tale that
eventually evolves into an allegory
exploring the psychology of birth.
Franz Kafka will appear during our six
week term as well, revealing with
a decidedly European wit, the terrors and
torments of a banal bourgeois
existence. Sinclair Lewis, Tino
Villanueva, Susan Daitch, George Stevens,
David Zane Mairowitz, Robert Crumb, and
Martín Espada will also
jump into our tasty psychological stew.
Our
assistants on this tour
will be two largely discredited thinkers
who for most of the world are
largely debunked, passé, and forgotten:
the pater familias of political
economy, Karl Marx; and the oedipal
father of psychoanalysis Sigmund
Freud.
Do these two figures from 19nth and 20th
century Intellectual History appear
here on my syllabus as part of an effort
to turn you into a Castro-loving,
beret-wearing, commune-hugging Marxist?
to seduce you into the sexually-charged,
voyeuristic pleasures of an intrusive
and single-minded psychoanalysis?
Well, perhaps! But the real reason
they are here, featured front
and center in a LITERATURE class, is
that no other two writers have more
clearly and cogently articulated the
complexities of Money and Sex than
Marx and Freud, and no two intellectual
behemoths have more cleverly revealed
the connection between power, class,
psychology and desire than this dynamic
duo of European scribes. Rest
assured that we will NOT ONLY talk
about Marx and Freud in class--even
those of you who get the hives just
hearing the name "Marx" or those of you
rendered incontinent by the ghost
of "Freud" will find something to like
this semester. Participants
in our summer experiment are not
expected to be experts in LITERATURE,
POLITICAL ECONOMY, NOR PSYCHOANALYSIS,
and as such this class is open to
all majors. What you will
need to succeed in this class is
a touch of curiosity about human
psychology and a willingness to read all
of the books and screen the two films
that make up your syllabus this
semester.
The
Metamorphosis and Other Stories
(Dover Thrift Editions)
by Franz Kafka,
Stanley Appelbaum (Translator)
Babbitt,
Bantam Classic Edition
by Sinclair Lewis
Scene from
the Movie GIANT, Curbstone
by Tino
Villanueva
Introducing
Kafka
by David Zane
Mairowitz, Robert Crumb
(Illustrator)
The Comic
Trial of Joseph K.: Text and
Context
by Hector Ortega
(purchased through special
arrangement with SDSU Press, $10)
Frankenstein,
Broadview Edition
By Mary Shelley
Rebellion Is
the Circle of a Lover’s
Hands, Curbstone
by Martín Espada
LC
by Susan Daitch
PROMETHEUS
LINK
REQUIRED MOVIES
SCREENED FREE IN CLASS
GIANT
(1956)
USA 201 MINUTES;
Awards/Notes: (AAN)
Directed by
George Stevens (I) (AA) (DGA)
Pi
(1998)
USA
84
MINUTES
Directed
by
Darren Aronofsky
| GRADING
GENERAL
CLASS REQUIREMENTS |
|
33% of your grade
will be based on two 3 to
5 page essays
33% of your grade
will be based on your
final exam score
1% of your
grade will be based on
your drive, ganas, chutzpah etc.
33% of your grade
will be based on quizzes,
in-class writing, attendance, and class
discussion/participation
Reading, discussion
and class interaction make up a
significant portion of the class;
attendance
helps--you won't pass without it. Get
this: I do not just expect attendance,
I expect prepared attendance--even,
brace yourself, participation.
And please do think twice about setting
foot in our classroom if you have
not completed your assigned reading for
the day. Also to be expected? TWO
3 to 5 page short essays, various
quizzes and in-class writing challenges
and a final exam on the last day
of class.
IMAGINATION
CHALLENGE
NUMERO UNO
IMAGINATION
CHALLENGE
NUMERO DOS
| OFFICE
HOURS,
PHONE AND EMAIL |
|
9 TO 10, TUESDAYS
BEFORE CLASS, 4117 ADAMS
HUMANITIES,
12-1, MONDAYS AND
WEDNESDAYS, TENNIS OFFICE
HOURS, MAIN COURTS, SDSU
Please do drop
by during the semester,
as I hate working with a room full of
strangers! Only if the idea
of meeting a professor has you breaking
out in hives, then email me at
memo@sdsu.edu
with your questions or comments. Call me
at 594.1524 if you want to schedule
a special appointment or just want to
chat. Note: I do keep my office hours--if
I am not there, send flowers, because I am
either dead or have been abducted
by space aliens.
Attendance and
participation do form part
of your graded work for this class, so if
you plan to miss more than 2
classes, do please consider dropping the
course from your summer agenda;
miss more than 3 classes and your final
grade will drop one whole letter
grade; for example a hard-earned "B" becomes
a "C" for a less-than-dedicated
undergraduate. Alternatively, students with
a B+ have been known to garner
an A- for a seminar where they had perfect
attendance.
This GENERAL EDUCATION
class will deal with ADULT issues and
activities. If you are squeamish
about insanity, human sexuality, erotic
taboos or if graphic art, literature
and film leave you weak, angry, disgusted
etc., PLEASE drop this class
BEFORE you get the urge to call on your
parents and clergy to remove me
from my job! This is a university-level
course exploring usually hidden
elements of the human psyche: you should
EXPECT to be disturbed and moved.
Pla gia rize (?), v.
t. [imp. & p. p. Plagiarized (?); p.
pr. & vb. n. Plagiarizing.]
To steal or purloin from the writings of
another; to appropriate without
due acknowledgment (the ideas or
expressions of another). You steal someone
else's ideas or pay for them at some
creepy internet site, you will fail
this class and be reported to the
University.
Last time I checked:
university bed.
Rest before you come to class.
Shut off all telecommunication devices
BEFORE entering 4176 AH.
| Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
| |
May 28
Class introduction
on Literature,
Psychology,
Psychoanalysis,
Capitalism, Sex and
Money; also, we will
screen two potentially
cheesy videos: "Freud:
The Hidden Nature Of
Man" and "Karl Marx and
Marxism."
|
May
29
Read "The Judgment"
by Franz Kafka; in-class
writing assignment
possible--as you read,
see if any ideas from
the Freud
or Marx videos take hold
of your imagination.
|
May
30
 LOTS
OF READING ! MAKE
QUALITY TIME! Read "The
Metamorphosis" in your
Kafka
collection--the second
you finish the story,
open a notebook and
write
down what YOU view to be
the TWO most dominating
psychological issues in
the story! NEXT read/see
up to page 73 in your Introducing
Kafka
book by Mairowitz and
Crumb. Re-open your
notebook; how have your
ideas
changed?
|
| June 3
Finish reading the
stories in your Dover
Kafka anthology; also,
finish reading the Introducing
Kafka book--this
time, read the Mairowitz
and Crumb collaboration
FIRST, then the
Kafka.
As you read, consider
how issues of political
economy (the State,
power)
collide with issues of
psychology in Kafka's
work--is Kafka a perfect
fusion
of Marxist and Freudian
curiosities?
|
June
4
Today we will screen
Darren
Aronofsky's
film Pi;
consider the
connections, both formal
and
thematic between Kafka
and Aronofsky. For those
of you into cinema and
art, consider as well
the visual connections
to be made between
Aronofsky
and Robert Crumb.
|
June
5
Today we will
conclude our discussion
of
Kafka, Aronofsky, Crumb
and Mairowitz. We
will quite likely also
endure an in-class
writing challenge.
Though we may not
have time to discuss
it, also read the first
the first five chapters
of Babbitt by
Sinclair
Lewis.
Today
you will receive
your first short essay
assignment; due
Friday, noon, June 14
under my door,
4117 Adams Humanities.
IMAGINATION
CHALLENGE
NUMERO UNO
|
June
6
Read to the end of
chapter 13, page 182
in the Bantam edition of
Lewis's Babbitt.
In class, we will have
a guest lecture by
Professor Michael
Harper, from Mount San
Antonio College
and the Claremont
Graduate University.
|
| June
10
Read to page 300,
the end of chapter 24
in Lewis's novel; how
does his critique of
American capitalism jive
with
that we have discussed
with regard to Marx--are
there psychoanalytic
factors
also to consider?
|
June
11
Complete Babbitt;
time allowing
we will also begin
screening GIANT.
|
June
12
Today we either
begin or continue
screening
GIANT.
|
June
13
Read Tino
Villañueva's Scene
from the Movie Giant;
as you read, reflect on
director George
Stevens's
savvy sensitivity to
issues of money, desire
and ethnicity.
|
| June
17
Frankenstein
volume
1
|
June
18
Frankenstein
volume
2
|
June
19
Frankenstein
volume
3
|
June
20
Frankenstein
appendices
and discussion.
Also:
receive paper
assignment 2, due
Friday June 28th at
noon, 4117 Adams
Humanities.
|
| June
24
Back to Kafka, or,
perhaps, moreso
Aronofsky,
as we read and discuss
Hector Orteaga's
adaptation of Kafka's
TRIAL.
|
June
25
LC
Read to the top of
page 73.
|
June
26
LC
Read to page 142
|
 June
27
LC
Read to page 215 and
bring your book to
class for cool
autographs as Susan
Daitch will be in the
house for a public
lecture and discussion
on LC and Literature;
bring your friends and
neighbors
as the public is
invited.
|
| July
1
LC
Finish the novel.
|
July
2
Read and be prepared
to discuss Martín
Espada's Rebellion
is the Circle of a
Lover's Hands.
Here history,
ethnicity, and desire
fuse together like some
unlikely 'marriage' of
Freud
and Marx.
|
July
3
Final Exam; Class
party at JK's Greek Cafe
in La Mesa
|
|
|
WEB RESOURCES
Sigmund
Freud HTMLEncyclopedia Brittanica
entry on Psychoanalysis.
Sigmund
Freud PDF Encyclopedia Brittanica
entry on Psychoanalysis.
Franz Kafka on the Web
note: almost everything in this yellow box is the work of
KAFKA+ at the University of Pitt. Click here for the
original page in full.
original source is at http://www.pitt.edu/~kafka/links.html
Franz
Kafka
Sites
by Individuals |
Franz
Kafka
Photo Album
webmastered by Yacov
Eckel. We never linked
to his
site because in 1996 he
had all the pictures on
one page and it took
hours
to download. Now he
makes great use of
frames, and it is a real
pleasure
to leave through the
family pics. (language:
English)
There's
always someone
who was there before
you: Robert
Daeley's
Franz Kafka: a
good starting point
language: English
Kafka-land,
a site featuring tons
of texts by Kafka in
the English
translation. Typed
in and uploaded by
P.M. Morin. language:
English
La
Pagina
de Franz Kafka,
Luis Rada's hommage to
Franz Kafka, for him
"el autor mas
importante del siglo
XX." Some interesting
entries in his
guestbook. language:
Spanish
Kafka
Page
|
Franz Kafka and his
crew
appreciate your comments!
last updated: 24 March
1997
kafka+@pitt.edu
|
Roger
Ebert's
review of Darren Aronofsky's PI
Aronofsky
fan site (with various interviews)
All
You Want and DON'T want to know about
PI
Sinclair
Lewis:
Nobel Prize Speech and brief
autobiography
PROMETHEUS
LINK
An
interview
with Susan Daitch
|