Film, Anxiety, and the Unconscious: Philosophy and Psychoanalysis

Taught By:

This intensive five-week program explores anxiety at the intersection of psychoanalytic theory, cinematic form, and philosophy through close readings of canonical films from Hitchcock and philosophical and psychoanalytic texts. We will work between visual and epistemological anxiety, asking whether or how cinema renders aspects and structures of the unconscious visible, gives form to dread and loss, and reflects any specifically affective or emotional dimensions of modern subjectivity. Important figures will be Kant, Freud, Lacan, Heidegger, and Sianne Ngai.

All coursework is submitted asynchronously, in batches once a week, which will both require but also allow for students to engage deeply and carefully on their own individual schedules. Aside from a mandatory midterm group conference on Zoom, when students will give "learning in public" presentations of their choosing, and a final group session, all instruction and feedback will occurs asynchronously through detailed written exchanges. The program will be self-directed and demanding, requiring 36-40 hours of weekly commitment. That time will be spent screening films, taking and organizing notes, generating film analysis, reading and note-taking for all theoretical texts, and generating critical writing. The program will help students develop more sophisticated conceptual schemes and vocabularies, skills in close reading, and practice in rigorous independent engagement. Students should have some experience with challenging theoretical texts in the humanities, arts, or media.

Anticipated Credit Equivalencies:

4 - Philosophy: Foundational Studies in the Philosophy of Film

4 - Philosophy: The Subject in Philosophy and Psychoanalysis