Annotation
The focus of this seminar is Shakespeare's HAMLET in relation to the work of Freud, Lacan, Derrida & Heiner Muller, focusing on topics of mimesis, hauntology, performativity, the repressed.
*REQUIRED* READING
William Shakespeare, HAMLET (Cambridge or Arden editions)
Sigmund Freud, THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS (V.D.264-6) *(Letter From Freud to Fliess, September 21, 1897) http://users.uoa.gr/~cdokou/MythLitMA/FreudonOedipus.pdf
Jacques Lacan, "DESIRE & THE INTERPRETATION OF DESIRE IN HAMLET" https://www.sas.upenn.edu/~cavitch/pdf-library/Lacan_Desire_in_Hamlet.pdf
Jacques Derrida, SPECTRES OF MARX (see e.g. LibGen.is)
Heiner Muller, HAMLETMACHINE https://theater.augent.be/file/13
Jacques Derrida, "THE TIME IS OUT OF JOINT" in Deconstruction is/in America ed. A. Haverkamp (New York, New York University Press, 1994): pp. 14-38.
Ernesto Laclau, "THE TIME IS OUT OF JOINT" https://monoskop.org/images/8/88/Laclau_Ernesto_Emancipations_1996.pdf
James Joyce, "Scylla & Charybdis" chap.9, ULYSSES
Elaine Showalter, "Representing Ophelia: Women, Madness, and the Responsibilities of Feminist Criticism." https://www.houseofideas.com/mscornelius/resources/hamlet/hamlet_vol_59__elaine_showalter_essay_date_1985_276850-.pdf
Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead.
ADDITIONAL READING
Goethe, Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship
Nietzsche, Birth of Tragedy
T.S. Eliot, "Hamlet and His Problems"
Ernest Jones, Hamlet & Oedipus
Louis Armand, "Hamlet/Machine," INCENDIARY DEVICES https://www.academia.edu/41844822/Incendiary_Devices
Carolyn Heilbrun, "Hamlet's Mother"
Simon Critchley & Jamieson Webster, THE HAMLET DOCTRINE
Helene Cixous, WE DEFY AUGURY
Guy Debord, SOCIETY OF THE SPECTACLE https://monoskop.org/images/e/e4/Debord_Guy_Society_of_the_Spectacle_1970.pdf
Janet H. Murray, HAMLET ON THE HOLODECK: THE FUTURE OF NARRATIVE IN CYBERSPACE
Louis Armand, "The Theatre of Alibis," EVENT-STATES https://www.academia.edu/41844920/EVENT_STATES
Elaine Showalter, "Ophelia, Gender & Madness"
Adina Mocanu, "ADAPTATION TO THE (HYPER)REALITY: HAMLET AND HIS VIRTUAL WORLD"
SCHEDULE
Introduction & overview
Eliot & the problem of Hamlet
Joyce: "He shows by Algebra"
Freud & Oedipus
Lacan & the symptom of desire
Derrida & hauntology
Laclau & disjointed time
Showalter & the problem of Ophelia
Mocanu: simulacra & hyperreality
Debord: society of the spectacle
Muller: "I was Hamlet"
Stoppard & the decentred POV.
ASSESSMENT 1. attendance + assigned readings 2. proactive weekly contributions to discussion 3. essay (3,000 words, due 10 February) (for an extended credit, either 2 essays of 3,000 words or one essay of 6,000 words): topics must be agreed in advance & must be related to seminar topics.
NB students are required to have recently read Hamlet *before the first session of the seminar* & are required to have a copy of the text with them for consultation & close-reading during the entire seminar.
