Modernist literature was deeply shaped by new ideas about the unconscious mind. This course explores how writers such as James Joyce and Franz Kafka engaged with emerging psychological and philosophical theories to challenge traditional understandings of self, meaning and reality. Through close discussion of selected texts, we examine how inner life, dream logic and hidden motivation appear in literary form. Suitable for readers interested in literature, philosophy and the intellectual currents of the modern world.

DELIVERY MODE

• Online

COURSE OUTLINE

• What is the Unconscious? William Blake: Blake’s ontology of the ‘living dead’. Blake’s challenge to the Material/ Spiritual dualism
• Goethe: The rise of the Romantic unconscious in the self and its connection to nature.
• Coleridge: Coleridge explores the idea that the unconscious can be aided by experimentation with mind altering substances.
• D. H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers. The civilized voice of the superego is played out against the powerful forces of the id.
• Kafka’s Metamorphosis. We will explore ideas of the self; of identity crisis and the struggle of the mind and body to maintain a unified, creative self image.
• Joyce’s Ulysses. Leopold Bloom is an ordinary down-to-earth character who has a wonderfully rich inner life. Joyce not only attempts to give us the detailed content of that mind, but also gives us the way that humans converse in the language of thought.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of this course, students should be able to:

1. Discuss the idea of the unconscious through an understanding of Modernist philosophy
2. Understand the importance of the unconscious to Modern literature
3. Relate this theory to other forms of art
4. Discuss their own reading of the texts with others