University at Albany State University of New York Spring 1992 WSS698/ENG 641, Testing the Limits: The Limits of Psychoanalysis/Feminism/Patriarchy Teresa L. Ebert Office: 370 Humanities, x4094 Office Hours: TTh 2:30-3:30 This version of "Testing the Limits" takes as its site of inquiry the limits of the discourses articulating our theoretical, political, critical and pedagogical practices in the interstices/boundaries of (post)modern psychoanalysis and feminism. Psychoanalysis has had considerable impact on contemporary feminism as well as on a diverse range of other social and cultural theories. Feminism in turn has been psychoanalysis' main interlocutor. At issue is the effect(ivity) of psychoanalytic theories for a politics of the subject in society: specifically the subject in /and in contestation with patriarchy. This course inquires, in the first instance, into the limits of (post)modern psychoanalysis, as it reads/theorizes gender and sexual difference, and its consequences for feminism and for a theory of patriarchy. In this moment of the course we will deal with major concepts of psychoanalysis in the works of Freud and Lacan. We will then focus on postmodern feminist psychoanalytic theorizing in the writings of such exemplary figures as Kristeva, Irigaray, Duboff, Mitchell, Rose, members of the m/f editorial collective and others. In a dialectical move, we will engage in a materialist feminist reading of these theories, examining their limits and political effectivity as they theorize and deconstruct not only the notion of the subject in patriarchy but (the boundaries of) patriarchy itself. Thus one of the major issues raised in the space of the course will be the contestation over the concept of patriarchy: is patriarchy a "limit" concept for explaining feminism; is it a "totalizing" notion that essentializes/erases the notion of difference in feminism, as ludic feminism contends, or is patriarchy a "struggle concept" marking the boundaries of psychoanalytic theories and opening up an "outside" to ludic theories in which a sustained materialist and historical understanding of difference, gender, class, sexuality, race state and subject can be offered. This raises the issue of ideology which is another "limit" concept in theorizing materialism, postmodernity, feminism anad psychoanalysis. At stake here is the understanding of the subject of political change and the "representation" of the social and historical: is the social and historical explained through the psyche or is the psyche made intelligible through the social and historical? The seminar is situated in the space of an oppositional pedagogy--which means my interest in teaching it is to explore the possibilities of pedagogy as an intervention in the dominant knowledges and as agency for social transformation. Thus, we will explore the social consequences of postmodern, psychoanalytic, feminist and materialist theories of the subject for pedagogy throughout the semester. Practices, Requirements... The course will meet twice a week and will be run as a seminar/colloquium. In colloquium sessions I will introduce the issues, and we will collectively inquire into the philosophical and political assumptions involved in these questions both in the class as a whole and through the more intensive work of smaller theory groups. The seminar sessions, on the other hand, will be devoted exclusively to reports from students followed by collective discussion of those reports. The purpose of all the course reports, presentations and papers is not to summarize theories but to critique them. Thus the projects should not be rehearsals or descriptions of the theories but analytical and critical engagements with the issues. The topics of all projects and papers will be chosen in consultation with the instructor. Students should be sure to arrange conferences with the instructor well in advance of the project due dates. In addition to giving one oral seminar report, students will write one short paper (6-8 typed double-spaced pages) critiquing a specific theoretical problem (limits) in psychoanalysis as it is theorized in the writings of both Freud and Lacan (focusing on the class texts) and its relation to/consequences for feminism. Symposium The final project for the course consists of a long discourse theorizing and critiquing some aspect of the problem of patriarchy as it is articulated in the conjunction\limits of psychoanalysis, feminism and materialism. Students are expected to take a public stance on their work by presenting a paper at the seminar's symposium for the department. Theory and pedagogy are, I believe, interventions in existing knowledges and the means for producing new knowledges. The symposium is thus an important arena for students to engage the debate over knowledges in the discipline and culture at large--beginning with the historical and material site of an institution, the department,--and to reconstruct the role of student for themselves: to be producers of public knowledge. However, students have the following options in undertaking the final project: Option 1. Students will organize and participate in a symposium to be presented to the department at the end of the semster. The symposium will address the issues raised in the seminar and will follow the model of scholarly and professional conventions. Each student will thus participate on a panel in which she/he will present a short (15-20 minute) paper (about 12 typed, double-spaced pages) based on their long seminar paper and respond to questions from the audience. For those students giving presentations at the symposium, the length of their final paper will be 20 typed, double-spaced pages. Option 2. For those students who choose not to participate or who end up not delivering their paper in the symposium (for whatever reason, including illness), the final seminar paper willl need to be a more expanded project: 30-35 typed, double-spaced pages and accompanied by a comprehensive annotated bibliography of their subject. Colloquia and Theory Groups One of the important factors in evaluation of students' work will be their sustained weekly participation in the discussions of the seminar, colloquia and theory groups, and the quality of the analytical and conceptual discourses they contribute to the seminar's collective inquiry. Students who miss a class session will write a 3-page paper on the topic covered during that session for the instructor and for the other members of their theory group. Critiques are due within one week of the missed session. Since reading, contrary to commonsense, is a social aand theoretical practice and not a personal, experiental matter, the class will place considerable emphasis on work in small theory groups. In these groups students will collectively theorize and critique the issues raised by the class texts and also inquire into the way these theories problematize the group's own (historical/social) knowledges. At the end of the semster, each theory group will write a critique of its own work--both the effectiveness of its small group inquiries and dialog and its contribution to the larger colloquium debates--and will collectively decide on the grade they feel should be assigned to the group for its work. The instructor will then use these critiques and suggested grades in determining each group's grade. Since learning to work collectively and to take responsibility for each other's learning--rather than individual competition--are an important part of the group work, collective responsibility for learning will be a major factor in the group's final evaluation. Part of the theory group work and evaluation will also include collective critique of their group members' preparations and drafts for their symposium presentations and final papers. Evaluation of a student's work is based on: 1. Theory Group, Seminar and Colloquium Participation: 15 points 2. Seminar Report: 10 points 3. First Paper: 25 points 4. Final Project: 50 points, as follows: - Option 1. Symposium Presentation, 20 points; Final Paper, 30 points - Option 2. 30-35 page paper & annotated bibliography, 50 points In order to keep conditions the same for all, students will submit their papers, topics and reports on time. Late papers will lose a 1/2 point for each day late. No grade of "Incomplete" will be given in this seminar (except in cases such as illness if the student has already successfully completed the major part of the work for the course). Students need to keep a xerox copy of their papers and presentations for the course: should these be lost for any reason, the student is responsible for providing a duplicate copy to the instructor. TEXTS (Required) Gay, FREUD READER Moi, KRISTEVA READER Lacan, ECRITS Flax, THINKING FRAGMENTS Butler, GENDER TROUBLE Irigaray, SPECULUM OF OTHER WOMAN Fuss, INSIDE/OUT;LESBIAN, GAY THEORIES Mitchell, PSYCHOANALYSIS & FEMINISM MacCannell, REGIME OF BROTHER Lovell, BRITISH FEMINIST THOUGHT Mies, PATRIARCHY & ACCUMULATION RETHINKING MARXISM 2.4 (Winter 1989) Walby, THEORIZING PATRIARCHY Gallop, READING LACAN Optional (Read at least one) German, SEX, CLASS AND SOCIALISM Adams & Cowie, THE WOMAN QUESTION: M/F Elliot, FROM MASTERY TO ANALYSIS Walby, PATRIARCHY AT WORK Barrett, POLITICS OF DIVERSITY Mitchell & Rose, FEMININE SEXUALITY Phillips, DIVIDED LOYALTIES Sayers, ENGELS REVISITED Brennan, BETWEEN FEMINISM & PSYCHOANALYSIS CALENDAR I. (Post) Modern Psychoanalysis Week 1 Th Jan 23 Introduction to Postmodernism Week 2 T Jan 28 Mitchell, PSYCHOANALYSIS & FEMINISM xiii-131; 293-435 FREUD READER: Interpretation of Dreams & On Dreams 129-172 Observations on Transference-Love 378-387 From the History of Infantile Neurosis (Wolf Man) 400-426 Repression & Unconscious 568-584 Beyond the Pleasure Principle 594-626 The Ego and the Id 628-658 (For further reading see Fragment of an Analysis of a Case of Hysteria (Dora) 172-239 & Notes Upon a Case of Obsessional Neurosis (Rat Man) 309-351 & Kaja Silverman, SUBJECT OF SEMIOTICS, on reserve) Th Jan 30 THEORY GROUP Mitchell xiii-131; 293-435 FREUD READER 129-172; 378-387; 400-426; 568-584; 594-626; 628-658 Week 3 T Feb 4 FREUD READER: The Dissolution of the Oedipus Complex 661-666 Negation 666-670 Some Psychical Consequences of the Anatomical Distinction Between the Sexes 670-678 Freud, Femininity (1933), on reserve Female Sexuality (1931), on reserve The Psychogenesis of a Case of Homosexuality in a Woman (1920), on reserve Mitchell, Feminine Sexuality, Introduction-I (in Lovell 196-210, and Mitchell and Rose FEMININE SEXUALITY on reserve) Th Feb 6 THEORY GROUP FREUD READER 661-678 Freud, Femininity; Female Sexuality & Case of Homosexuality Mitchell, Introduction-I Week 4 T Feb 11 Lacan, ECRITS: The Mirror Stage 1-7 The Freudian Thing 114-145 Gallop, READING LACAN 13- 110 (Further discussion see Rose Introduction-II in Mitchell & Rose FEMININE SEXUALITY on reserve) Th Feb 13 Lacan ECRITS: The Agency of the Letter in the Unconscious 146-178 Saussure, from COURSE IN GENERAL LINGUISTICS, on reserve Gallop, READING LACAN 111-132 Week 5 T Feb 18 SEMINAR REPORT Lacan, ECRITS: On a Question Preliminary to any Possible Treatment of Psychosis 179-225 Lacan, TELEVISION and Introduction to the Names-of-the-Father Seminar OCTOBER 40 (Spring 1987) on reserve Th Feb 20 SEMINAR REPORT Lacan, ECRITS: The Signification of the Phallus 281-291 The Subversion of the Subject and the Dialectic of Desire in the Freudian Unconscious 292-325 Lacan, God and the Jouissance of the Woman/A Love Letter in Mitchell & Rose FEMININE SEXUALITY 137-161, on reserve Gallop, READING LACAN 133-189 II. FEMINIST PSYCHOANALYSIS Week 6 T Feb 25 FIRST PAPER DUE Irigaray, SPECULUM OF THE OTHER WOMAN 13-146; 191-202; 227-240 (Return to Freud on femininity) Th Feb 27 SEMINAR REPORT Irigaray, SPECULUM OF THE OTHER WOMAN 13-146; 191-202; 227-240 (Return to Freud on femininity) Week 7 T Mar 3 KRISTEVA READER 1-33; 89-272; 301-320 Th Mar 5 SEMINAR REPORT KRISTEVA READER 1-33; 89-272; 301-320 Week 8 T Mar 10 THEORY GROUP Flax, THINKING FRAGMENTS Th Mar 12 NO CLASS (only MWF classes meet) Week 9 T Mar 17 SEMINAR REPORT Butler, GENDER TROUBLE Fuss, INSIDE/OUT: LESBIAN, GAY THEORIES Th Mar 19 THEORY GOROUP Butler, GENDER TROUBLE Fuss, INSIDE/OUT: LESBIAN, GAY THEORIES Week 10 T Mar 24- Th Mar 26 NO CLASS, SPRING BREAK Read at least one text from the list of optional books III. SUBJECT(S) OF PATRIARCHY: LIMITS OF PSYCHOANALYSIS Week 11 T Mar 31 Mies, PATRIARCHY AND ACCUMULATION ON A WORLD SCALE Machel, Women's Liberation is Essential for the Revolution, on reserve Th Apr 2 SEMINAR REPORT Mies, PATRIARCHY AND ACCUMULATION ON A WORLD SCALE Machel, Women's Liberation is Essential for the Revolution Week 12 T Apr 7 Lovell, Psychoanalysis and Feminism 187-270 Althusser, Ideological State Apparatuses in LENIN, on reserve Th Apr 9 SEMINAR REPORT Lovell, Politics of Difference: Class, Race and Gender, 21-50; 71-186 Feminist Criticism and Cultural Studies 314-376 Althusser, Ideological State Apparatuses in LENIN, on reserve Week 13 T Apr 14 Walby, THEORIZING PATRIARCHY Th Apr 16 THEORY GROUP Walby, THEORIZING PATRIARCHY McCannell, the regime of the brother 1-40; 127-144 Week 14 (TENTATIVELY) WEEK FOR SYMPOSIUM PRESENTATIONS T Apr 21 SYMPOSIUM WORKSHOP Th Apr 23 SYMPOSIUM PRESENTATIONS Week 15 T Apr 28 RETHINKING MARXISM: Marxist-Feminist Debate on Capitalist- Patriarchy Th Apr 30 FINAL PAPER DUE FREUD READER: Civilization and Its Discontents 722-772 Lacan, Responses to Students of Philosophy Concerning the Object of Psychoanalysis in TELEVISION, on reserve "Return" to Lacan, Signification of the Phallus