Sigmund Freud, “Leonardo da Vinci and a Memory of his Childhood” (1910), “The Uncanny” (1919), selections from The Interpretation of Dreams (1900)
Edition used for the first two essays: Penguin
Edition used for Interpretation of Dreams: Basic Books
E.T.A. Hoffmann, “The Sandman”
Edition used: Five Great German Short Stories, Dover
For the Seeing and Knowing theme in 2015, we had half of a two-hour lecture on Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams and “Leonardo Da Vinci,” and the other half on Freud’s “The Uncanny” and E.T.A. Hoffmann’s “The Sandman.”
Faculty:
Christina Hendricks
Jason Lieblang
Lecture date: November 16, 2015
Theme: Seeing and Knowing
- What is the relationship between Leonardo’s homosexuality and his artistic output, according to Freud? Do you find his argument convincing? Why or why not?
- Do a Freudian analysis of one or two poems by Blake or Hopkins, focusing on the issue of repression or anything else from Freud that you think relevant.
- Freud discusses castration anxiety in both his “Leonardo” and “Uncanny” essays, and in both works castration anxiety is related to vision. Discuss the relationship between vision and castration in at least one of the works by Freud assigned for this week.
- Freud’s “The Uncanny” can be understood as an attempt to explain how, and more importantly why, horror scares us. Explain and critically evaluate Freud’s answer to these questions.
- Analyze Freud’s anecdote on p. 144 and the footnote 1 on pp. 161-162 as evidence that “uncanny” experiences in real life evince “the return of the repressed,” and that such moments often involve uncontrollable repetition.
- Analyze Freud’s anecdote on p. 144 and the footnote 1 on pp. 161-162 as evidence that “uncanny” experiences in real life evince “the return of the repressed,” and that such moments often involve uncontrollable repetition.
- In what ways can the selections from Interpretation of Dreams help us understand Freud’s analysis of Leonardo in “Leonardo da Vinci” or his analysis of the uncanny in “The Uncanny”?
- “The action of [Oedipus Rex] consists in nothing other than the process of revealing, with cunning delays and ever-mounting excitement—a process that can be likened to the work of a psycho-analysis” (Freud, Interpretation of Dreams 279). What similarities and differences do you see in what Oedipus does in the play and the psycho-analytic analyses Freud does in one or more of the works we read by him?
- Both Freud and Rousseau attempt to uncover what is hidden in a shadowy past in order to show us the sources of some of our ills. Discuss similarities and differences between their respective attempts to see what is “so difficult to see” (Rousseau 68).
- Discuss the significance of vision and eyes in Hoffmann’s “The Sandman.”
- Freud’s reading of “The Sandman” has been extremely influential, but the story is certainly amenable to other readings. Provide a non-Freudian interpretation of the story.
- Argue against Freud’s rather easy dismissal Olimpia as the source of the uncanny in “The Sandman.” You may also, if you wish, discuss his critique of Jentsch’s theory of the uncanny as a kind of intellectual uncertainty.
More material related to Freud
More material related to Hoffmann
