CIEE Global Institute Paris

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CIEE Global Institute Paris Course name: The Unconscious Eye: Psychoanalysis and the Visual Arts Course number: PSYC 3001 PCSU Programs offering course: Open Campus / Psychoanalysis+Culture Language

1 CIEE Global Institute Paris Course name: The Unconscious Eye: Psychoanalysis and the Visual Arts Course number: PSYC 3001 PCSU Programs offering course: Open Campus / Psychoanalysis+Culture Language of instruction: English U.S. Semester Credits: 3 semester credits Contact Hours: 45 Term: Summer 2017 Course Description This course will explore psychoanalytic thought and critique in the field of 20th and 21st century visual art. Beginning with Surrealist film and painting, we will discover how psychoanalysis, particularly in France, changed the way we think about what it means to look at an image, particularly the moving image. We will also explore the various links between madness and creativity, testing the limits of psychoanalysis ability to interpret the visual arts. Artists and thinkers such as Breton, Bataille, Magritte, Buñuel, Artaud, Lacan, Krauss, Deleuze and Guattari, and Žižek may be considered. Learning Objectives Upon completion of the course, a student should be able to: 1. understand the historical development of the main artistic movements from the 20 th and 21 st century, particularly in France. 2. identify the influence of Psychoanalysis on such currents, as well as its limits. 3. understand works of art using the critical tools of Psychoanalysis. 4. recognize the impact of the interconnection of Art and Psychoanalysis on today's wider issues. Methods of Instruction This course is conducted in the seminar style. Films, images and field trips are part of our class Assessment and Final Grade Participation, writing assignments and quizzes 40% Mid-term Exam 30% Final Exam 30% Course Requirements Presence in class and participation in the discussion. Silence is not golden in class. Students will have reading assignments which must be completed before the class. There will be short quizzes based on the assigned readings. Students will write short essays on the field trips based on their own class and study notes. Mid-term and final exams will be based on the textbook and course lectures, and will be a combination of multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, and essay questions. Please note that if a student is absent from class or unable to attend a fieldtrip, it is the responsibility of that student to the instructor for details of the work missed 1

2 Class Attendance and Punctuality Regular class attendance is required throughout the program. Students must notify their instructor beforehand if they will miss class for any reason. Students are responsible for any materials covered in class in their absence. Students who miss class for medical reasons must inform the instructor and the Center/Resident/Academic Director and provide appropriate documentation as noted below. Make-up opportunity will be provided to the extent this is feasible. Due to the intensive nature of the block schedule, all unexcused absences will result in a lower final for the course. Each unexcused absence will cause 3 percentage points to be dropped from the final grade. For example, a student with an 88% final grade (B+) and 1 unexcused absence will see it reduced to 85% (B). Students who transfer from one class to another during the add/drop period will not be considered absent from the first session(s) of their new class, provided they were marked present for the first session(s) of their original class. Otherwise, the absence(s) from the original class carry over to the new class and count against the grade in that class. Attendance policies also apply to any required co-curricular class excursion or event, as well as to Internship, Service Learning, or required field placement. For host institution classes, the aforementioned policies apply when the host institution has no published attendance policy. CIEE program minimum class attendance standards are as outlined in this document. Centerspecific attendance policies may be more stringent than the policies stated below. The Center / Resident Director sets the specific attendance policy for each location, including how absences impact final grades. Such policies are communicated to students during orientation and via Study Center documents. In the event that the attendance policy for host institution courses differs from CIEE s policy, the more stringent policy will apply. Each Center/Resident/Academic Director may also elect to publish more specific guidance on the application and administration of these attendance policies in the local context. Excessively tardy (over 15 minutes late) students will be marked absent Students who miss class for personal travel will be marked as absent and unexcused. No make-up opportunity will be provided. An absence will only be considered excused if: - a doctor s note is provided - a CIEE staff member verifies that the student was too ill to attend class - evidence is provided of a family emergency. Persistent absenteeism (students approaching 20% or more of total course hours missed, or violations of the attendance policies in more than one class) may lead to a written warning from the Academic Director or Resident Director, notification to the student s home school, and/or dismissal from the program in addition to reduction in class grade(s). 2

3 Course Schedule (Daily Course Outline) (subject to modification; museum visits might change according to current exhibitions) Week 1 1. Introduction to the course. Aims of the course, and reading assignments. Breton's Manifestos and Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams. What is surrealism? First assignment class work project. Field Trip Week 2 2. Psychoanalysis as a means for creation : The Surrealist Movement (1). Automatism. Focus on automatism, borrowed from analytical therapy, and used as a creative and ludic technique. Students will experiment with automatic writing, and will study painting techniques, such as Max Ernst' frottage, generating the emergence of uncanny images. Discussion of Surrealist Black humour. 3. The Surrealist Movement (2). Assemblages. Focus on the association technique, also taken from the analytical therapy model. Students will experiment with «Exquisite Corpse» writing, and will analyse assemblages by Dalí. Visit of Montmartre, Surrealism's Headquarters (Espace Dalí, Breton's studio rue Fontaine, Place Blanche). 4. The Surrealist Movement (3). Dreamland. Focus on Onirism in Surrealist paintings and films. Study of René Clair's Entr'acte, and Paris qui dort. Fantasy genre and the Myth. Visit of the Musée national Gustave Moreau. 5. The Surrealist Movement (4). The Surrealist Paris : A Taste for Ambiguity. We will discuss Surrealists' interest for ambiguous places and themes (including eroticism). Reading of Breton's Nadja and Aragon's Paris Peasant and their association with drawings. Visit of Paris's «passages couverts» (covered galleries), the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, and La Halle Saint-Pierre. 6. The Surrealist Movement (5). The Man Suicided by Society We will look at Surrealist member A. Artaud and his writings, relating them to the Surrealist movement. What does madness reveal about society? What is the History of Madness (Foucault)? Visit of Van Gogh / Artaud. The Man Suicided by Society, Musée d'orsay. The Surrealist Movement (6). Surrealism & Social Critic. Focus on Surrealism's revolutionary ambitions: against bourgeois society and the kingdom of reason, Surrealism proposed revolutionary forms. Psychoanalysis contributed to such experimentations and fed the spirit of revolt. Bunuel, from An Andalousian Dog to The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, Magritte. 3

4 Week 3 7. The Surrealist Movement (7). Eros, Primitivism and Anti-Racism. Morning. We will focus on the The Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme (1938). More specifically, we will discuss the role played by primitive art within the Surrealist movement and the magazines of Georges Bataille. Afternoon. Visit of The Musée du quai Branly, permanent collection, current exhibitions and discussion of the strained relationship between Surrealism and the US. 8. The Surrealist Movement (8). Picasso, Pollock and Surrealism We will explore the influence of Surrealism on the work of Pollock and Picasso. In particular, we will discuss the way in which they utilised Psychoanalysis and primitive art. Mid-term exam. 9. Richness and Limits (1). Is Art a Cure? Art, conceived as an intermediary realm, has been described as a reconciliation between reality and fantasy. We will discuss the relationship between aesthetic and psychoanalysis while visiting the permanent collection of the Centre Pompidou, and especially the works related to Surrealism. Richness and Limits (2). From personality to «jouissance» Discussion of Freud's interpretation of Vinci and Jung's Red Book. Focus on Lacan's «jouissance»: artistic creation overflows the artist's personality. We will look at Lacan's conception of art in relation to the divided self. Short oral presentations by students. Week Richness and Limits (3). The Desiring-machine. We will examine Deleuze and Guattari's notion of desiring machine, and we will confront their conception with Gérard Fromanger's artworks and that of other contemporary artists. Short oral presentations by students. 11. Psychoanalysis and Contemporary Art :Explorations (1). Art and Hysteria. We will explore Charcot's notion of Hysteria, its controversial use by Freud and the way in which Surrealists and a contemporary artist, Ernest Pignon Ernest, engaged with hysteria and mysticism. (Psychoanalysis and religion: group discussion). 12. Psychoanalysis and Contemporary Art : Explorations (2). Art's «Death Instinct». Violence is a recurrent theme in contemporary art. Can Freud's «Death Instinct» and the concept of the psychoanalytical Law help us understand such persistence? Visit of the Musée d'art Moderne de la Ville de Paris and Palais de Tokyo (permanent collections and/or current exhibitions). 13. Psychoanalysis and Contemporary Art : Explorations (3). Psychoanalysis, Gender and Queer. From René Crevel to Marcel Duchamp, Surrealism was always fascinated by transvestitism and transsexualism. We will explore this and related themes, as well as their impact on Psychoanalysis, in the work of contemporary artists. Final exam. 4

5 Readings Texts will be provided weekly by the instructor. Readings will comprise articles and excerpts from psychoanalytical thinkers (Freud, Lacan, Kristeva), French philosophers (Deleuze & Guattari), Art historians and critics (T.J. Clark, Mignon Nixon, Rosalind Krauss) and artists (Breton, Bataille, Magritte, Duchamp. Pollock, Artaud, Ernest Pignon Ernest). 5

CIEE Global Institute Paris

CIEE Global Institute Paris Course name: The Unconscious Eye: Psychoanalysis and the Visual Arts Course number: PSYC 3101 PAFR Programs offering course: OC Summer Language+Culture, Summer Psychoanalysis+Culture