Mourning and Melancholia - Detailseite

Sigmund Freud’s essay “Mourning and Melancholia” constitutes a landmark in psychoanalytic thought and the conceptualisation of the emotional process of mourning and the pathological condition melancholia. Freud distinguishes between the two and points out that mourning can be a normal and healthy reaction to the loss of a loved person or of an abstract ideal. Melancholia, in turn, is a more complex, chronic form of unhealthy mourning in which the object of loss is not quite clear – it is the condition later described as depression. Freud’s essay has proven influential in a range of scholarly disciplines, ranging from psychology to philosophy and literary & cultural studies. In this seminar, we will trace Freud’s impact on a variety of thinkers and look at expressions and representations of mourning, grief and melancholia in Anglophone cultural history and beyond. We will read theories of mourning, grief and loss as well as literary texts and films that deal with these issues. The more abstract guiding question for this seminar will be in how far we can identify mourning and grief as particular cultural forms? To find an answer to this question, we will engage with theories of grief and mourning in the work of thinkers such as Freud, Melanie Klein, Judith Butler, Eugenie Brinkema and Paul Gilroy. In addition, we will discuss literary texts by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Max Porter, and others as well as films by Paul Schrader and Lars von Trier.

In the Lektürekurs, we will focus on reading theoretical and philosophical texts that shed light on a wide variety of contexts through which to understand the primary texts. In addition, we will discuss methodological aspects and research questions.

Reading:

Most material will be available on Moodle. Novels and films will have to be purchased individually. The list of texts and films will be provided during the first session.

Introductory Reading:

Eugenie Brinkema. The Forms of the Affects. Duke UP, 2014.

Stephen Frosh. A Brief Introduction to Psychoanalytic Theory. Palgrave, 2012.