Katherine Harding Nahum Fall 2005 FA 453.01 Psychoanalytic Approaches to Art Thursdays, 3-5:30 pm Devlin 218

The seminar explores ways to look at and interpret art psychoanalytically. We read Freud, Ernst Kris and Donald Winnicott, and, presumably, the most recent ideas in psychoanalysis—while looking at and formally analyzing mostly late-nineteenth-century artists such as Gauguin and Cézanne. (This semester, however, we will be considering the late 18th-century artist, Goya, as well.) The art is the primary document in any psychological understanding; it is the communication from, the language of the artist. Students are expected to hazard commentary and analysis as we look at the artist's productions.

We read psychoanalytic theory, and we read art history and art criticism: the student is expected to discuss this material. The structure, ambience and coherence of a seminar depend upon the verbal contributions of everyone.

The grade will be based also on a take-home exam at mid-term (October 20), on a final 20+ page paper on a topic chosen by the student in consultation with me (due December 1), and on a 20-minute presentation of the major, salient ideas of that paper (to be scheduled). The presentation will be made with 35-millimeter slides; it will not be a Powerpoint presentation.

Topics should be selected quickly so that you can learn the ropes for your presentation. We will meet with Andrea Frank, the Visual Resources Curator in the slide library on September 15 so that you can become familiar with the process of a presentation with slides. You probably already have an artist or an idea in mind as a paper topic; I also will submit to the class a list of possible topics. I want to have met with each student individually by the third class (September 22) to confirm the student's paper topic.

The reading assignment for the first class:

• Freud's "Leonardo da Vinci and a Memory of His Childhood" in among other collections, Peter Gay, Ed., The Freud Reader
• Meyer Schapiro, "Freud and Leonardo: An Art Historical Study," in Schapiro, Theory and Philosophy of Art
• Ellen Handler Spitz, "The Arts" in the Textbook of Psychoanalysis, 2005

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This page updated on August 22, 2005

Image at top right: Paul Gauguin: Nativity (Te tamari no atua), 1896 (Neue Pinakothek, Munich, Germany; photograph by Claude Cernuschi)