Gender Studies 331: Feminism and Psychoanalysis

This course explores feminism’s critical dialogue with psychoanalysis. We will be drawing on the works of Jacques Lacan and French Feminism—as articulated by its leading representatives Julia Kristeva, Luce Irigaray, and Hélène Cixous—as well as those of queer feminists, such as Judith Butler, Lynne Huffer, Jasbir Puar, and Elizabeth Grosz. Particular attention will be given to the psychoanalytic critique of the subject and to questions of gender and sexual difference: Is sexual difference an ontological condition? What role does the unconscious play in the perpetuation of patriarchy? How are women and men interpellated as sexed subjectivities?