Psychoanalytical Literary Theory: Free Course Online

Description: Psychoanalytical literary theory explores the connection between literature and psychology, applying Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic concepts to interpret and analyze literary works. It delves into the unconscious motivations, desires, and conflicts of characters, examining how symbols, dreams, and language reveal deeper psychological layers and the interplay between the conscious and the subconscious mind. By examining the psychological complexities embedded within literature, this theory aims to uncover hidden meanings, psychological processes, and the impact of literature on the reader's psyche.

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Course Content

1. Freud: Biographical Sketch
2. Theory of Personality
3. Consciousness and the Unconscious
4. Anxiety & its Types
5. Dream Symbols Unveiled
6. Death in Psychoanalysis
7. Sexuality in Psychoanalysis

1. Introduction to Ego-defense Mechanisms
2. Denial
3. Reaction Formation
4. Projection
5. Displacement
6. Rationalization
7. Sublimation
8. Regression
9. Introjection
10. Identification
11. Compensation

1. Unveiling Abstract Concepts
2. Language and Symbolic Order
3. The Lost Object of Desire and Symbolic Order
4. Metaphor and Metonymy in the Unconscious

1. Interpreting Literature through a Lacanian Lens
2. Psychoanalyzing Literary Characters and Literature

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Objectives

Having completed this course you should be able to:
✓ Create works of literature in various genres, including, but not limited to: short story/fiction, creative nonfiction, drama, and poetry
✓ Correctly identify the basic elements of fiction and creative nonfiction.
✓ Gain an accurate vocabulary of prose terms.