E330
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Freud
Prof. Williams
E330
FREUD READING QUESTIONS
1. How is Freud’s psychoanalysis a challenge to the description of the subject that we have used in our discussions of the relationship between subject and (art) object in Kant’s aesthetic theory?
2. Freud acknowledges that Oedipus Rex is a “tragedy of destiny” that sets the will of the gods against “the vain attempts of mankind to escape the evil that threatens them.” But he insists that the power of the play does not derive from the “contrast between destiny and human will.” Why, according to Freud, does Oedipus Rex enjoy an effect on modern audiences equal to its impact on ancient Greek audiences?
3. What does the difference between Oedipus and Hamlet teach us about changes in the historical context of the latter drama?
4. According to Freud, what is a fetish object? Be specific.
5. Offer at least one speculation about how you might take a Freudian approach to MacBeth. Identify one feature of the text that might be addressed and/or explained by an insight of Freud’s.
Bonus Question: What is Freud’s Uncanny? How does it differ from the Beautiful and the Sublime?
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