Course overview
This course introduces Cultural Studies students to various theories of desire, both historical and contemporary, in the context of subject formation, cultures of consumption, and contemporary mass culture. It aims to equip students with a conceptual vocabulary for inquiring into the ways selves are constructed, and inquiring into the role of desire in fashioning both the self and the cultures it is embedded in. It aims to give students advanced skills in the application of theoretical paradigms to the analysis of real-life case studies and examples.
Course learning outcomes
- Be conversant with the tradition of psychoanalytic thought as a mode of cultural analysis, and major critiques thereof
- Understand the contribution of Psychoanalysis and Cultural Studies to contemporary understandings of subject formation
- Apply theories and methods from these traditions to the analysis of contemporary culture
- Articulate and analyse high-level content in clear and persuasive language, expressed in both written and oral forms
Degree list
The following degrees include this course