FREN 6560 - [What is an Act?]

(crosslisted)
(also COML 6785, GOVT 6715)

Spring. 4 credits.

Next offered 2014-2015. Conducted in English.

T. McNulty.

This course departs from a very specific premise: that the Freudian theory of the subject as an eventual, episodic subject that manifests itself only in rare moments of speech remains the theory of the subject most relevant for political and social theory-and this despite the fact that it is largely dismissed as a “bourgeous individualist” take on the private subject withdrawn from the social link. We will focus our attention on the problem of the act: its definition and function, possible manifestations, and consequences it produces for a collectivity or group. How then can we think about the paradoxical articulation of individual and collectivity that the act enables, and how does it differ from what Freud calls the “group psychology,” founded upon mechanisms of identification and idealization? In what sense can a people be considered as a subject: of a fantasy or desire, of a will, or of political or legal responsibility? Among the issues we will take up are: the relationship between act and acting out; act and sublimation; act and innovation; act and constraints; act and representation.