The insane asylum and the notion of “madness” have been recurring figures in literature and art history and form a vivid yet often sensationalized theme in cinema of the twentieth century. Our class will consider the following questions; what is ‘madness’ and how has it been constructed? how has madness functioned as ‘criminality’ or ‘evil’? How have these ideas been represented in cinema and literature, popular culture and traditional art ? How did the notions of the developing field of psychoanalysis become popularized in American cinema and popular culture ?
We will examine such historical issues as the invention of the insane asylum, changing definitions of criminality and insanity, the influence of psychiatry on notions of clinical illness, and the contemporary obsession with the serial killer, in order to trace their subsequent representations and rearticulations in classical and contemporary American cinema. Examining the work of Michel Foucault, Sigmund Freud and other writers, the class opens with Bedlam (Mark Robson, 1946) and is followed by the German Expressionist classic Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. It continues with Hollywood films made between 1940 and 1963, whose narratives of madness also exemplified a new popularization of psychoanalysis; in Spellbound (Hitchcock, 1945), The Snake Pit (Anatole Litvak, 1948), Shock Corridor (Samuel Fuller, 1963) and Possessed (Curtis Bernhardt, 1947). The class concludes with One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Milos Forman, 1975), Birdy (Alan Parker, 1984), Frances (Graeme Clifford, 1982), Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme, 1991) and Seven (David Fincher, 1995).
The class will parallel screenings with a broad selection of literature engaging with questions of madness; including Gothic literature, the writings of the surrealists and visual texts from art history (including Hogarth, Goya & Bosch). Difficult to access films will be made available through the professor. This class is intended as a lecture class for Cinema and cultural studies students but the diversity of the films and material offered will also be of interest to students from psychology, literature, liberal studies, and American studies.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
short paper 25% class participation
25% final paper or journal 50%
assignment #1- a short (6 page)
investigatory essay around one film and one reading assignment, integrating
discussion around a particular topic; e.g. representation of the asylum,
psychiatric or criminal construction of a patient, particular psychiatric
categories e.g.; ‘schizophrenia’ ‘multiple personality’ ‘schizoid personality’
assignment #2- the student has a
choice of either a journal or a formal long paper (15 pages) on a topic
of your choice, engaging with some of the issues introduced in class
Attendance is required at all classes
and a roll will be taken. Any student missing 3 classes without an explanation
will automatically receive an F.
Failure to hand in assignments on
time, without an appropriate explanation will also result in grade penalization.
Students are expected to actively participate in class discussion.
COURSE TEXTBOOKS
1)The Faber Book of Madness (PENG)
(ed.) Roy Porter(Faber; NY) 1993
2) Reading Package (RP) available
at University Copy, 11 Waverly Place, between Broadway & University
Place (10% student discount)
II/The Asylum as Circus
Home viewing: Bedlam (Mark Robson,
1946)
Class viewings: excerpts from Nightmare
Alley Edmund Goulding (1947)
Readings: RP Psychiatry in the Cinema
29- 43; PENG pp. 350-406
III/ Discourses of psychoanalysis;
The Analyst & The Analysand
Required Home Viewing: Spellbound
(Alfred Hitchcock, 1945)
Class Viewing: excerpts from Now
Voyager Irving Rapper (1942)
readings: class handouts on Artaud,
Bataille and the Surrealist Manifesto; RP Janet Walker “Couching Resistance;
Women, Film and Postwar Psychoanalytic Psychiatry”
IV/Psychoanalysis and the ‘Problem’
of Women
Required Home Viewing: The Snake
Pit (Anatole Litvak, 1946)
Class Viewings: excerpts Three Faces
of Eve Nunnally Johnson (1957);The Dark Mirror (1946) Robert Siodmak
;
readings: RP; Psychiatry & The
Cinema pp. 84-114; PENG 213-278;
V/ Psychoanalysis in the asylum III
Required Home Viewing: Shock Corridor
(Samuel Fuller, 1963)
Class Viewing: excerpts from
Possessed (Curtis Bernhardt) 1947
readings: PENG 113-153
VI/The Insane as ‘Murderous Maniac’
Required Home Viewing: Straitjacket
(William Castle, 1964)
Class Screening: excerpts from Berserk
(Jim O’Connally, 1967);
What Ever Happened to Baby
Jane? (Robert Aldrich, 1962) & Mommie Dearest (Frank Perry, 1981)
Optional Reading: Janet Frame Faces
in the Water (Braziller Press; NY) 1982
Class reading; PENG 92-112 &
182-197 & RP Otto Wahl “Murder and Mayhem” 56-86
VII/Documentary &
The Asylum
Required Home Viewing: Titicut
Follies (Fred Wiseman) 1967.
Class viewing: excerpts from Nazi
“Racial Hygiene” film from the 1930’s; discussion of racist ideologies
and visual representation
Readings: PENG 198-212 & 279-349
VIII/The Inmates Fight Back I/Historical
changes in Psychiatry & the Institution
Required Home Viewing: Frances (Graeme
Clifford, 1982)
Class screening: clips Nuts (Martin
Ritt, 1987)
Readings: PENG pp. 279-349 &
490-518
IX/The Inmates Fight Back II
Required Home Viewing: One Flew
Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Milos Forman, 1975);
Class viewing: clips Birdy (Alan
Parker, 1984);
Readings: RP Psychiatry in the Cinema
138-173; PENG 490-518
X/Allegory of Insanity; Psychosis
& The Serial Killer
Outline: Taking the test case of
the serial killer as an exemplary model of the construction of “extreme
madness” we will examine various media representations of the
serial killer and the ideologies that underlie them.
Class Discussion will include the
cases of Ed Gein, Son of Sam, Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer et al
Required Home Viewing: The Silence
of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme, 1991)
Class Screenings: excerpts from
Henry; Portrait of a Serial Killer(John McNaughton, 1990) ; Psycho (Alfred
Hitchcock, 1960)
Readings: RP: Amy Taubin “Killing
Men”; Joyce Carol Oates “I Had no Other Thrill or Happiness”
XI/ Allegory of the Serial Killer
II
Required Home Viewing: Seven (David
Fincher, 1995)
Reading: RP “Predators”; excerpts
Abnormal Psychology & Modern Life 364-371
XII/Concluding Class
Required Home Viewing: The
Ninth Configuration (William Blatty, 1980)
Journals or final papers due
Bataille, Georges. The Trial of Giles
De Rais (Amok; Los Angeles) 1991
----------------------- Visions
of Excess (University of Minnesota; Minnesota)
Black, Joel. The Aesthetics of Murder;
A Study in Romantic Literature and Contemporary Culture. Baltimore
& London: John Hopkins University Press, 1991.
Brenner, Charles An
Elementary Textbook of Psychoanalysis (Doubleday; NY) 1955. 1973
Buber, Martin. Good and Evil;
Two Interpretations. (1953) Second ed. New York: Charles Scribner,
1952.
Cameron, Deborah & Fraser,
Elizabeth. The Lust to Kill; A Feminist investigation of sexual Murder
(New York University Press; New York) 1987
Coleman, James. Abnormal Psychology
(Scribner; NY) 1990
Currie, John. Compulsion to
Kill; An Inside Look at Killers Who Strike Again and Again. ed. Alexandra,
Virginia: Time Life Books, 1993.
Daly, Marin & Wilson, Margo.
Homicide. New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1988.
Egger, Steven. Serial Murder: an
Elusive Phenomenon (Praeger; New York) 1990
Evans, G.R. Augustine on Evil.
1982 ed. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1982.
Foucault, Michel (ed.). I Pierre
Rivière Having slaughtered my Mother, my sister and my brother....;
a case of Parricide in the nineteenth
century ( University Of Nebraska Press; New York ) 1975
--------------------- Discipline
and Punishment (Random House; New York) 1977
----------------------Birth of the
Clinic (Random House; New York) 1973
----------------------Madness and
civilization (Random House; New York) 1965
Frame, Janet. Faces in the
Water (Brazilliar; New York) 1961
Gabbard, Krin & Glen. O
Psychiatry and the Cinema (University of Chicago; Chicago) 1987
Gilman, Sander L. Difference
and Pathology; Stereotypes of Sexuality, Race and Madness. Ithaca &
London: Cornell University Press, 1985.
----------------------Seeing The
Insane (University of Nebraska Press; Lincoln & London) 1982, (revised)1996
Glamuzina, Julie & Laurie, Alison
J. Parker and Hulme; A Lesbian View. Auckland, New Zealand: New Women's
Press, 1991.
Goodwin, Sarah Webster & Bronfen,
Elizabeth (eds.) Death and Representation; Parallax Re-visions of Culture
and Society. Baltimore & London: John Hopkins University Press,
1993.
Hacking, Ian. Rewriting the
Soul; Multiple Personality and the Sciences of Memory. Princeton,
New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1995.
Halberstam, Judith. Skin Shows;
Gothic Horror and the Technology of Monsters. 1995 ed. Durham,
North Carolina & London, England: Duke University Press, 1995.
Hart, Linda. Fatal Women;
Lesbian Sexuality and the Mark of Aggression. 1994 ed. Princeton,
New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1994.
Jamison, Kay Redfield Touched
With Fire; Manic -Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament (Macmillan;
NY) 1993
Jenkins, Philip. Using Murder;
The Social Construction of Homicide. Social Problems and Social Issues.
1994 ed. New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1994.
Laing, R.D. The Divided Self
(Penguin, Baltimore MD) 1965
------------ The Politics of Experience
(Ballantyne; NY) 1967
Kaplan, E. Ann(ed.) Psychoanalysis
and The Cinema (Routledge; NY) 1990
Lesser, Wendy. Pictures at
an Execution; An Inquiry into the Subject of Murder. 1995 ed.
Cambridge, Mass. & London, England: Harvard University Press, 1993.
Levin, Jack & Fox, James Alan.
Mass Murder: America's Growing Menace. New York & London: Plenum Press,
1985.
Lunde, Donald & Morgan, Jefferson.
The Die Song; a Journey into the Mind of a Mass Murderer. New
York: Norton, 1980.
Lunde, Donald T. Murder and
Madness. 1976 ed. San Francisco: San Francisco Book Company,
1975.
McConkey, James, ed. The Anatomy
of Memory; An Anthology (Oxford University Press; NY & London) 1996
MacKay, Charles, M.D. Extraordinary
Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (Farrar, Strauss & Giroux;
NY) 1831, 1933
Noddings, Neil. Women and
Evil. Berkeley, Los Angeles: University of California Press,
1989.
Ressler, Robert & Schachtman,
Tom. Whoever Fights Monsters; My Twenty Years Tracking Serial Killers
for the FBI. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992.
Revitch, Eugene & Schlesinger,
Louis. Psychopathology of Homicide (Charles Thomas; Illinois) 1981
Sass, Louis. Madness and Modernism;
Insanity in the Light of Modern Art, Literature, and Thought.
Cambridge, Massachusetts & London, England: Harvard University Press,
1992.
Strachey, James(ed.) The Standard
Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud (Norton ;
NY) 1964
Wahl, Otto Media Madness;
Public Images of Mental Illness (Rutgers, New Jersey) 1995
Walker, Janet Couching Resistance:Women,
Film and Psychoanalytic Psychiatry Minneapolis: U Minnesota, 1993.
White, Robert W & Watt, Norman
F. The abnormal Personality, Fifth edition (John Wiley & Sons;
New York), 1948 (1981)
Zizek, Slavoj Enjoy Your Symptom!
Jacques Lacan in Hollywood and Out NY: Routledge, 1993.
Class will also receive readings from the American Psychiatric Society’s Diagnostic & Statistical Manual (DSM- IV) and supplementary reading handouts