IDS 201-003: Top:Interdisciplinary Problems: Psychoanalysis/CreativeWriting (Spring 2011)

General Description: IDS 201 introduces undergraduate students to cutting edge, interdisciplinary research of faculty and graduate students in Emory’s Graduate Institute of Liberal Arts. This course is excellent for students in other majors (e.g. pre-health, pre-law, business, or others thinking of future graduate studies).

Students gain a critical understanding of the methodologies and forms of evidence that separate disciplines. Emphasis on interdisciplinary methods and theoretical contexts. Each section of IDS 201 explores a distinct theme, but writing instruction and requirements are standard across all sections, including participation in writing labs.

IDS 200 and IDS 201 are complementary courses and students in either are encouraged to take the other—either simultaneously or in sequence.

Contents: "We laymen have always been intensely curious to know [ . . . ] from what sources that strange being, the creative writer, draws his material, and how he manages to make such an impression on us with it and to arouse in us emotions of which, perhaps, we had not even thought ourselves capable." Sigmund Freud opens his 1908 essay, "On Creative Writers and Daydreaming" with these words. In this course, we will seek to understand creative inspiration through the technique of psychoanalysis. Where do writers get their ideas? What does a creative work reveal about a writer's inner life? Can ideas truly be original? Is writing inherently personal? And what can our response to creative work reveal about ourselves?

We will begin the semester with an overview of psychoanalytic technique, focusing on the work of Sigmund Freud. We will also look to contemporary authors who write about the creative process, including Annie Dillard and Anne Lamott. To better explore the possibilities of psychoanalytically-informed writing for interdisciplinary investigation, students will complete a series of writing projects, including short stories, personal prose and a critical paper. Several sessions of class time will be devoted to writing workshops, where students will analyze their own writing and the writing of their peers.

Particulars: As this course fulfills the GER writing requirement, assessment will be based on writing projects and on class participation. There will be no quizzes or tests. All readings will be available through Reserves Direct.