E I D O L O N
– Chasing the Ideal:
Gendered Configurations in Literature, Myth, and Theory
(19th - 20th cent. )
Gender-AR, Fri. 12-2pm, Room 5

Images above by René Magritte ©

L E C T U R E - N O T E S

Notes on Simone de Beauvoir's theory of "the Other"

Notes on Poststructuralist Theory
(Lacan, Derrida, French Feminism)

Additional Info:
Notes on a Theoretical Reading of "The Lady of Shalott"
(Feratova-Loidolt)

E -T E X T S

Robert Browning "My Last Duchess" (1842)

Lord Alfred Tennyson "The Lady of Shalott" (1842)

Article by Florian Cramer "Der Begriff 'Imago'"

GUIDED READING - READING ASSIGNMENTS

Questions for Presenters on Virigina Woolf

Questions for presenters on Browning "My Last Duchess"

Supportive Article for Presenters on Browning (online)

Questions for Presenters on Tennyson "Lady of Shalott"

Questions for Presenters on James' Wings of the Dove - December 14

Course-Description:

Eidolon is the Greek word for “image, idol, double, phantom”: in this course we will consider these meanings in the perspective of feminist theory and explore their multilayered application e.g. in psychoanalytical theory (the Imaginary/the vertigo), in literary theory (the image/ the metaphor), in art & theology (the icon/the idol). Special focus is directed on theories of the poststructuralists Jessica Benjamin and Julia Kristeva and their analysis of the ideal's function in patriarchal constructions of gender. Both take up the myth of “Narcissus & Echo” to illustrate that gender is culturally constructed on ideals (of masculinity and femininity) that turn out to be vertigos which free men and limit women. Within this theoretical framework we will explore literary texts from various genres concentrating on configurations of an ideal which aims to fix, to form, or to transform gender-identities and gender-relations between women and men. We will address issues such as: the ideal configured as man's mirror image in art (the phantom-woman in Browning and Woolf); the construction of a female saviour-ideal through memory - as an icon to define a heterosexual love-relation (James and Pinter); the monstrous potentiality of the ideal emerging in the narcissistic creations of Shelley's male and Spark's female overreacher.

Required Reading : Robert Browning. „My Last Duchess“. (1842) - poetry
Tennyson, Alfred. "The Lady of Shalott" (1842) - poetry
Virginia Woolf. “The Lady in the Looking Glass” (1926) - short story Henry James. Wings of the Dove . (1902) - novel
Harold Pinter. Old Times . (1971) - play
Muriel Spark. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie . (1961) - novel A “Reader” will be provided including Browning, Tennyson, Woolf, Pinter and theoretical texts.
The 2 novels will be available at Kuppitsch am Campus.Requirements : regular attendance & portfolio-notes, participation in critical discussions, oral presentation of a chosen topic (10 mins), final written exam.

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