PA108-4-SP-CO:
Popular Film, Literature and Television: A Psychosocial Approach
2024/25
Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies
Colchester Campus
Spring
Undergraduate: Level 4
Current
Monday 13 January 2025
Friday 21 March 2025
15
07 February 2023
Requisites for this module
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
BA LCJ8 Sociology with Psychosocial Studies (Including Placement Year),
BA LJ8C Sociology with Psychosocial Studies (Including Year Abroad),
BA LJC8 Sociology with Psychosocial Studies,
BA C890 Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies,
BA C89A Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies (Including Placement Year),
BA C89B Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies (Including Year Abroad),
BA C89C Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies (Including Foundation Year)
This module forms an introduction to psychoanalytic theory (Freud, Jung, and contemporary perspectives) through material from popular culture. How can we use the insights from psychoanalysis (Freud and post-Freudian) and analytical psychology (Jung and post-Jungian) to understand popular cultural productions like film, television, literature and poetry?
Ideas from psychoanalysis and analytical psychology can be applied to understand why it is that cultures produce what they do and why these productions can be so compelling and popular. By understanding the notion of the individual and group unconscious (foundational for both Jung and Freud), psychoanalytic perspectives can also provide insight into cultural phenomena.
Film, television and literature will be used alongside theoretical texts to bring out the major insights of psychoanalytic theory as a method to analyse cultural production.
The modules aims:
1. To provide an introduction to depth psychological theory by utilising its unique perspectives on popular film, literature, and theory.
2. To enable a critical approach to the depth psychologies and their applications to popular culture: particularly film, television, and literature.
3. To explore film, television and literary criticism from a depth psychological perspective and explore the validity of such an engagement.
On successful competion of the module, student will be able to:
1. Show an understanding of the major concepts in Freudian, Jungian, and contemporary psychoanalytic theory.
2. Critically demonstrate how such methods and concepts can be applied to cultural phenomena such as film, television and literature.
3. Show how concepts from the depth psychologies have affected the content of certain forms of cultural phenomena.
For students taking PA108 as an outside option, the module provides both an accessible and critical introduction to Freudian and Jungian ideas. This module also complements 'The Unconscious Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society' (PA208 6 AU FREUD)' and 'The Unconscious Analytical Psychology, Culture and Society' (PA209 6 SP JUNG).
Weekly one-hour lectures by staff, followed by one-hour seminars led by GTAs, both from the Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies. Students are expected to have seen and be familiar with the films before the seminar in which they will be discussed. In the case of the television series Arrested Development, students are expected to be familiar with the plot line of season one.
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Fordham, F. (1966) An introduction to Jung’s psychology. 3rd ed. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.
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Hockley, L. (ed.) (2018) The Routledge international handbook of Jungian film studies. Abingdon: Routledge.
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Bassil-Morozow, H.V. and Hockley, L. (2017)
Jungian film studies: the essential guide. London: Routledge. Available at:
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/10.4324/9781315622231.
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Mitchell, S.A. and Black, M.J. (1995a)
Freud and beyond: a history of modern psychoanalytic thought. New York: BasicBooks. Available at:
https://app.kortext.com/Shibboleth.sso/Login?entityID=https://idp0.essex.ac.uk/shibboleth&target=https://app.kortext.com/borrow/206022.
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Sigmund Freud
James Strachey (no date) ‘Mourning and Melancholia’,
The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, 14, pp. 237–258. Available at:
https://pep-web.org/browse/document/se.014.0237a?page=P0237.
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Sergio Benvenuto (no date) ‘"The Earth is Evil”: On Lars von Trier’s Melancholia’,
Division Review, 7, pp. 41–43. Available at:
https://pep-web.org/browse/document/dr.007.0041a?page=P0041.
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Adam Curtis (2002) ‘Adam Curtis - Century of the Self. Part 1: ‘Happiness Machines’’. YouTube. Available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnPmg0R1M04.
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Packard, V. and Miller, M.C. (2007)
The hidden persuaders. Reissue Edition. Brooklyn, New York: Ig Publishing. Available at:
https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/universityofessex-ebooks/detail.action?pq-origsite=primo&docID=3029422.
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Wollheim, R. (1991) Freud. 2nd ed. London: Fontana.
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Freud, S.
et al. (1953c)
The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud. London: Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis. Available at:
https://pep-web-org.uniessexlib.idm.oclc.org/browse/document/SE.004.R0009A?index=20&openNotificationModal=false&page=122.
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Landrum, J.P. (2017) ‘Nostalgia, Fantasy, and Loss: Stranger Things and the Digital Gothic’,
Intertexts, 21(1–2), pp. 136–158. Available at:
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/721369.
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McCarthy, K. (2019) ‘Remember Things: Consumerism, Nostalgia, and Geek Culture in Stranger Things’,
The Journal of Popular Culture, 52(3), pp. 663–677. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1111/jpcu.12800.
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Kaplan, H.A. (1987) ‘The Psychopathology of Nostalgia’,
Psychoanalytic Review, 74. Available at:
https://pep-web-org.uniessexlib.idm.oclc.org/browse/document/PSAR.074.0465A?page=P0465.
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Williams, R. (1988) Keywords: a vocabulary of culture and society. Rev. and expanded ed. London: Fontana.
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Freud, S.
et al. (1953b)
Civilization and its Discontents. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XXI (1927-1931): The Future of an Illusion, Civilization and its Discontents, and Other Works. London: Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis. Available at:
https://pep-web-org.uniessexlib.idm.oclc.org/browse/document/SE.021.0057A&page=P0064.
The above list is indicative of the essential reading for the course.
The library makes provision for all reading list items, with digital provision where possible, and these resources are shared between students.
Further reading can be obtained from this module's
reading list.
Assessment items, weightings and deadlines
| Coursework / exam |
Description |
Deadline |
Coursework weighting |
| Coursework |
Essay 1 |
28/02/2025 |
|
| Coursework |
Essay 2 |
02/05/2025 |
|
Exam format definitions
- Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
- In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary,
for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.
Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.
Overall assessment
Reassessment
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Dr Chenyang Wang, email: cwangab@essex.ac.uk.
From the Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies
Student Administrator 5A.202; telephone 01206 87 4969; email ppsug@essex.ac.uk
01206 874969 Room 5A.202
Yes
Yes
No
Dr Angie Voela
University of East London
Reader
Available via Moodle
Of 20 hours, 20 (100%) hours available to students:
0 hours not recorded due to service coverage or fault;
0 hours not recorded due to opt-out by lecturer(s), module, or event type.
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