Psychoanalysis has affected all of us, whether we recognize it or not. The world would look quite different without such concepts as the unconscious, fetishism, identification, oedipal relations, or the drives. And cinema is particularly difficult to imagine in its absence. Psychoanalysis seems to presuppose cinema (as notions like “projection,” the “dream-screen,” or the “primal scene” suggest) as much as cinema and cinema theory seem to presuppose psychoanalysis. This course thinks the two together in three specific ways: by looking at how we can understand psychoanalysis through cinema; by looking at psychoanalysis as represented in cinema; and by looking at psychoanalytic principles as essential to cinema. Each week we will pair texts of psychoanalytic theory (including psychoanalytic film theory) with films that exemplify, respond to, or illuminate them in some way. We will explore how the theories of sexuality at the heart of psychoanalysis shape both the form and content of cinematic representation. Readings may include works by authors such as Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, Slavoj Žižek, Jane Gallop, Christian Metz, Joan Copjec, Mary Anne Doane, Barbara Creed, Stephen Heath, Kaja Silverman, Laura Mulvey, Kara Keeling, Diana Fuss, Frank Wilderson III, and Thierry Kuntzel . Films to be studied may include Spellbound (Hitchcock), Cat People (Tourneur), Freud (Huston), Secrets of a Soul (Pabst), The Phantom Thread (Anderson), Moonlight (Jenkins), The Silence of the Lambs (Demme), Black Panther (Coogler), Persona (Bergman), Pressure Point (Cornfield), Peeping Tom (Powell), and Eve’s Bayou (Lemmons). This class is intended to be a small seminar and registration will be limited to those who are majoring in English or FMS. Others who wish to enroll may do so by requesting permission of the instructor via email and explaining their preparation for the class.