The Superhuman: final

Tuesday, March 15, 2005 » school update

Prompt:

We have considered the post-natural maternal body, under construction since the nineteenth century, and how our superheroes and supervillains affirm or manipulate its legacy. The theory of evolution opens up this bodily legacy to the widest possible influences and futures. In our individual development, we pass (inevitably) from the good and bad breast of the pre-Oedipal phase to the phallic evil-versus-good opposition organizing the Oedipal phase. We've added to the prize of destiny of self-difference a notion of sexual difference as traversing each individual psyche. We've called the components of this self difference the internal feminine and the internal masculine. Examine the ways in which three superheroes/-heroines seek a balancing act among developmental phases, internal worlds, and modes of valuation. Include as contrasting figure King Jack the Ripper.

Examples I used: Superman, James Bond, the Terminator.

So yes, I'm glad to be done with that class. The sections and reviews leading up to the final were highlights, as all the students (and even the TA, on occasion) took the opportunity to take jabs at the professor's unique1 lecturing style. During the final review session, people were asking for hints at the question the professor might ask. One student asked, "Will it make sense?" This received a round of applause from the entire lecture hall.

1 incoherent