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Freud’s Archaeology
June 4, 2019 - June 5, 2019
Freud’s interest in antiquity and his self-described obsessive collecting of ancient artefacts is well documented. His library, as well as his own texts, are replete with references to excavation, buried cities, and to the works of archaeologists and philologists. The dialogue between analysis and excavation that prevails throughout Freud’s thought has since generated a history of work engaging archaeology as allegory. This conference explores the conceptual inseparability of archaeology and psychoanalysis, invoking Freud’s claim that the excavation of repressed memories and of historical artefacts is “in fact identical.”
Freud’s Archaeology thus takes as its starting point archaeology’s double function of allegory and practice within psychoanalysis and the fact that archaeology and psychoanalysis as disciplines oscillate between theoretical and practical work. This makes a clear distinction between these two “identical” disciplines within psychoanalysis impossible. The conference dwells on these convergences—of archaeology and analysis, allegory and practice—by asking what can be generated by taking seriously Freud’ claim of equivalence between archaeology and analysis, between his work as an analyst and as a collector of antiquity.
By bringing together scholars from the fields of Classics, Literary Studies, Archaeology, Philosophy, and Psychoanalysis, this conference activates Freud’s claim of identity between psychoanalysis and archeology by putting into practice conversation between practitioners and theorists of these two fields.
Confirmed speakers include:
Richard Armstrong (University of Houston)
Mary Bergstein (Rhode Island School of Design)
Jane McAdams Freud
Marco Galli (Sapienza University of Rome)
Jutta Gerber (Westfälische Wilhelm-Universität)
Felix Jäger (BFZ, Warburg Institute)
Vered Lev Kenaan (University of Haifa)
Marion Maurin (Friedrich Schlegel Graduate School, FU Berlin)
Claire Potter
Carol Seigel (Freud Museum)
Frederika Tevebring (Warburg Institute)
Matthew Vollgraff (BFZ, Warburg Institute)
Alex Wolfson (University of Chicago)
Chiara Zampieri (Catholic University of Leuven)
Free and open to all. Programme to be announced shortly.
Organised by Frederika Tevebring (the Warburg Institute) and Alexander Wolfson (University of Chicago).