R. Gray

German 390/Comp Lit 396/Engl 363/CHID 498/JSIS 488/Lit 298

Freud and the Literary Imagination

Short Writing Assignment 2

Write on either A) or B in 150-200 words!

A) At one point in his reflections, Lieutenant Gustl imagines how people will react to the news of his death. Put yourself in his position—that is, attempt to use his voice—to create the obituary Gustl might write for himself in his own mind.

B) Freud employed several metaphors for the mind: archeological ruins, a palimpsest, the mystic writing pad. We suggested that Freud might have chosen other metaphors if he had lived, for example, to see the invention of the PC. Thinking of Freud's model of the psyche that he develops in "A Note upon the Mystic Writing-Pad," can you think of another metaphor for the mind that might be appropriate? Explain how that object/process/device and our minds function in similar ways.