This course explores the relation between literature and the figure of the secret. Throughout the semester, we will read, on the one hand, literary texts that are constructed around an act of concealment; and, on the other hand, texts that betray a desire for exposure, a burning need to do away with any trace of secrecy. Through these readings, we will explore the function of the secret in modern culture: we will try to understand how as modern subjects we constitute ourselves around a core of secrecy; and why, at the same time, we keep feeling a temptation to reveal, ever so slightly, our own secrets. We will examine social constructions that dictate a drama of secrecy (such as the LGBT closet); and ask how “open secrets” operate – those secrets to which everyone is privy yet no one openly acknowledges. Finally, we will address the role of literature in all this: What makes literature such an apt site for the exploration of secrets and their temptations? In other words, what are the secrets of literature?

We will discuss works by Rousseau, Poe, Madame de La Fayette, Agnon, Yehoshua, Fink, Calle, and others; and will familiarize ourselves as well with some theoretical accounts of secrecy from Psychoanalysis, cultural criticism, queer theory, and literary theory.