So. I made this for a “HANNIBAL UNIVERSITY” but is that even something anyone would be remotely interested?

SYLLABUS: “The Aesthetics of the Abyss”

Foundations in the Architecture of the Self

(Exploring the structures of identity, desire, and consciousness)

1. PSY 101: Masks and Mirrors: The Multiplicity of the Self

- Jung’s Persona, Shadow, and Individuation

- Lacan’s Mirror Stage

- Performance theory (Goffman, Butler)

2. PHI 117: The Abyss Stares Back: Nietzsche, Power, and the Eternal Return

- Apollonian vs. Dionysian

- Master/Slave morality

- Becoming vs. Being

3. ART 203: The Beautiful Grotesque

- Anatomy as aesthetic object

- Baroque excess and sublimation

- Symbolism and the erotic body in art

4. SOC 140: Cults, Cannibalism, and the Rites of Civilization

- Taboos and sacred violence (Girard)

- Civilized savagery

- Fine dining as domination

Descent into Otherness

(Exploring madness, love, transformation, and the divine predator)

5. PSY 207: Erotics of Death and Surrender

- Thanatos and Eros

- Devotion as annihilation

- Erotic obsession and mutual possession

6. REL 221: The God Who Eats: Myth and Sacrifice

- Dionysus, Shiva, and flesh as offering

- Mystical cannibalism in religious traditions

- Transubstantiation as transformation ritual

7. FILM 301: Dreamlogic and the Unreliable Gaze

- Surrealism, horror, and dream sequences

- The use of framing, slowness, and silence

- Symbolic disorientation (Bergman, Żuławski, Tarkovsky)

8. LIT 212: The Romantic Monster

- Frankenstein, Dorian Gray, Dracula

- Ambiguity, seduction, and ethical disintegration

- Beauty and horror as lovers

Becoming the Other

(Initiation, merging, and transcendence through the act of surrender)

9. PHI 302: Devouring the Beloved: Love as Transformation

- Bhakti traditions and divine union

- Bataille’s inner experience and erotic limit

- Sufism and the disappearance of self in the Beloved

10. ANTH 351: Rituals of the Hunt

- Predator/prey symbolism

- The gaze as weapon and intimacy

- Shamanic metamorphosis and animal identity

11. ART 377: The Tableau Mort: Staging Death as Art

- Performance art and the aesthetics of stillness

- Francesca Woodman, Joel-Peter Witkin

- Forensics and beauty