This course traces contemporary ideas of body and subjectivity through the work of a range of artists and writers. Its major focus is on the experience of memory and self-understanding. It addresses the questions of how memory is constituted and how it is crucial to our sense of self; how memory affects our relations to images and objects, and how memory is represented. The course also examines human relations to space, the themes of horror and humour, and the topics of gesture, performativity and mimesis. Contemporary art and writing practices will be used as the basis for a creative engagement with theoretical ideas. Focus texts include writing by Christian Boltanski, Georges Perec, Oliver Sacks, Dori Laub, Julia Kristeva, Jeff Wall, Judith Butler and the stories of the 'stolen children'.