Psychoanalytic Literary Criticism

by Maud Ellmann

Overview

This collection of essays provides students of literary critical theory with an introduction to Freudian methods of interpretation, and shows how those methods have been transformed by recent developments in French psychoanalysis, particularly by the influence of Jacques Lacan. It explains how classical Freudian criticism tended to focus on the thematic content of the literary text, whereas Lacanian criticism focuses on its linguistic structure, redirecting the reader to the words themselves. Concepts and methods are defined by tracing the role played by the drama of Oedipus in the development of psychoanalytic theory and criticism. The essays cover a wide generic scope and are divided into three parts: drama, narrative and poetry. Each is accompanied by explanatory headnotes giving clear definitions of complex terms.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780582083479
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	11/21/1994
Series:	Longman Critical Readers
Pages:	286
Product dimensions:	5.44(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Maud Ellman is Randy L. & Melvin R. Berlin Professor of the Development of the Novel in English, in the Department of English, University of Chicago, USA.

Table of Contents

Introduction The textual unconscious The psychic theatre Freud's Oedipus Lacan's Oedipus Before the phallus Towards the psychoanalysis of literature Part 1: Drama 1. Prologue - the psycho-analytical reading of tragedy, Andre Green 2. Oedipal textuality - reading Freud's reading of Oedipus, Cynthia Chase 3. Beyond Oedipus - the specimen story of psychoanalysis, Shoshama Felman PART 2: Narrative 4. Two ways to avoid the real of desire, Slavoj Zizek 5. The melancholy persuasion, Anita Sokolsky 6. To the lighthouse, Daniel Ferrer PART 3: Poetry 7. Freud and the sublime - a catastrophe theory of creativity, Harold Bloom 8. Gerard de Nerval, the disinherited poet, Julia Kristeva 9. "Daddy", Jacqueline Rose Index