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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.
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LONGMAN CRITICAL READERS General Editor: STAN SMITH, Professor of English, University of Dundee Published titles: K. M. NEWTON, George Eliot MARY EAGLETON, GARY WALLER, Feminist Literary Criticism Shakespeare's Comedies Shakespearean Tragedy JOHN DRAKAKIS, RICHARD WILSON AND RICHARD DUTTON, New Historicism and Renaissance Drama PETER BROOKER, Modernism/Postmodernism PETER WIDDOWSON, D. H. Lawrence RACHEL BOWLBY, Virginia Woolf Contemporary Marxist Literary Criticism FRANCIS MULHERN, ANNABEL PATTERSON, John Milton CYNTHIA CHASE, Romanticism MICHAEL O'NEILL, STEPHANIE TRIGG, Shelley Medieval English Poetry ANTONY EASTHOPE, Contemporary Film Theory TERRY EAGLETON, Ideology MAUD ELLMANN, Psychoanalytic Literary Criticism PSYCHOANALYTIC LITERARY CRITICISM Edited and Introduced by MAUD ELLMANN HHH HUH LONGMAN LONDON AND NEW YORK Longman Group UK Limited, Longman House, Burnt Mill, Harlow, Essex CM20 2JE, England and Associated Companies throughout the world. Published in the United States of America by Longman Publishing, New York © Longman Group UK Limited 1994 All rights reserved; no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without either the prior written permission of the Publishers or a licence permitting restricted copying in the United Kingdom issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd., 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 9HE. First published 1994 ISBN 0-582-08348-6 CSD ISBN 0-582-08347-8 PPR British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Psychoanalytic literary criticism/edited and introduced by Maud EUmann. p. cm.-(Longman critical readers) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-582-08348-6 (CSD).—ISBN 0-582-08347-8 (PPR) 1. Psychoanalysis and literature. 2. Criticism. I. EUmann, Maud, 1954- . II. Series. PN56.P92P725 1994 801'.92—dc20 94-1983 CIP Set by 5 in 9 on 11V2 Palatino Produced by Longman Singapore Publishers (Pte) Ltd. Printed in Singapore Contents General Editors' Preface Acknowledgements vi viii Introduction The textual unconscious The psychic theatre Freud's Oedipus Lacan's Oedipus Before the phallus Towards the psychoanalysis of literature 1 1 6 11 15 20 26 PART ONE: DRAMA 1 2 3 ANDRE GREEN Prologue: The Psycho-Analytic Reading of Tragedy 39 CYNTHIA CHASE Oedipal Textuality: Reading Freud's Reading of Oedipus 56 Beyond Oedipus: The Specimen Story of SHOSHANA FELMAN Psychoanalysis 76 PART TWO: NARRATIVE 4 SLAVOJ ZIZEK 5