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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