| Aspect | Details |
|---|---|
| Definition | Literary criticism using psychoanalytic theory • Analyzes unconscious motivations in texts, characters, authors • Three main approaches: 1. Psychoanalyze AUTHOR (biographical) 2. Psychoanalyze CHARACTERS (as if real people) 3. Psychoanalyze TEXT ITSELF (symptomatic reading) |
| Foundational Assumption | Literature = expression of unconscious • Like dreams, slips, symptoms - reveals hidden desires, conflicts • Author may not be aware of deeper meanings • Text = symptom of psychic processes |
| Origins | • Freud himself applied psychoanalysis to literature • Analyzed Hamlet, Oedipus, Dostoevsky, Leonardo da Vinci • Literary critics then adapted psychoanalysis systematically |
| Concept | Details |
|---|---|
| The Unconscious | Most of mind is UNCONSCIOUS • Conscious = tip of iceberg; Unconscious = vast hidden depths • Contains repressed desires, traumatic memories, forbidden wishes • Influences behavior without awareness • The Interpretation of Dreams (1900) - foundational text |
| Id, Ego, Superego | Structural model of psyche (later Freud): • Id: Primitive, instinctual, pleasure principle, unconscious (wants NOW) • Ego: Rational, mediates id/reality, reality principle, conscious/unconscious (negotiates) • Superego: Moral conscience, internalized parental/social rules, largely unconscious (judges) Psyche = battlefield of conflicting forces |
| Repression | Pushing unacceptable desires into unconscious • Primary defense mechanism • Repressed content RETURNS in disguised forms (dreams, symptoms, slips, literature) • "The return of the repressed" |
| Oedipus Complex | Universal childhood psychosexual crisis • Boy desires mother, wants to kill father (rival) • Fear of castration → repression of desires → identification with father • Foundation of later psychology, morality, culture • Named after Sophocles' Oedipus Rex • Female version: Electra Complex (Jung's term, Freud resisted) |
| Dream-Work | Unconscious transforms latent content into manifest content • Manifest content: Dream as remembered • Latent content: Hidden unconscious wishes • Dream-work mechanisms: - Condensation (multiple ideas compressed) - Displacement (importance shifted to trivial detail) - Symbolization (abstract represented concretely) - Secondary revision (narrative coherence imposed) Literature works like dreams - disguises unconscious content |
| Pleasure Principle vs. Reality Principle | Pleasure principle: Seek pleasure, avoid pain (id) Reality principle: Defer gratification, accept reality (ego) • Civilization = suppression of pleasure principle |
| Work/Analysis | Key Points |
|---|---|
| "Creative Writers and Day-Dreaming" (1908) | Literary creation = adult's daydream • Writer transforms private fantasy into universal form • Readers vicariously satisfy repressed wishes • Literature = wish-fulfillment (like dreams) |
| Hamlet Analysis | Hamlet's delay = Oedipal guilt • Can't kill Claudius because Claudius did what Hamlet unconsciously wanted (kill father, marry mother) • Hamlet sees his own repressed desires enacted • Ernest Jones elaborated in Hamlet and Oedipus (1949) |
| "The 'Uncanny'" (1919) | Das Unheimliche - familiar made strange • Uncanny = return of repressed (primitive beliefs, infantile complexes) • Example: Doubles, severed limbs, automata, repetition • Gothic literature exploits uncanny • Analyzed Hoffmann's "The Sandman" |
| "Dostoevsky and Parricide" (1928) | • Dostoevsky's patricidal wishes, epilepsy • Brothers Karamazov = working through father-complex |
| Concept | Details |
|---|---|
| Collective Unconscious | BEYOND personal unconscious = shared, universal unconscious • Inherited psychic structures common to all humanity • Contains ARCHETYPES • Explains why same symbols/myths appear across cultures • Break with Freud: NOT just repressed personal content |
| Archetypes | Universal, primordial images/patterns in collective unconscious • Examples: - The Hero: Quest, trials, transformation - The Shadow: Dark, repressed aspects of self - The Anima/Animus: Feminine in male (anima), masculine in female (animus) - The Great Mother: Nurturing/devouring feminine - The Wise Old Man: Guide, mentor - The Trickster: Mischief, boundary-crossing Literature draws on archetypes → universal resonance |
| Literary Application | • Archetypal criticism: Identify recurring patterns, myths • Northrop Frye (influenced by Jung) - Anatomy of Criticism (1957) • Joseph Campbell - The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949) • Less emphasis on author's neurosis, more on universal patterns |
| Individuation | Psychological maturation - integrating conscious/unconscious, shadow, anima/animus • Hero's journey = individuation process • Quest narratives = symbolic individuation |
| Concept | Details |
|---|---|
| Lacan's Importance | "Return to Freud" via structuralism/post-structuralism • French psychoanalyst, hugely influential on literary theory • Notoriously difficult, obscure style • Influenced Althusser, Žižek, feminists (Irigaray, Kristeva), film theory |
| "The Unconscious is Structured Like a Language" | MOST FAMOUS Lacanian dictum • Unconscious operates through linguistic structures (metaphor, metonymy) • Freud's condensation = METAPHOR (paradigmatic) • Freud's displacement = METONYMY (syntagmatic) • Brings together Freud + Saussure • Unconscious = signifying chain, not biological instincts |
| The Three Orders | Imaginary, Symbolic, Real: • The Imaginary: Realm of images, mirror stage, illusory wholeness • The Symbolic: Realm of language, law, Father, culture • The Real: That which resists symbolization, traumatic, impossible to represent Subject constituted through these three orders |
| Mirror Stage | 6-18 months: infant sees self in mirror, identifies with image • Moment of MISRECOGNITION (méconnaissance) • Image appears unified, but infant is fragmented • Foundation of ego = alienation • "I" = Other's image, not autonomous self • Imaginary identification |
| Name-of-the-Father | Entry into Symbolic order • Paternal law, language, prohibition of incest • Oedipal moment: acceptance of symbolic castration • Subject becomes "I" within language • Desire permanently split, always mediated by signifiers |
| Objet Petit a | "Object-cause of desire" - always lacking, unattainable • NOT object we desire, but what CAUSES desire • Gap, lack around which desire circulates • Desire = endless chain (no final satisfaction) |
| Literary Application | • Texts = signifying chains, desire structures • Focus on LANGUAGE, not author's biography • Gaps, silences, contradictions = the Real breaking through • Subject-positions constructed by text |
| Concept | Details |
|---|---|
| Anxiety of Influence | Poets struggle with "burden of the past" • Strong poet feels "belatedness" - precursors already said everything • Oedipal relation: poet = son, precursor = father • Must "slay" father to create own space • Influence = anxiety, not inspiration |
| Misprision | "Creative misreading" of precursor • Strong poet MISreads predecessor (willfully, creatively) • NOT passive reception but active distortion • Example: Milton misreads Spenser; Wordsworth misreads Milton |
| Six Revisionary Ratios | Mechanisms poets use to distance from precursor: 1. Clinamen: Swerve, corrective movement 2. Tessera: Completion, filling in precursor's gaps 3. Kenosis: Emptying out, discontinuity 4. Daemonization: Counter-sublime 5. Askesis: Self-purgation, isolating self 6. Apophrades: Return of dead, precursor in poet's own voice Don't memorize all 6 for MCQ - know general concept! |
| Canon & Western Tradition | • Bloom: Canon = aesthetic greatness (NOT politics) • The Western Canon (1994) - defends traditional canon • Controversial: accused of elitism, conservatism |
| Approach | Examples & Methods |
|---|---|
| Analyzing Characters | • Treat as "real" people with unconscious • Hamlet's Oedipal conflict • Lady Macbeth's repressed guilt Problem: Characters are TEXTUAL constructs, not people |
| Analyzing Authors | • Author's biography → text • Example: Poe's tales = working through mother's death, alcoholism Problem: Biographical fallacy (related to Intentional Fallacy) |
| Analyzing TEXT as Symptom | MOST SOPHISTICATED approach (Lacanian) • Text itself = symptomatic structure • Analyze linguistic operations, gaps, contradictions • What does text repress? What returns? • NOT author's psyche, but TEXT'S unconscious |
| Analyzing READER | • Reader-response + psychoanalysis • Norman Holland: Reading = transference • How reader projects, identifies, defends |
| Theorist | Key Concept | Literary Focus |
|---|---|---|
| Freud | Unconscious, Oedipus, repression, dream-work | Author's neurosis, character motivations, wish-fulfillment |
| Jung | Collective unconscious, archetypes | Universal patterns, myths, hero's journey |
| Lacan | "Unconscious structured like language," Mirror Stage, Name-of-the-Father | Textual signification, desire structures, subject-positions |
| Bloom | Anxiety of influence, misprision | Poet's struggle with precursors, Oedipal literary history |
| Question Type | Key Facts |
|---|---|
| Freud's Foundational Text | The Interpretation of Dreams (1900) |
| Id/Ego/Superego | Id = pleasure (wants); Ego = reality (negotiates); Superego = morality (judges) |
| Oedipus Complex | Boy desires mother, wants kill father; Castration anxiety; Repression |
| Dream-Work | Condensation, Displacement, Symbolization, Secondary Revision |
| Freud's "Uncanny" | Return of repressed; Familiar made strange; 1919 essay |
| Jung vs. Freud | Jung = COLLECTIVE unconscious (universal archetypes); Freud = personal unconscious |
| Archetypes Examples | Hero, Shadow, Anima/Animus, Great Mother, Wise Old Man, Trickster |
| Lacan's Famous Dictum | "The unconscious is structured like a language" |
| Lacan's Three Orders | Imaginary, Symbolic, Real |
| Mirror Stage | 6-18 months; Misrecognition; Alienation; Imaginary identification |
| Bloom's Book | The Anxiety of Influence (1973) - Oedipal poetic struggle |
| Bloom's Term | Misprision = creative misreading of precursor |
| Don't Confuse | Distinction |
|---|---|
| Id vs. Ego vs. Superego | Id = instinct; Ego = mediator; Superego = conscience (NOT ego = self in general sense) |
| Manifest vs. Latent Content | Manifest = dream as remembered; Latent = hidden unconscious wish |
| Freud vs. Jung Unconscious | Freud = personal (repressed); Jung = personal + COLLECTIVE (inherited archetypes) |
| Condensation vs. Displacement | Condensation = compression (metaphor); Displacement = shift (metonymy) |
| Lacan's Imaginary vs. Symbolic | Imaginary = images, mirror, illusion; Symbolic = language, law, Name-of-Father |
| Anxiety of Influence vs. Anxiety of Authorship | Influence = Bloom (poet vs. precursor); Authorship = Gilbert & Gubar (women writers vs. male tradition) |
| Oedipus Complex vs. Electra Complex | Oedipus = boy (Freud); Electra = girl (Jung's term, Freud didn't use) |
Psychoanalytical Criticism Complete
Freud | Jung | Lacan | Bloom