Chapter 1: Freud and Literary Criticism Flashcards
In what year did Freud discover the Oedipus complex?
1897
What text did Freud read to develop the Oedipus complex?
Freud read Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex as a psychoanalytic allegory of the male child’s desire to kill his father and sleep with his mother.
In what way does Hamlet relate to the Oedipus complex?
Freud read Hamlet as an allegory of the repression of the male child’s Oedipal desires. He interpreted Hamlet as the modern neurotic whose repressed desires return to him in the form of the ghost of his father.
What are the methods of psychoanalytic literary criticism?
- Allegory of the Oedipus Complex
- Psychoanalysis of character
- Intertextual psychoanalysis
- Psychoanalysis of culture
- Dialogue between psychoanalysis and literature
What did Aristotle say about tragedy and mimesis?
There should be nothing irrational in the action of a tragedy.
What did Aristotle say the purpose of tragedy is?
Aristotle stated that the purpose or telos of tragedy is to invoke and purge pity and fear (catharsis).
Define catharsis.
Catharsis is the process of releasing, and thereby providing relief from, strong or repressed emotions.
What was the reason why Freud said that modern audiences were obsessed with Oedipus Rex?
Freud argued that modern audiences find Oedipus Rex gripping because they see acted out before them their own repressed murderous and incestuous desires.
Explain the plot of Oedipus Rex.
In Oedipus Rex, Oedipus is consciously able to avoid killing his father and sleeping with his mother, but unconsciously, he does both in the very process of consciously avoiding them.
What did Freud say about the connection between Oedipus and Hamlet?
Freud positions Oedipus Rex as Hamlet’s textual unconscious - Hamlet expresses in repressed form what Oedipus dramatizes openly.
What is Hamlet’s melancholy theorized to be caused by?
It is theorized that Hamlet’s melancholy is caused by his repressed Oedipal desires.
Is the unconscious a definitive place?
No, the unconscious is not a place but an inference.
Why is inferring that the unconscious exists important psychoanalytic interpretation?
The unconscious is the fundamental postulate of psychoanalytic interpretation. All texts are ultimately utterances of the unconscious. In other words, psychoanalysis would not exist without inferring the unconscious exists.
How does the unconscious affect the way that we express ourselves?
The unconscious ensures that we never mean exactly what we say and never say fully or exactly what we mean.
What does Freud say that a dream is?
Freud says that a dream is a disguised fulfilment of a repressed childhood wish.
What are the two parts of a dream?
The manifest surface, and the latent contents. In other words, what appears to the dreamer and what that apparition means.
What is the mechanism of dream-work?
- Condensation
- Displacement
- Considerations of representation
- Secondary revision
What does condensation mean?
Condensation refers to how several thoughts, feelings, or memories can be compressed into a single dream image.
What is displacement?
Important elements of the latent contents of a dream are often represented by seemingly insignificant things in the manifest content.
What is secondary revision?
Once awake, the mind tries to make sense of the dream fragments (the rebus) by adding logical connections and details, creating a more coherent narrative. This then distracts the interpreter from the dream’s true significance.
According to Freud, what is a rebus?
A rebus is a picture puzzle or symbolic representation where images or symbols are used to represent words or phrases, often revealing hidden meanings within a dream.
Does the rebus make sense on its own?
The rebus does not make sense as a realistic story or as a visual imitation of reality.
What impact do creative works have on the working through of repressed desires?
The creative writer’s aestheticization of his childhood fantasies allows the reader to indulge their own repressed infantile wishes without having to own them.
