Q4: Literature and psychology: discuss a theoretical perspective which uses findings in psychology to interpret the meaning of literary text.

Question 1

Define psychoanalytical criticism/approach.

Answer 1

• builds on Freudian theories of psychology and also other theorists to interpret texts
• argues that literary texts, like dreams, express the secret unconscious desires and anxieties of the author -> literary work is a manifestation of the author’s own neuroses
• seeks evidence of unresolved emotions, psychological conflicts, guilts, ambivalences, etc.

Question 2

How can we trace the author’s neuroses (traumas, fixations, etc.) in the text? How are they expressed/encrypted in the text?

Answer 2

• SYMBOLISM - the repressed object represented in disguise
• CONDENSATION - several thoughts or persons represented in a single image
• DISPLACEMENT - anxiety located onto another image by means of association

Question 3

What is “the unconscious” according to Freud?

Answer 3

• a dynamic entity, a storehouse of the repressed content
• it exerts pressure on the conscious and keeps taking part in the process of sorting out experience
• influenced by childhood events

Question 4

What is repression?

Answer 4

• a mechanism which removes fears, wishes, desires, memories from consciousness; the repressed content does not appear completely but becomes a part of the psychological system as a whole
• the repressed material continues to function in the psyche and exerts pressure on the conscious areas of the mind

Question 5

What is the return of the repressed?

Answer 5

• resurfacing of the repressed content

Question 6

Describe the structural model of psyche according to Freud (three concepts in psychoanalytical theory).

Answer 6

• EGO - conscious self, the rational, the world-representing self
• ID - unchecked instincts and energies
• SUPEREGO - internalized system of social authority, internal judge of ego, the store of social values and taboo

Question 7

According to psychoanalysis, what is the role of dreams?

Answer 7

Dreams manifest content and latent content; they are consored communication from the repressed content.

Question 8

What is the oedipal complex?

Answer 8

• a stable pattern among the roles in the “family romance”: the male child sees itself in competition withthe father over the mother and submits to the threat of the father (-> translates into fear of castration)