Psychoanalytic literary criticism uses concepts and methods associated with psychoanalysis to interpret literature. This lesson introduces its central premise, early Freudian approaches, and the value and limitations of reading literary works psychologically.
Psychoanalytic literary criticism is an interpretive tradition influenced by the psychoanalysis begun by Sigmund Freud. Its approaches are diverse rather than unified, but they generally treat literature as deeply connected with the psyche—the conscious and unconscious dimensions of mental life.
All flashcards
Manifest and latent content
Manifest content is what a text openly presents; latent content is underlying thought or desire proposed by an interpretation.
Dream work
The transformation of latent thoughts into disguised or altered forms; condensation combines associations, while displacement shifts emphasis.
Jungian literary criticism
An approach that examines archetypes and the proposed collective unconscious in literature.
Lacanian literary criticism
An approach influenced by Lacan that often examines how unconscious meanings operate through language, rhetoric, and form.
Anxiety of influence
Harold Bloom’s approach to literary relationships between later writers and influential predecessors.
Quiz questions
Which concepts are especially associated with Jungian approaches to literature?Answer: Archetypes and the proposed collective unconscious.
What did Lacan’s claim that the unconscious is structured like a language encourage literary critics to examine?Answer: How unconscious meanings may operate through language and literary form.
What does Norman Holland’s reader-response approach investigate?Answer: How readers may unconsciously project their fantasies into what they read.
What is central to Mauron’s psychocriticism?Answer: Comparing an author’s works to identify recurring symbolic patterns.
What relationship does Bloom’s approach examine?Answer: The charged influence of literary predecessors on later writers.