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Literary Research: Psychoanalytic Criticism
Literary Theory and Criticism
What is Psychoanalytic Criticism?
"According to psychoanalytic criticism, readers can reach more insightful conclusions by considering the subconscious motivations of fictional characters and of the authors of texts. Psychoanalytic criticism also urges readers to consider how environmental factors impact characters and their development. Likewise, practitioners believe that certain texts have the potential to impact the reader on a psychological level, sometimes satisfying significant emotional and intellectual needs."
Brief Overviews:
- Psychoanalytic criticism (A Dictionary of Critical Theory)
- Psychoanalytic Theory and Criticism (The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism)
- Psychoanalysis and Literature (Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism)
Major Figures
- The Freud Reader (various editions)
- Meisel, Perry. The Literary Freud. Routledge, 2007.
- The Essential Jung. Princeton University Press, 1983.
- Rowland, Susan. Jungian Literary Criticism: the Essential Guide. Routledge, 2019.
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Sugg, Richard P. Jungian Literary Criticism. Northwestern University Press, 1992.
- The Selected Melanie Klein. Free Press, 1987.
- Essential Readings from the Melanie Klein Archives: Original Papers and Critical Reflections. Edited by Jane Milton, Routledge, 2020.
- Écrits (various editions)
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Murray, Martin. Jacques Lacan: A Critical Introduction. Pluto Press, 2015.
Introductions & Anthologies
The Cambridge Companion to Literature and Psychoanalysis by Publication Date: 2021Broad coverage of various schools of psychoanalytic theory as applied to the study of literature.
The Cambridge Introduction to Literature and Psychoanalysis by Publication Date: 2014This volume is an introduction to the relationship between psychoanalysis and literature, taking Sigmund Freud as a point of departure, and surveying other theoreticians such as Wilfred Bion, Marie Bonaparte, Carl Jung, Jacques Lacan, and Slavoj Zizek.
Freud's Theory and Its Use in Literary and Cultural Studies by Publication Date: 2002A genuinely accessible introduction to Freud's theory and its application to literary and cultural studies.
Psychoanalytic Criticism by Publication Date: 1995This book is an important analysis of the significant impact of psychoanalytic theory on literature in the post-Freudian era.
Psychoanalytic Criticism: Theory in Practice by Publication Date: 2002A critical overview of Psychoanalytic literary criticism.
Literature and Psychoanalysis by Publication Date: 2012Literature and Psychoanalysis looks at Freud, Melanie Klein and Lacan, to explain their key concepts, and to suggest why they are essential in the study of literature.
Psychoanalytic Literary Criticism by Publication Date: 1994Despite the broad title, this is actually an anthology of mostly Freudian criticism.
Find more books on Psychoanalysis and literature and psychoanalytic interpretation of literature at UW Libraries.
Credits
Definition: "psychoanalytic criticism." The Concise Oxford Companion to American Literature. Eds. Hart, James D., Wendy Martin, and Danielle Hinrichs. Oxford University Press, 2021.