Psychoanalytic Criticism (PDF)

What is psychoanalytic criticism and how can it be justified as a
type of criticism in its own right? In this new and thoroughly
revised edition of her classic textbook, Elizabeth Wright provides
a cogent answer to this question and a wide-ranging introduction to
psychoanalytic criticism from Freud to the present day.

Since each school of psychoanalysis has its own theory of the
aesthetic process, the field is complex. Adopting a critical
perspective, Elizabeth Wright focuses on major figures and texts in
psychoanalysis and in literary and art criticism: classical
psychoanalysis; Jungian analytic psychology; objects-relations
theory; French psychoanalysis; French anti-psychoanalysis; feminist
psychoanalytic criticism. Across these divisions certain problems
recur, problems which conceal themselves in a wide range of
surprising places, from Shakespearean tragedy to performance
theatre from magic realism to detective fiction, from the German
Lied to Wagner. These areas are investigated with reference
to rival psychoanalytic theories, while connections are traced
between the aesthetic process and the psychoanalytic approach.

Already established as the leading introduction to the field, this
new edition of Psychoanalytic Criticism will be essential
reading for students of literature and literary theory,
psychoanalysis, feminism and feminist theory, cultural studies and
the humanities generally.