The erotic motive in literature (ePub)

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The work The erotic motive in literature uses some methods of psychoanalysis to literature. Albert Mordell tried to show that unsuspected emotions of the writer have entered into his literary productions, that events he had apparently forgotten have guided his pen. The unconscious is largely identical with the mental love fantasies in our present and past life. Since the terms "unconscious" and "erotic" are almost synonymous, any serious study of literature which is concerned with the unconscious must deal impartially with eroticism.

One may deduce what kind of literary work would have been the
result if one have not only the hereditary antecedents and
biographical data of an author, but a full account of his day dreams,
ambitions, frailties, disillusionments, of his favourite reading,
intellectual influences, love affairs and relations to his parents,
relatives and friends.

Literature is a personal voice the source of which can be traced to the
unconscious.

In chapter 8.2 psychoanalysis explains the birth of literary masterpieces. The effects of sadism and masochism on the literary work of a man in later life are shown in chapter 10.3. One gets a few symbolic interpretations of dreams in literature in chapter 11.3.