Theory

toc Psychoanalytic Theory

Many modern critics have supported or contested the theories of Lacan and Freud. Though Freud is attributed with the foundation of this criticism, a critic may also use the less eccentric theories of Frye, Jung, or Lacan to do an analysis. Freud believed that artists, and in this sense, writers, keep their sanity by practicing their art because they are by default, neurotic. The literary work is a portrayal of the authors secret wishes, desires, or fantasies that are housed in their unconscious. An interpretation of the text would begin with discovering the meanings of the symbols in the piece.

=Freud’s text analysis=

Analyze the text as a dream

 * Dream is a hidden wish developed during infancy
 * mostly sexual, Oedipal
 * many layers
 * Hidden in the story is the real meaning and interpretation

=1920’s Focus on the author=

Psychobiography

 * Using biographical information
 * Determines authors personality, conflicts, and neuroses
 * By understanding the author you can interpret what they write

=1950’s Character analysis=

Characters within the text are the main focus

 * Authors had a personality in mind when creating a character

Important part of text interpretation is how a reader views a character

 * Character is a creation of the author and reader
 * Analysis of text requires analysis of author and reader

=Controversial approach=

Mostly for beginners, everything relates back to the authors libido

 * Yonic symbols
 * Female symbols like a flower or cup
 * Phallic symbols
 * Male symbols like a pen or a sword

=Archetypal criticism=

Examine text to find archetypes and patterns of archetypes

 * Red signifies danger, water symbolizes life

Joseph Campbell

 * Critic who claims archetypal symbols portray human experience
 * Suggests reading ancient stories and themes to be able to relate them to modern archetypes

=Lacan's textual analysis=

Instructs that we must accept fragmentation, a whole does not exist

 * Attempts to uncover how a text symbolically represents this three orders (the real, symbolic, and imaginary)

=Feminist approach=

Semanalysis

 * A premirror stage where child is separated from mother
 * Semiotique develops
 * emotional force tied to instincts
 * Semiotique exists in language