Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to Literature and Psychoanalysis
- The Cambridge Companion to Literature and Psychoanalysis
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Abbreviations
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Chronology
- Introduction Reading to Recover
- Part I In History
- Part II In Society
- 6 Remembering Violence and Possibilities of Mourning
- 7 Latin American Violence Novels
- 8 A Man and His Things
- 9 The Uses of Literature and Psychoanalysis in Contemporary Reading Groups
- Part III In Sight
- Part IV In Theory
- Further Reading
- Index
7 - Latin American Violence Novels
Pain and the Gaze of Narrative
from Part II - In Society
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 December 2021
- The Cambridge Companion to Literature and Psychoanalysis
- The Cambridge Companion to Literature and Psychoanalysis
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Abbreviations
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Chronology
- Introduction Reading to Recover
- Part I In History
- Part II In Society
- 6 Remembering Violence and Possibilities of Mourning
- 7 Latin American Violence Novels
- 8 A Man and His Things
- 9 The Uses of Literature and Psychoanalysis in Contemporary Reading Groups
- Part III In Sight
- Part IV In Theory
- Further Reading
- Index
Summary
Building on Gustavo Pellón’s classification of Spanish-American novels as documentary novels (novela testimonio), historical novels, detective novels, and marginalized novels, this chapter places them into two groups of psychoanalytic categories: voyeurism/exhibitionism and sadism/masochism, that influence the identity of the subject. The schematic voyeurism-exhibitionism/sadism-masochism in the novels explored in this chapter places focus on concepts that imply an Ego placing its gaze on the world; it acknowledges that we are in constant repetition, learning how to deal with the levels of violence and pain, which, in essence, is translated into how to deal with the Eros and Death drives. Examining Rosario Tijeras by Jorge Franco as a case study, the chapter explores the applicability of psychoanalysis as it applies to these texts and considers some of the other categories of novels that emerge from this larger, complex cultural context of Latin American literature.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge Companion to Literature and Psychoanalysis , pp. 128 - 144Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021