Preface

Summary

THIS BOOK OFFERS AN introduction to Freudian psychoanalysis and its implications for the study of literature and culture. It is written for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, and suitable particularly for literature courses.

The book consists of two parts. Part 1 explains Freud's key ideas, focusing on his theories of repression, of the difference between conscious and unconscious mental processes, and of sexuality; on the role that dreams, free associations, parapraxes (Freudian slips), resistance, and transference play in psychoanalysis; and on the relationship of the ego, superego, and id. The basic assumption underlying this account is that Freud offers not simply a model of the mind, but an analysis of the relation of the individual and society. Part 2 deals with the implications of Freudian psychoanalysis for the study of literature and culture. Although this part also contains a number of theoretical reflections, the emphasis is on the analysis of concrete literary and cultural phenomena. Among the topics discussed are Hamlet, Heinrich Heine's “Lore-Ley,” fairy tales, Freud's Totem und Tabu and its influence on literature, and the German student revolution of the late 1960s.

There are, of course, countless introductions to Freudian psychoanalysis but — surprisingly enough — none that combine an accessible account of Freud's ideas with an introduction to their use in literary and cultural studies. Existing books focus either on Freudian psychoanalysis in general or on psychoanalytic literary and cultural criticism; those that fall into the latter category, moreover, are often fairly abstract and theoretical in nature.