Psychoanalysis and Literary Theory: An Introduction

255 Pages·2022·4.981 MB·English

by  Matthew R. Martin

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PSYCHOANALYSIS AND
LITERARY THEORY
Psychoanalysis and Literary Theory introduces the key concepts, figures and movements
of both psychoanalytic theory and the history of literary criticism and theory, engaging
with Freud, Zizek, Plato, posthumanism, and beyond.
Divided into two parts – concepts and movements – the structure of the book is
clear and accessible. Each chapter builds upon the one before, allowing the reader to
progress from little or no background in psychoanalysis, philosophy, or literary theory
to the ability to engage actively with the relatively sophisticated ideas presented in later
sections of the work. Mathew R. Martin consistently directs attention to the task of
interpreting texts by illustrating abstract theoretical points with literary texts and at
apposite moments provides brief readings of selected texts.
This book will be essential reading for academics and students of psychoanalytic
studies, literary criticism, and literary theory.
Mathew R. Martin is a Professor in the Department of English Language and
Literature at Brock University, Canada.
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‘There are many classic books on literature and psychoanalysis, but they tend to have
been written twenty or thirty years ago. Mathew Martin’s Psychoanalysis and Literary
Theory: An Introduction is a timely and perceptive study of a subject that has changed
dramatically in the intervening years. In its depth and breadth of knowledge, its read­
ability, and its new insights, it will be valuable for anyone who wishes to learn more
about classical psychoanalytic literary theory, as formulated by Freud, Klein, Winnicott,
and Lacan, as well as psychoanalysis’ profound impact on feminism, queer theory, post-
colonialism, and trauma theory. Neither a Freud idealizer nor a Freud basher, Martin
presents an admirably balanced view of the founder of psychoanalysis. The book is not
only an excellent introduction but also a nuanced analysis that will be of interest to
students and teachers of literature and psychoanalysis. Martin’s new book will become, I
predict, the authoritative study for many years.’
Jeffrey Berman, Distinguished Teaching Professor at University at Albany, SUNY, USA
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PSYCHOANALYSIS AND
LITERARY THEORY
An Introduction

Mathew R. Martin
PsychoanalysisandLiteraryTheory;byMathewR.Martin
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Cover image: Detail of D4v of the 1603 Hamlet, 69304, The Huntington
Library, San Marino, California. Butterfly image: thawats/Getty Images
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 Mathew R. Martin
The right of Mathew R. Martin to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to
infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-1-032-11313-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-11315-9 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-21934-7 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003219347
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by Taylor & Francis Books
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Petal

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CONTENTS

Acknowledgements viii

Introduction: Freud’s Ideas 1

1 Freud and Literary Criticism 45

2 Melanie Klein and Donald W. Winnicott 74

3 Lacan and Structuralism 89

4 Žižek and the Real 110

5 Psychoanalysis and Marxism 118

6 Deleuze and Guattari 131

7 Psychoanalysis and Feminism 148

8 Psychoanalysis and Queer Theory 170

9 Psychoanalysis and Postcolonialism 188

10 Psychoanalysis and Trauma Theory 209

Conclusion: Psychoanalysis and the Posthuman 223

Index 235
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Olivia King read and discussed with me every word in this book. To her I owe an
immeasurable debt of gratitude. I would like to thank Taylor and Francis for per­
mission to reproduce portions from the introduction to my Tragedy and Trauma in
the Plays of Christopher Marlowe (Routledge, 2016) in the chapter on trauma theory
and pages 307–311 of my article “Translatio and Trauma: Oedipus, Hamlet and
Marlowe’s Dido, Queen of Carthage” (LIT: Literature Interpretation Theory, vol. 23,
no. 4, 2012) in chapter two. I would also like to thank the Huntington Library,
San Marino, California, for the cover’s digital image of D4v of the 1603 edition of
Hamlet (69304).
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INTRODUCTION
Freud’s Ideas

Psychoanalysis and Literary Theory
Psychoanalysis and literary theory are not unified or simple bodies of thought.
Rather, each is a complex and often internally riven field of discourse with a
complicated and contestatory developmental history shaped not only by ideas but
also by personalities, institutions, and larger historical events such as wars. For psy­
choanalysis, that history begins with Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), the Viennese
medical researcher and doctor who founded (arguably, co-founded) psychoanalysis
in theory and in practice at the turn of the nineteenth century, and extends into
the twenty-first century in the practices of large numbers of psychotherapists, in
scores of books and journals, in university teaching and research, and in popular
Western culture generally. Freud invented the term “psychoanalysis” specifically in
order to distinguish it from other varieties of psychology and psychotherapy cur­
rent in his day, but it is frequently used today, by people who are completely
unfamiliar with Freud’s ideas, as synonymous with psychology in general; some of
the major terms of psychoanalytic vocabulary, such as “unconscious” and “repres­
sion,” have become equally entrenched in popular cultural (un)consciousness, evi­
dence of how fundamental psychoanalysis has become to our ways of thinking.
Indeed, the distortions undergone by psychoanalytic ideas as they entered popular
culture early became the topic for humorous commentary and study. “The single
term repression,” Frederick Hoffman noted in his 1945 study of the diffusion of
psychoanalytic ideas in America,
suffered a variety of changes, which may be formulated as follows: Freud’s
definition of the term: Repression, minus what has been lost through hasty
generalization or inadequate knowledge of its source-meaning, plus cultural
ingredients which have been attached to the already altered concept, equals
DOI: 10.4324/9781003219347-1