| HOME | FAQs
| NO-NOs | DUE DATES AND CALENDAR PAGE || Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | Week 8 |
| Week 9 | Week 10 | Week 11 | Week 12 | Week 13 | Week 14 | Week 15 | Week 16 |
| HOME | FAQs
| NO-NOs | DUE DATES AND CALENDAR PAGE |
| Week 1 | Week 2
| Week 3 | Week 4
| Week 5 | Week 6
| Week 7 | Week 8 |
| Week 9 | Week 10
| Week 11 | Week 12 | Week 13 | Week 14 | Week 15 | Week 16 |
 |
English 102 |
You should be finishing Paper Four, which is due next week. Then, work on research and readings for final! The information below concerning psychological criticism will be used on the final, so aside from an interesting branch of literary criticism, it is important to the final exam, so study it carefully, and be sure and e-mail me if you don't understand. In order to analyze a work critically, it must be read several times. The first time is strictly to enjoy it and get an overall "feel" for it. Then the second time, you need to go through with a highlighter (after you print it out) and a pencil and write notes to yourself as you go through it very slowly, gathering clues as to its meaning. The more you read a great piece of literature, the more you "see" in it. In some pieces, you keep learning more about it for many years.
Psychological criticism has its roots with the writings of Sigmund Freud (1856-1936) and his followers. Psychoanalysis is a medical technique, a form of therapy for the mentally ill or depressed patients that helps them understand the root of their problems. For many reasons, though, these techniques are of interest to literary critics. For one thing, analysis of a patient using these techniques is a matter of interpretation. This interpretation is often of a rather literary kind. In a typical session, the doctor listens carefully to the patient talk, looking for subtle linguistic clues that will be clues that will help to "read beyond the literal meaning." Analysts also rely on symbols and images the way a critic interprets a work of literature. Freud himself often turned to literature to illustrate his famous theories. Freud's use of the Oedipus Complex was based on the play Oedipus Rex by Sophocles to illustrate Freud's theory that young infants, both boys and girls, have a natural erotic attachment to the mother. He stated that as the infant ages, he gradually comes to realize that the mother is not sexually available because she is already erotically attached to his father. In Sophocles' play, Oedipus unwittingly kills the father and marries his mother. According to Freud, the father becomes a rival to his son as he grows, to the point that the child thinks of killing his father so that he can possess the mother. On it goes in this vein, leading to possible relationship difficulties and mental instability. Another great play, Hamlet, concerns a young man depressed about his mother's hasty remarriage to his uncle, the king's brother. Some Psych critics see this as an unresolved Oedipal crisis because Hamlet desires to possess his mother but is not able to, first due to his father and then the uncle. Some even conclude that Shakespeare himself may have had these thoughts.
Freud said that girls eventually turn their affections toward their fathers the way that boys turn to their mothers. He felt that girls distrust and resent their mothers because they were not born boys. They eventually learn as they get older, though, to accept external authority and do not act out their hostility. This acquired acceptance of authority was expressed by Freud's theories of the "pleasure principle" that battles the "reality principle". Freud said that infants are born only seeking and understanding their desires for pleasure but gradually accept the standards of society that cannot allow people to act on everything they desire. In much of the literature you will read, one or more characters refuses to accept the will of society and continue to concentrate on seeking their own pleasures. Consider this when you read "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner. The theme of societal standards is very strong in that short story, and more than one character rebels against the social standards.
Freud is perhaps best known by his "tripartite" model of the human psyche. He felt that within us are three entities: the id, which represents the natural state with all of our passions and no sense of necessary limitations, the superego, which represents the awareness of standards, authority, and limitations first pressed upon us by our fathers, and the ego, which is the "moderator", the conscious mind that is the go- between of the id and superego. These three titles have been applied to literature by critics. Certain characters can represent a function of one of these entities. Look again to Faulkner's story for representations of the standards (superego) versus the uncontrolled emotions (id), and who represents these. Who might represent the ego in the story? Read the story, and form an opinion!
Freud said that repression is the process of the ego pushing away the desires of the id, and they begin to build up and kept away from the conscious mind. Freud borrowed some ideas from science and assumes that the psyche is a closed system, so pressure begins to build up in the id with no release for all of these desires. Healthy people can "redirect" this energy buildup into more socially acceptable activities. Unhealthy people cannot, thus developing psychoses and neuroses.
Repressed desires can manifest themselves in dreams. Freud felt that this was one way that the energy could discharge itself from the unconscious id. Dreams can provide a window into the unconscious id from the conscious mind (ego), but these must be interpreted, like cracking a coded set of messages. Writers also use symbols and a sort of "code" that critics try to crack in order to discover the meaning of the text. Literary efforts contain figurative language, which is similar to this code, and is condensed, so the critic has to interpret the symbols in order to discover the meaning layer by layer as in peeling an onion. Freud also felt that the creation of art itself was a way to release the buildup of subconscious energy from the id, thus revealing much about the artist or writer. Freud even went as far as to suggest that art of all types is generated by a form of madness, stemming from repressed sexual energy.
Carl Jung began as a follower of Freud but later developed his own theories of the psyche that expanded beyond the inner workings of one person and the three conflicting parts. He differed with Freud that sexuality was the root of a person's motivations as well. Jung was responsible for articulating that the mind held a "collective unconscious", which was a kind of storage facility for the thoughts and desires of the entire human experience of human beings. Residing within this collective unconscious were universal archetypes that appear universally. Jung based his theories in part because there were certain myths and legends related to common experiences such as birth, death, and the seasons that are common to cultures everywhere. He said that these myths gain their power due to their unconscious connection to these primal beginnings that we all still carry within us. He felt that each generation passed these collective memories and instincts on to the next generation. If DNA had been known at this time, he might have thought that these were carried through the human code in some way. They are patterns of instinctual behavior, and they carry no ethical connotation. They are a mixture of positive and negative, creative and destructive elements. Some common archetypes are mother, father, maiden, child, ruler priest, doctor, teacher, and the four basic feminine and masculine archetypes: the physically attractive man or woman; the femme fatale and the romantic man; the mother with child and the man active in the world; the wise old man or woman. It was Jung's belief that when we see someone or something of a certain characteristic, such as an old man talking to us, we immediately call upon these archetypes and respond to them unconsciously.
The hero of Heart of Darkness recognizes that his trip up the Congo river in search of the mysterious Kurtz is in fact a quest for himself: "Droll thing life is--that mysterious arrangement of merciless logic for a futile purpose. The most you can hope from it is some knowledge of yourself." Marlow (the hero) believes that he can discover his true self through work: "I don't like work...but I like what is in work--the chance to find yourself. Your own reality--for yourself--not for others--what man can ever know." Heart of Darkness was a voyage of self discovery...the idea of the novel as the story of the hero's quest for identity is quite consistent with the psychoanalytic notion that true human identity resides in some deep, largely inaccessible, inner place hidden somewhere within the psyche..."
And...
Heart of Darkness invites psychological readings from any number of perspectives. The African jungle can be seen as a metaphor for the unconscious mind, so Marlow's treacherous trip up the Congo is a metaphor for his attempt to probe the depths of his own subconscious mind.
Issues to look for in psychological criticism include: sex, self discovery, journeys (especially to the unknown), suicide, murder, alienation, stream of consciousness writing, dreams, issues with mothers, fears, abandonment, repression, memories, and archetypal figures or situations.
* Much of the material discussed here was summarized from M. Keith Booker's A Practical Introduction to Literary Theory and Criticism. New York: Longman Publishers, 1996.
Page was last updated: 11/20/02
E-mail your instructor: Meri Rogoff
Copyright © 2002 by Meri Rogoff. All rights reserved.