Theories related to Psychonalysis
Psychoanalytic criticism is one of many schools of literary criticism. Because there are many different approaches to analyzing literature, there is some overlap between the central ideas of each method. Psychoanalysis most directly employs the ideas of Post- Structuralism and the Reader-Response dynamic. Post-Structuralism began to take hold in 1966 and continues to this day, concerned primarily with the idea of a flexible reading of the text. Reader-Response also began in the 1960's and is concerned with the dynamic between reader and writer in the text. This inter-text conversation may be analyzed in many different ways, however, the Freudian method views the interaction as an expression of repressed thoughts.
Post-Structuralism: Post-Structuralist thought is heavily rooted in the idea of a shifting and flexible text–looking beyond the more clear structures employed by the author to gain a deeper understanding of the author's subtleties. Freudian thought employs this idea of a flexible text in multiple ways. With respect to the Oedipus complex, Freud's theory has been applied to a whole range of texts from different eras. To do this, one must set aside the author's established structures of background and time period. The Freudian method developed over time to include the study of reader-author interactions. This approach made use of Post-Structuralist ideas to become established: the first practitioners of reader-response analysis were looking beyond the established structure of the one way interaction to find a new dynamic in the text. The idea that there could be a form of conversation taking place through the medium of the novel was a new idea which required the implementation of post-structuralist ideas. Reader Response: This approach is similar to Freudian Psychoanalysis in that it serves to examine the presence of repressed thoughts in the text. Because Freudian theory began with the idea that authors were releasing their repressed thoughts and wishes into their work, the school of psychoanalysis focused primarily on the one-way interaction of author and reader. While there was a shift in focus from solely author to reader-author, the two-way interaction still employs the Freudian ideas of repression. Instead of focusing on how the author released their repressed wishes and fantasies in the text as if it were some perverted act, critics began to study the reader's reaction to this material. In fact, the idea soon developed that these "repressed" wishes were put in the text for the reader. Reader-Response is more broad than many of the other approaches, and can thus be applied to many other schools of literary criticism. |