Reflection of Psychoanalytic Criticism精神分析批评理论总结.docx

Psychoanalytic Criticism1 Definition Psychoanalytic literary criticism refers to literary criticism which, in method, concept, theory, or form, is influenced by the tradition of psychoanalysis begun by Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalytic reading has been practiced since the early development of psychoanalysis itself, and has developed into a rich and heterogeneous interpretive tradition. It is a literary approach where critics see the text as if it were a kind of dream. This means that the text repress its real (or latent) content behind obvious content. The process of changing from latent to manifest content is known as the dream work, and involves operations of concentration and displacement. The critic analyzes the language and symbolism of a text to reverse the process of the dream work and arrive at the underlying latent thoughts.2 Historical Development 2.1 Freudian criticism : The view of art as the imagined fulfillment of wishes that reality denies. According to Freud, artists sublimate their desires and translate their imagined wishes into art. We, as an audience, respond to the sublimated wishes that we share with the artist. Working from this view, an artist’s biography becomes a useful tool in interpreting his or her work. Freudian criticism is also used as a term to describe the analysis of Freudian images within a work of art. 2.2 Jungian criticism : A school of criticism that draws on Carl Jung’s theory of the collective unconscious, a reservoir of common thoughts and experiences that all cultures share. Jung holds that literature is an expression of the main themes of the collective unconscious, and critics often invoke his work in discussions of literary archetypes. 2.3 Lacanian criticism : Criticism based on Jacques Lacan’s view that the unconscious, and our perception of ourselves, is shaped in the symbolic order of language rather than in the imaginary order of prelinguistic thought. In Lacan’s thought, literature has the particular ability to capture