What is psychoanalytic criticism and how can it be justified as atype of criticism in its own right? In this new and thoroughlyrevised edition of her classic textbook, Elizabeth Wright providesa cogent answer to this question and a wide-ranging introduction topsychoanalytic criticism from Freud to the present day.Since each school of psychoanalysis has its own theory of theaesthetic process, the field is complex. Adopting a criticalperspective, Elizabeth Wright focuses on major figures and texts inpsychoanalysis and in literary and art criticism: classicalpsychoanalysis; Jungian analytic psychology; objects-relationstheory; French psychoanalysis; French anti-psychoanalysis; feministpsychoanalytic criticism. Across these divisions certain problemsrecur, problems which conceal themselves in a wide range ofsurprising places, from Shakespearean tragedy to performancetheatre from magic realism to detective fiction, from the GermanLied to Wagner. These areas are investigated with referenceto rival psychoanalytic theories, while connections are tracedbetween the aesthetic process and the psychoanalytic approach.Already established as the leading introduction to the field, thisnew edition of Psychoanalytic Criticism will be essentialreading for students of literature and literary theory,psychoanalysis, feminism and feminist theory, cultural studies andthe humanities generally.

Preface.Introduction.Part One. .1. Classical Psychoanalysis: Freud.2. Classical Freudian Criticism: Id-Psychology.3. Post-Freudian Criticism: Ego-Psychology.4. Archetypal Criticism: Jung and the CollectiveUnconscious.Part Two.5. Object-Relations Theory: Self and Other.Part Three. .6. Structural Psychoanalysis: Psyche as Text.7. Post-structural Psychoanalysis: Text as Psyche.Part Four. .8. Psychoanalysis and Ideology I: Focus on Subversion.9. Psychoanalysis and Ideology II: Focus on Dialectic.Part Five.10. Feminist Psychoanalytic Criticism.Conclusion.References.Further Reading.Index.