This study of the biblical Book of Amos from Marxist and Freudian perspectives demonstrates that the critical approaches so designated complement one another well enough to be adapted and employed constructively in the study of literature and literary production. From the Marxist perspective, the method employed assumes that the literary Amos the text embodies (AmosL) has been derived from an incarnate original (AmosI) reshaped in the process of literary production to serve certain sociopolitcal interests. Following Marxs thesis that humans must be comprehended materially in the ensemble of the social relations, the social location of AmosI is theorized according to the claim that he is not a prophet but a shepherd or, as Norman Gottwald states it sociologically, a transhumant pastoral nomad. Louis Althussers concept of the idealizing function of ideology is used to argue that Amos the prophet as opposed to Amos the shepherd is a literary production of the scribes who compiled the Bible. Amos remains, however, a profound literature of alienation manifesting the high degree of hegemony that the emerging monarchical ruling class in Israel had already achieved by Amoss time.<p> From the Freudian or psychoanalytic perspective, the text exemplifies a consciousness suffering the traumatic effects of an earthquakeeffects reflected in the texts imagery, intensity of voice, incoherence, anxiety, threat of exile, and non-representability. Frank Kermodes treatment of the mythic extends the concept of the compulsion to repeat characteristic of trauma to suggest that Amos is regressively fixated upon the myth of a tribal, premonarchical Israel as a sort of golden age along the lines developed by Raymond Williams in The Country and The City. Georges Batailles concept of sacred violence in its turn underscores the potential of Amos itself to fuel fantasies and acts of violence and raises disturbing questions about the ongoing effects of the sacred canonization of violent literature.

This study of the biblical Book of Amos from Marxist and Freudian perspectives demonstrates that the critical approaches so designated complement one another well enough to be adapted and employed constructively in the study of literature and literary production. From the Marxist perspective, the method employed assumes that the literary Amos the text embodies (AmosL) has been derived from an incarnate original (AmosI) reshaped in the process of literary production to serve certain sociopolitcal interests. Following Marxs thesis that humans must be comprehended materially in the ensemble of the social relations, the social location of AmosI is theorized according to the claim that he is not a prophet but a shepherd or, as Norman Gottwald states it sociologically, a transhumant pastoral nomad. Louis Althussers concept of the idealizing function of ideology is used to argue that Amos the prophet as opposed to Amos the shepherd is a literary production of the scribes who compiled the Bible. Amos remains, however, a profound literature of alienation manifesting the high degree of hegemony that the emerging monarchical ruling class in Israel had already achieved by Amoss time.<p> From the Freudian or psychoanalytic perspective, the text exemplifies a consciousness suffering the traumatic effects of an earthquakeeffects reflected in the texts imagery, intensity of voice, incoherence, anxiety, threat of exile, and non-representability. Frank Kermodes treatment of the mythic extends the concept of the compulsion to repeat characteristic of trauma to suggest that Amos is regressively fixated upon the myth of a tribal, premonarchical Israel as a sort of golden age along the lines developed by Raymond Williams in The Country and The City. Georges Batailles concept of sacred violence in its turn underscores the potential of Amos itself to fuel fantasies and acts of violence and raises disturbing questions about the ongoing effects of the sacred canonization of violent literature.

This essay argued the importance of literary theory in the classroom. As a teacher, it is possible to achieve the empathetic goals of the English curriculum and Judith A. Langer’s ambition of literate thinking by using poetry and literary theory in school. The essay demonstrated this with a Lacanian reading of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poems “To a Skylark” and “Ode to the West Wind.” The analysis focused on readable and unreadable aspects of the poems. The readable aspects centred on the role of the Imaginary in “To a Skylark” and the representation of the fragmented body in “Ode to the West Wind.” Furthermore, the unreadable elements of the poetry demonstrated the discrepancy between the performative and declarative dimensions and the role of the pathetic fallacy in the signifying chain. Finally, this essay argued that, although all aspects of psychoanalytic literary theory should not be used in the classroom, elements of Lacanian thought can be used to combat the prevalence of individualism in Swedish upper secondary schools.

This essay examines the sadomasochistic relationship between the main characters of the Twilight Saga from a psychoanalytic perspective, and looks at the family and gender roles in the Saga from a post-feministic view. Aspects also considered are the portrayal of female sexuality as something dangerous and negative, recreational sex as something perverted, and the pro-marriage and anti-abortion propaganda in the last two novels. The purpose of the essay is to reveal how the author’s personal, and to some extent religious, beliefs and values are validated through the storyline; how the relationship between the main characters, as well as their personal psychological and physical health, change after matrimony and parenthood.

This thesis considers mid-20th century portrayals of working-class longshoremen’s masculinity within the context of emerging middle-class gender constructions. I argue that although popular culture presents a roughly standardized depiction of longshoremen as “manly men,” these portrayals are significantly nuanced to demonstrate the difficulties working-class men faced as they attempted to navigate socio-cultural and socio-economic shifts related to class and the performance of their male gender. Specifically, I consider depictions of longshoremen’s disruptive masculinity, male identity formation, and masculine-male growth as reactions to paradigmatic shifts in American masculinity. Using three aspects of longshoremen’s non-work lives presented in A View from the Bridge, “Edge of the City,” and “On the Waterfront”—the house, the home, and leisure/recreational activity—I ground discussions of the longshoremen’s negotiation of masculinity within a conceptual framework based in masculinity studies, social construction, and psychoanalytic criticism. To both complement and supplement the core literary and cultural analyses presented in this text, oral history interviews have been included to provide a contextual basis for understanding longshoremen culture in the 1950s.

Bakalauro darbo objektas – beprotybė Syvlijos Plath ir Virginijos Woolf romanuose. Darbo tikslas – išnagrinėti romanus psichoanalitiniu aspektu ir charakterizuoti personažų beprotybę. Tikslui pasiekti buvo iškelti šie uždaviniai: 1) ištirti beprotybės sąvoką literatūroje; 2) išnagrinėti beprotybės sąvoką psichoanalitinėje teorijoje; 3) išnagrinėti romanus psichoanalitiniu aspektu ir charakterizuoti juose vaizduojamą beprotybę. Bakalauro darbo metodologiją sudaro: 1) beprotybės literatūroje bei psichoanalizėje teorinės medžiagos tyrimas; 2) psichoanalitinė kritika kaip pagrindinis analizės metodas ir psichoanalitinis beprotybės romanuose konceptualizavimas; 3) tarpdiscipliniškumas kaip psichoanalitinio diskurso bei teorijos naudojimo literatūroje pagrindas, kuriuo remiantis pritaikomas Julijos Thompson Klein „kryžminio-apvaisinimo“ metodas. Šiame darbe beprotybė yra nagrinėjama literatūriniu (teorijos) ir psichoanalitiniu aspektu pasitelkiant Jaqueso Lakano teorijas bei sąvokas. Psichoanalitinei analizei buvo pasirinkti Silvijos Plath „Stiklo gaubtas“ (1963) ir Virginijos Woolf „Ponia Dalolvei“ (1925) romanai. / Madness in novels by Sylvia Plath and Virginia Woolf is the object of the Bachelor Thesis. Sources of the research are S. Plath’s novel The Bell Jar and V. Woolf’s novel Mrs Dalloway. The aim of the present research is to carry out psychoanalytical research of the novels in order to characterize madness. In order to achieve the aim the following objectives have been set: 1) to investigate the concept of madness in fiction; 2) to explore the psychoanalytic approach theory of psychoanalysis and madness; 3) to perform a psychoanalytic research of the novels in relation to madness. The methodology applied in the present Thesis included: 1) theoretical analysis in order to research views on madness both form literary and psychoanalytical aspects; 2) psychoanalytical criticism as the main method of analysis and psychoanalytic conceptualization of madness; 3) interdiciplinarity that enabled incorporation of psychoanalytic theories into the analysis employing the Cross-Fertilization method presented by Julie Thompson Klein. In the Bachelor Thesis madness is investigated both from the literary (theory) standpoint and from the aspect of psychoanalysis by incorporating concepts and theories coined by Jaques Lacan. For practical analysis, S. Plath’s “The Bell Jar” (1963) and V. Woolf’s “Mrs Dalloway” (1925) were chosen. In the course of the research the scientific literature in relation to madness in fiction, psychoanalysis and madness in psychoanalysis of J. Lacan, were studied and... [to full text]

Predominantly darker than his other works, Cape Cod depicts Henry David Thoreau's interpretation of life as a struggle for survival and a search for salvation in a stark New England setting. Representing Thoreau's greatest test of the goodness of God and nature, the book illustrates the centrality of the subject of death to Thoreau's philosophy of life. Contending that Thoreau's journey to the Cape originated from an intensely personal transcendental impulse connected with his brother's death, this study provides the first in-depth examination of Thoreau's use of the five senses in Cape Cod to reveal both the eccentricities inherent in his relationship with nature and his method of resolving his fears of mortality. Some of the sense impressions in Cape Cod--particularly those that center around human death and those that involve tactile sensations--suggest that Thoreau sometimes tried to master his fears by subconsciously altering painful historical facts or by avoiding the type of sensual contact that aggravated the repressed guilt he suffered from his brother's death. Despite his personal idiosyncrasies, however, Thoreau persisted in his search for truth, and the written record of his journey in Cape Cod documents how his dedication to the transcendental process enabled him to surmount his inner turmoil and reconfirm his intuitive faith. In following this process to spiritual renewal, Thoreau begins with subjective impressions of nature and advances to knowledge of objective realities before ultimately reaching symbolic and universal truth. By analyzing nature's lessons as they evolve from Thoreau's use of his senses, this dissertation shows that Cape Cod, rather than invalidating Thoreau's faith, actually expands his transcendental perspective and so rightfully stands beside Walden as one of the fundamental cornerstones of his canon. In addition, the study proffers new support for previous psychoanalytical interpretations of Thoreau and his writings, reveals heretofore unrecognized historical inaccuracies in his account of the shipwreck that frames the book's opening, and provides the first detailed consideration of the linguistic implications of Cape Cod.

The present essay attempts a psychoanalytic interpretation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Jay Gatsby’s id, superego, ego, and core issues. The first stage of the paper offers an analysis of Gatsby’s id, superego and ego; and finds that the id largely rules his behaviour, with few instances where the ego takes control and manifests the superego. The second stage proposes that three psychoanalytic core issues are identifiable in the character of Gatsby: fear of abandonment, low self-esteem and insecure or unstable sense of self. Through the lens of Psychoanalytic Criticism, the present essay looks at fictional literature in order to gain insight into the human psyche, in hopes of discussing and spreading awareness about mental health.