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· Name:
Abulhasan H. Aabedi
· Roll
no: 01
· Topic: Literary
Term: Psychoanalytical Criticism and Eco-Criticism
· Paper
no.7: Literary Theory and Criticism
· Class:
Semester 02
· Enrollment
no.:2069108420180001
· Batch:
2017~19
· Submitted
to Department of English MK Bhavnagar University
Literary Terms: Psychoanalytical
Criticism and Eco-Criticism
Psychoanalytical criticism
Literary Theory
·
Introduction:
Sigmund Schlomo Freud (6 may 1856- 23 September 1939) is
considered to be the founder of the psycho-dynamic approach to psychology which
looks closely at the unconscious drives that motivate people to act in certain
ways.
The
role of the mind is something that Freud repeatedly talked about because he
believed that the mind is responsible for both conscious and unconscious
decisions based on drives and forces. Unconscious desire motivate people to act
accordingly. The id, ego and super ego are three aspects of the mind, Freud
believed to make up a person’s personality. Freud believed people are “simply
actors in the drama of their own mind, pushed by desire, pulled by coincidence.
Underneath the surface, our personalities represent the power struggle going on
deep within us.
·
Freudian Psychoanalysis:
Psychoanalytic Criticism (emerged in the 1960s), the most influential
interpretative theory among the series of waves in the post war period is based
on the specific premises to the workings of the mind, the instincts and
sexuality, developed by the 19th
century intellect, Austrian Sigmund Freud ( who along with Marx, Darwin and Nietzsche, subverted the centers of Western society by boiling down the
human individuality into an animalistic sex drive).
·
Psychology in Literature:
The relationship between Psychoanalysis and Literary criticism which
spans much of the 20th century is fundamentally concerned with the
articulation of sexuality in language. It has moved through three main emphases
in its pursuit of the “literary unconscious” on the author and its corollary
characters, on the reader and on the text. It started with Freud’s analysis of
the literary text as a “symptom of the artist”, where the relationship between
the author and the text is analogous to dreamers and their dreams.
Later it was remoulded by post-Freudian psychoanalytical reader responsecriticism where the psychological
experience of the reader in relation to the text is foreground, but
contested by CG Jung’s “Contra-Freud” archetypal criticism which states that
the literary work is not a focus for the writer’s or the reader’s personal
psychology, but a representation of the relationship between the personal and
the collective unconscious, the images, myths, symbol and the archetypes of
past cultures.
More
recently, this theoretical delineation has been reworked in Post-structuralist context by Jacques Lacan, who coupled the dynamic notion of desire with
structuralist Linguistics; this has been influentially innovative as echoed in
the Feminist Psychoanalytical criticism. The Psychoanalytical impetus which is
compatible with contemporary concerns of uncertainties of time, subjectivity
and meaning gained a new critical currency in Postcolonial studies, where the
interest in destabilized borders and identities is very much evident.
·
Classical/Freudian Psychoanalysis:
The uniqueness of Freud’s explorations lies in his attributing to the
unconscious decisive role in the lives of human being. The unconscious is the
repository of traumatic experience, emotions, unadmitted desires, fears,
libidinal drives, unresolved conflicts etc. This unconscious comes into being
at an early age, through the expunging of these unhappy psychic events from the
consciousness, a process which Freud term “repression”. Repression is crucial
to the operations of the unconscious(an idea later developed by HerbertMarcuse). There has been a consistent interest in contemporary literary studies
in the unconscious(eg, Frankurt School’s synthesis of Freud and Marx) and the
notion and effects of repression linked often with debates on sexuality (eg.
Foucault’s rejection of western belief that history of sexuality has been the
history of repression).
·
Id, Ego, Superego:-
Later in his career, Freud suggested a tripartite model of the psyche,
dividing it into Id, Ego and Superego. The id, being entirely in the conscious
is the most inaccessible and obscure part of our personality. It is the
receptacle of our libido, the primary source of our psychic energy. Its
function is to fulfill the primordial life. Principle, which is pleasure
principle. It is entirely without rationality and has a tremendous amorphous
kind of vitality. Ego governed by the
reality principle, is defined as the rational governing force of psyche. It is
mostly conscious and protects the individual from the Id. It is the site of
reason and introspection. It is the intermediary between the world within(Id)
and the world outside(Superego). The superego, which is another regulatory
agent, protects the society from id. It is partly conscious and in moral
parlance, can be called as the conscience of individual. It is governed by the
“mortality principle” and repress the incestual, sexcual passion,
aggressiveness etc. Being a repository of pride, self esteem etc. it compels the individual to move towards
perfection.
·
Psychosexual development:-
Many of Freud’s idea are concerned with aspects of libido, human sexual
drive, which he calls eros and places in opposition to thantos, the death drive.
This exemplified in his postulate of infantile sexuality. Freud believes that
sexuality arrives not at puberty with physical maturing, but in infancy,
especially with the infant’s relationship with mother. Drawing from mythology
and contemporary ethnography, Freud proposes his theory of psychosexual development
(critiqued for its explicit phallogocentrism) in which the infant passes
through a series of stages, each defined by an erogenous zone of the body. If
the infant is reluctant or unable to move from one stage to another, s/he is
said to be fixated at that stage of development. The stages of psychosexual
development include:
1. Oral stage:-
The first stage of
psychosexual development lasts approximately from birth to 2 years. During this
stage, the principle source of pleasure for the infant is the mouth and
pleasure is derived through sucking, biting, swallowing etc. A person fixated
at this stage will be prone to obsession with oral activities (like eating,
drinking, smoking, kissing etc.) and or excessive pessimism, hostility etc.
Oral stage ends at the time of weaning and the infant’s focus is shifted.
2. Anal stage:-
Here, anus is the prime
source of pleasure. Elimination of faeces gives pleasure to the child, but with
the onset of toilet training, s/he is forced to postpone or delay this
pleasure. A fixation at this stage is identified as the reason for the
development of an “anal retentive” personality described as being stubborn and
stingy.
3. Phallic Stage:-
Children aged from
4-5 years, seem to spend a good deal of time exploring and manipulating the
genitals their own and others. Pleasure is derived from the phallic region,
through behaviors such as masturbation
and through fantasies. The basic conflict of the centers around the unconscious
incestuous desire of the child for the parents of the opposite sex, which is
corollary with the child’s desire to replace or annihilate the parent of the
same sex out of this conflict, arises one of Freud’s theoretical pivots:
Where
the male child conceives the incestuous longing force the mother, and the
desire to eliminate the father, his rival through both fantasy and overt
behavior , he exhibits his sexual longings for the mother.
The male child’s desire to replace his father
is accompanied by the fear of his father, which Freud explains in genital
terms- Castration anxiety. As his castration fear supersedes his sexual desire
for his mother, the latter is repressed, a concept which the psychoanalysts
dubs as the “resolution of Oedipal conflict.” This resolution incorporates in
it the replacement of the sexual desire for the mother with a more acceptable
affection and duping a strong identification with the father, through which he
can access a degree of vicarious sexual satisfaction. One of the superego (the
heir of the Oedipus complex”, in Freud’s terminology) Many forms of
intergeneration conflict are seen by Freudians as having Oedipal overtones,
such a professional rivalries, often viewed in Freudians terms as reproducing
the competition between siblings for parental favor.
The female
version of phallic conflict (about which Freud was less clear) is more
complicated. The girl’s object of love, like the boy for his mother, she is
primary source of food, security and affection in infancy (relates to Queertheorists’ fascination with the idea that, the first sexual experience of the
female is the homosexual). During phallic stage, the father becomes the object
of her desire, as she identifies that both her mother and herself castrated and
powerless (a severe critique of this Freudian concept is one of the concerns of
feminist psychoanalysts).
The girl child loves her father for his
possession of penis and blames the mother, for the “Lack” (a concept theorized
further by lacan) of this organs. The daughter’s love for the father is coupled
with a feeling of envy, which Freud calls “penis envy”, the counterpart of
body- child’s castration anxiety.
If a child is fixated at the phallic stage, or
if s/he has an unresolved oedipal/electra complex, such a condition will lead
to neurosis, and in turn to a more adverse pyschosis.
4. Genital stage:
The final stage of
psychosexual development begins at the time of puberty. Even though there are
social conflicts, they are minimalised through the use of sublimation.
Dream Work:-
Freud described
dreams as the royal road to the unconscious, as they provide a better
understanding of the repressed desire in the unconscious. They are considered
as the symbolic texts which need to be deciphered, since the watchful ego is at
work, even when we are dreaming, the ego scrambles and censors the messages as
the unconscious itself adds to this obscurity by its peculiar modes of
functioning. Thus the latent dream content is not vividly displayed within the complex structures and codes, which is
called dreamwork in Freudian neologism.
The Freudian critics analysis
of Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a commendable attempt. Hamlet’s procrastination is
attributed to his Oedipus complex, i.e. hamlet is reluctant to avenge his
father’s murder as he is guilty of wishing to commit the same crime himself.
The critic also make notice of the death of Shakespeare’s father in 1601 and of
his son hamnet, a name identical with hamlet.
Another
illustration is Freudian reading of Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming which is
considered a surrealist farce, given in her article pinter’s Freudian
homecoming in which she places Oedipal complex at the centre of the action.
D.H. Lawrence
was aware of Freud’s theory, and Sons and Lovers famously uses the Oedipus complex
as its base for exploring Paul’s relationship with his mother. Paul is
hopelessly devoted to his mother, and that love often borders on romantic
desire. Lawrence writes many scenes between the two go beyond the bounds of
conventional mother-son love. Completing the Oedipal equation, Paul murderously
hates his father and often fantasizes about his death. Throughout the Novel,
Gertrude Morel the protagonist and the mother of Paul and William Morel who
become unhappy with her husband Walter and devotes herself to her children.
· Literary
theory: Eco-Criticism
·
What is eco-Criticism:
In
the simplest possible terms, ‘Eco Criticism is the study of the relationship
between literature and the physical environment.’ It was proposed by the
pioneer or the father of this theory in the USA, Cheryll Glotfelty. And even if
this Eco-Criticism or Green studies as a theory is not so popular, those who
are curious in this field must be knowing it already. The study of nature as
presented in the pieces of literature is what that has been the playground of
the people concerned with this rather new movement in literary theories. As per
the term Eco-Criticism, it only came into the major play after the attempt of
Cheryll Glotfelty, right since the 1989 WLA (Western literature
association)conference. Glotfelty urged the scholer to use this term to refer
to the belt of studies which was previously popular as the study of Green
writing. It was his name Scholars also trace it back to 1978 William Rueckert’s
essay and also Karl Kroeber’s back in 1974. However, the Lion’s share, no
doubt, rests with Cheryll.
·
Eco-Criticism:-
The easiest way
to understand this trend in literary theories would be to learn what these
people do. As you must be aware that traditional theories in literature put
emphasis either on linguistics or on the cultural and social background, the
Eco-Critics put all the weight on the ‘nature’ and believe that nature exist as
a force which affects our evolution directly as society. For the intellectuals involved in the
development of Green studies the world is not made of language and social
elements. They tend to bring out the part which nature plays either in writings
or in general purview. However, as it entered into the field of literary
theory, a part bifurcated and established itself as solely devoted wing
concerned with the reading of literary texts and bringing out the role of
nature, representation of nature and natural elements in the literature produced
worldwide. It is a fact that the major foci of Green studies intellectuals are
the regional literature of different places as we know it contains a lot of
fusion of nature. Nevertheless, the well known authors, poets and literary
figures always remain the central source which feeds the thought and findings
of these studies.
·
What do the Eco-Critics do?
Well, that is a question we would turn to
Peter Barry for an answer. The book beginning theory by Peter Barry is a great
tool, if we may say, to understand the literary theories. The chapter given in
the book that deals with Eco-criticism is way advanced and comprehensive than
most of the other items we should read to know what is eco criticism or what
does eco-centric or eco critic do.
As an eco-Critic, a person would:
·
Read or re-read the major as well as
other works of literature with a viewfinder to trace the natural representation
in writing.
·
Praise the authors, poet and
intellectual who put nature on a higher pedestal than other themes.
·
Give importance to the writing with and
Eco-centric perspective, such as travel memories, essay about places,
intellectual writings containing visual landscape in text etc.
·
Not conform to the traditional notions
of literary theory that suggest linguistic or the social build and thus walking
through the classic lane of world beyond ourselves.
Now, We will try to simplify the works of the Eco-Critics. They
don’t simply give importance and read the literature from an eco-centric
perspective. They look for the natural representation, no doubt, but in rather
a larger perspective. Life in proportion to nature, human civilization along
with nature, importance of natural resources in our deeds which harm the
ecological balance, wars and their
adverse effect on our society, and many other things come within the purview of
an eco-centric reading of literature. As rightly observed by Peter barry.
The practices of Eco-criticism
tend to give more importance to the people like Wordsworth, Walt Whitman, Thomas Hardy and other Romantic poets (mostly
British). There is a public domain understanding behind this because we all
know these literary figures gave more importance to nature and its role in life
than any other thing. Wordsworth, for instance, always subscribed to the notion
that nature is the best teacher. His seminal work, Prelude, is full of the
illustration role of nature in human upbringing. Eco-Critics work to trace
those examples and present it to the common readers.
As a reader or a student curious about the theory of Eco-Criticism,
you can also work out to bring out the most exemplary instances. For a simple
instance, suppose the novels of Thomas
Hardy, ‘Under the greenwood tree’, ‘Far From Madding Crowd’ and the others
as your subjects. His novels are also called the Wessex Novels. His novels are
set in the lap of nature and you will see it playing an important role. His
characters grow with Nature, mature with nature and eventually die with it. In
simple terms, nature, as an active force in our life, is permanent and our life
is ephemeral in a sense!. Thus, giving more importance to nature and preserving
it becomes our moral duty. Another great example of the permanence of nature is
the poem “Rainbow” by William Wordsworth.
v
Major figures in the field:
v
Jonathan Bate (considered widely as
the father of Eco-Criticism in England)
v
Cheryll Glotfelty (Father of
Eco-Criticism in The USA)
Important books about Eco-Criticism:
v
The Green Studies readers: from
Romanticism to Eco-Criticism by Laurence Coupe.
v
The song of the Earth by Jonathan Bate
v
The Eco-Criticism readers: Landmarks
in Literary Ecology by Cheryll Glotfelty
v
Literature of Nature: an International
source- book by Petrick D.Murphy
v
What is Nature? Culture, politics and
the non-human by Kate Soper
v
Total Pages 9 of 9
v
Total words- 2,805
Bibliography
Freud's Psychoanalytic theories. 4 April 2018
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freud%27s_psychoanalytic_theories>.
Mambrol, Nasrullah. Freudian
Psychoanalysis. 16 April 2016. 4 April 2018 <https://literariness.org/2016/04/16/freudian-psychoanalysis/>.
Mishra, Alok. EcoCriticism
Theory in Literature: Introduction & Analysis. 26 December 2016. 4
April 2018
<http://alok-mishra.net/eco-criticism-theory-literature-introduction-analysis/>.
