Invisible Man
According to Goethe, "We do not have to visit a madhouse to find disordered minds; our planet is the mental institution of the universe." Despite the hyperbolic nature of Goethe’s statement, it holds some truth. Because of this element of truth, society looks to psychoanalysis as an important tool for understanding human nature. Furthermore, psychoanalytic criticism of authors, characters, and readers has a place in literary criticism that is as important as the place of psychoanalysis in society. This is because of the mimetic nature of much of modern literature. In fact, the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan wrote, "If psycho-analysis is to be constituted as the science of the unconscious, one ...
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interpretations of are rare, even though Ellison clearly threads the theories of at least Freud throughout his novel."(2) Because of the rarity of psychoanalytic critiques of , this paper will examine the character of the in the Prologue and Epilogue of Ellison’s masterpiece using the theories of Sigmund Freud, Carl Gustav Jung, and Jacques Lacan.
The first step in this study should be to look at previous psychoanalytic critiques of . As stated earlier, Caffilene Allen’s article showed itself as the only article of this type in the Modern Language Association database. Other researchers mention Freud, and Allen cites one other article of this type, but as Allen notes, "Even those critics who touch on Freud do not emphasize the relationship between his clinical theories…and the literary action in ."(3) Allen’s own work focuses on the fact that Freud’s book Totem and Taboo appears in , and she describes how the action of , possibly at the intention of Ellison, mirrors the theory ...
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Tradition, three stages exist at which psychoanalytic theory joins literature. That is, three minds can be examined: the mind of the author, the minds of the author’s characters, or the mind of the reader as he reads.(7) The basis of this study is in the second of these two, the mind of the character. The theorists of use in this study are Sigmund Freud, Carl Gustav Jung, and Jacques Lacan. As the father of psychoanalysis, Freud is an important theorist to reference. Despite the limitations of his theories, their usefulness still exists, especially as a background for Jung and Lacan. The Freudian text at work in this analysis will be Civilization and Its Discontents. In this text, Freud’s ...
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Invisible Man. (2008, February 11). Retrieved November 23, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Invisible-Man/78858
"Invisible Man." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 11 Feb. 2008. Web. 23 Nov. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Invisible-Man/78858>
"Invisible Man." Essayworld.com. February 11, 2008. Accessed November 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Invisible-Man/78858.
"Invisible Man." Essayworld.com. February 11, 2008. Accessed November 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Invisible-Man/78858.
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