...Developed by Sigmund Freud, psychoanalytic criticism is used in literature to reveal the motives, motifs, and themes in a work of literature. This analysis focuses on the inner workings of the human mind. The short story, “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allen Poe, depicts Freud’s conclusion of psychoanalytic criticism. The sole motive for the killing of Fortunato is due to Montresor’s projection of his own failures. To Montresor, Fortunato represents his own downfalls and the way his life used to be––fortunate. Montresor’s motive for killing Fortunato began as an id; an unconscious instinct. It is only natural for a man to be jealous of something he once had. In this case, Montresor is jealous of the life Fortunato lives because this is the lifestyle his family is used to. Not only is it natural to be jealous, but it is also instinctive to feel the pressure of the burdens in a person’s life. Montresor feels as if he is being buried alive by the stress of his misfortunes. Because Montresor feels buried alive, he feels he needs kill Fortunato the same way. This jealousy is proven in the third paragraph of the short story, “In painting and gemmary, Fortunato, like his countrymen, was a quack but in the matter of old...
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...critics commend Salinger’s thorough development of the narrator, the realistic use of vernacular in the narration, and the accurate portrayal of post-World War II teenage life, others feel that the novel is perverse and immoral. In fact, The Catcher in the Rye was on the public school’s banned book list for its use of profane language, depiction of underage drinking, and sexual allusions. However, regardless of the challenges to the novel, the book was a New York Times Bestseller for thirty weeks, and remains popular in the twenty-first century. While the novel in its present form is roughly 214 pages long, the story evolved from short stories published by J.D. Salinger in the 1940s. “I’m Crazy,” published by Collier’s magazine in 1945, developed into the conversation with Mr. Spencer in Chapter 2 and Holden’s visit to Phoebe in Chapters 22 and 23. While the story features Holden, the Spencers, and Phoebe, it also includes Jeanette—the housekeeper— and Viola—Holden’s youngest sister, who have both been omitted from the novel. Salinger’s “Slight Rebellion Off Madison,” published in the New Yorker in 1946, developed into Chapters 17 and 19 of the novel, and it featured early prototypes of Sally Hayes, and Carl Luce. In addition, The Catcher in the Rye was originally to be published as a 99 page novella in 1946, but Salinger backed out of the agreement with the publishing company and published the book as a full-length novel in 1951. Even though the book is...
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...http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/689/1/ . The other thing to work on is making sure your main claim is as specific as possible, or at least as specific as the paper that follows. Most of your claims center around a child’s identification with the prince as a way of learning self-acceptance, and some specific information about that to clarify early on for a reader the kind of argument you are making about the tale will greatly help that reader follow the logic of your argument. Comments on draft: Tascha, you have a strong voice and some great analysis of PP here. You really seem to have taken to B’s approach, and are able to bring out the ways the tale could help reassure a child in ways that generate new insight about the tale. My main concern right now is that your organization is getting in the way of some of this analysis, particularly in the first half of your paper. I recommend in a marginal comment, but I’ll repeat it here, that instead of doing a plot summary and analysis simultaneously over the course of the paper, you begin with a simple plot summary and then organize the analysis in terms of ideas rather than narrative sequence. This will help you lead a reader through your ideas, and give you more flexibility to relate your different ideas to one another. The other thing that would help bring your strength at...
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...Jonathan Hoyer LIT 369: Short Fiction/Honors Dr. Quan Ha 4/9/13 Psychoanalytic Objectification of Women – When Women Literally Become Objects (Revised) The story “The Babysitter” is fraught with sexual language, addressing sexual behavior directly and nonchalantly in discussing characters’ interactions with non-sexual objects. Psychoanalysis relies on the Oedipus Complex; the assumption that male behavior is a result of a deep-seeded unconscious “castration anxiety,” whereupon a young boy loves his mother and wants to have sex with her and competes with the father, resulting in an unconscious fear that his father will castrate him. In adulthood, a male “fetishizes female beauty as a way of defending against the anxiety brought about by the spectacle of woman as representing ‘lack’ or castration” (Gabbard, 161). This fetishizing female beauty, or in other words, objectifying women, is a defense mechanism against castration anxiety. Psychoanalysis offers multiple explanations for the objectification of women. Objectification is also considered to be a result of the disturbance of the relationship between mother and baby. Objectification is a compensation for the loss of “the blissful relationship with a mother who has no autonomy or otherness but exists only to serve the baby’s needs” (Gabbard 166). Objectification, then, is a result of the male trying to recreate this perfect maternal symbiosis in which the mother serves the baby’s needs, and is essentially used as an...
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...A Psychoanalytic Approach to “The Yellow Wallpaper” The short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” first appeared in the January 1882 publication of The New England Magazine, a monthly literary magazine published in Boston. Authored by Charlotte Perkins Gilman this short story was not well received at printing and was not reprinted until twenty-eight years later in William Dean Howell’s collection,The Great American Short Stories in 1920. As part of the collection it gained some popularity for a time and then just died out again. Unfortunately this was the extent of the life of her work while she was still alive. However in 1973 the story was reissued by the Feminist Press with an exceptional commentary by Elaine Hedges and finally became popularly rediscovered. Elaine Hedges explained the work as a “pioneering masterpiece of feminist literature” (Pompele 61). Since the publication, theorists using a Feminist approach most overwhelmingly study the story.Gilman’s emphasis on the importance of language and text, and the fact that “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a tale of mental breakdown, make Lacanian psychoanalytic a natural way to consider the work in order to help readers understand the author’s use of language as a manifestation not of herself but the “other” as a means to safely express herself. As an autobiographical story there exist very undeniable connections between Gilman’s personal life and that of the narrator. A study of “The Yellow Wallpaper” is quite remiss if not...
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...Christian Alonzo English 1302 Professor Duncan 16 June 2015 Topic Proposal: Religious affairs in A good Man Is Hard to find In Flannery O Connors southern gothic short story, “a good man is hard to find” the protagonists that are presented seem to be in a gloomy and fragile relationship in what seems to be your cliché American family. The family as you would expect from O’Connor’s writing is in its own way corrupt and what many catholic enthusiasts would say, need Jesus. The Grandmother being the worst case of them all and in the story shows examples of gluttony and lust, two major sins in the Roman Catholic faith. These sins are the eventual downfall of the entire family. This essay will view the repercussions that occur for lathering in a life of sin and argue that salvation can be disguised in many ways even as malicious at times. It will utilize research directly from the psychoanalytic concept, traumas, and realizations of the few characters who get passed they’re own demons and come to a self-religious realization. Additionally, the essay will pursue the relationships between the grandmother, the misfit, and the son, John Wesley and his Mother and their last minute, virtuous moments right before Gods jurisdiction is handed upon them. John Wesley realizes that his actions anytime before that moment were inexcusable towards his mother, but now it is too late as he is murdered in the woods and the grandmother’s having her salvation just before the Misfit eradicates her...
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...Hop On the Superego Express “Ok class, raise your hand if you want to meet Barney in person right now!” says the high school teacher. “I love Barney! But I can’t raise my hand in front of everybody. They will think it is strange to like Barney if you are in high school.” thinks the student to himself. Have you ever made decisions, or not made decisions, based on the pressures of society? A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams is a story about a woman named Blanche, who is an extreme example of the people in this world that live their lives the way society dictates. She has a young, predetermined wedding, feels pressured to take over responsibility for a farm, and develops personal/mental problems in the process and is ostracized from her hometown. She desperately goes to her sister for help far from home, but things are not much different for her there, as most people here also judge and live based on society or “peer pressure.” She begins to find hope in a newfound relationship with her sister, a chance for love with her new boyfriend, and a chance for happiness to start over; however, all these dreams are quickly crushed by the menacing forces of people’s fear of not fitting in and doing what’s accepted, as well as Stanley, the main person who is opposite of all this. In this world, most of the characters, mainly Blanche, made the mistake of living and making decisions the way society would expect them to, meaning Freud’s third part of the subconscious, the element...
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...Freud Psychosexual Development In Freudian psychology, psychosexual development is a central element of the psychoanalytic sexual drive theory, that human beings, from birth, possess an instinctual libido (sexual energy) that develops in five stages. Each stage – the oral, the anal, thephallic, the latent, and the genital – is characterized by the erogenous zone that is the source of the libidinal drive. Sigmund Freud proposed that if the child experienced sexual frustration in relation to any psychosexual developmental stage, he or she would experience anxiety that would persist into adulthood as a neurosis, a functional mental disorder. Stages of Development Stage | Age Range | Erogenous zone | Consequences of psychologic fixation | Oral | Birth–1 year | Mouth | Orally aggressive: chewing gum and the ends of pencils, etc. Orally Passive: smoking, eating, kissing, oral sexual practices[4] Oral stage fixation might result in a passive, gullible, immature, manipulativepersonality. | Anal | 1–3 years | Bowel and bladderelimination | Anal retentive: Obsessively organized, or excessively neat Anal expulsive: reckless, careless, defiant, disorganized, coprophiliac | Phallic | 3–6 years | Genitalia | Oedipus complex (in boys and girls); according to Sigmund Freud.Electra complex (in girls); according to Carl Jung. | Latency | 6–puberty | Dormant sexual feelings | Sexual unfulfillment if fixation occurs in this stage. | Genital | Puberty–death | Sexual interests mature...
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...any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publishers. Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging‑in‑Publication Data Tyson, Lois, 1950‑ Critical theory today : a user‑friendly guide / Lois Tyson.‑‑ 2nd ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0‑415‑97409‑7 (hb) ‑‑ ISBN 0‑415‑97410‑0 (pb) 1. Criticism. I. Title. PN81.T97 2006 801’.95‑‑dc22 Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at http://www.taylorandfrancis.com and the Routledge Web site at http://www.routledge‑ny.com 2006001722 I gratefully dedicate this book to my students and to my teachers. I hope I will always have difficulty telling you apart. Contents Preface to the second edition Preface for instructors...
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...och den amerikanska drömmen i Arthur Millers en handelsresandes död. Fredrik Artan Faculty of Arts and Education Subject: English Points:15.0 Supervisor: Magnus Ullén Examiner: Anna Swärdh 2014-06-18 Serial number Abstract This essay focuses on the theme of the American Dream in relation to narcissism in Miller’s Death of a salesman. The purpose is to demonstrate that a close reading of the main protagonist, Willy Loman, suggests that his notion of success in relation to the American Dream can be regarded as narcissistic. This essay will examine this by first observing how Willy´s notion of success is represented in the play, then look at how his understanding of it can be viewed from a narcissistic standpoint. The results I have found in my analysis show that there is a connection between Willy’s understanding of success and his narcissistic behavior. He displays traits such as grandiosity, arrogance, need of specialness and denial of emotions. His relationship with other characters reveals his lack of empathy, manipulation and exploitation of others as well as his need of superiority and fear of inferiority. The conclusion is that Willy and his notion of success could be considered as narcissistic. Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................1 The American Dream.................................................................................
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...Slop and think: reviewing your study of literature to date - 8 My own 'stock-taking' - 9 1 Theory before 'theory' - liberal humanism - 11 The history of English studies - 11 Stop and think - 11 Ten tenets of liberal humanism - 16 Literary theorising from Aristotle to Leavis some key moments - 21 Liberal humanism in practice - 31 The transition to 'theory' - 32 Some recurrent ideas in critical theory - 34 Selected reading - 36 2 Structuralism - 39 Structuralist chickens and liberal humanist eggs Signs of the fathers - Saussure - 41 Stop and think - 45 The scope of structuralism - 46 What structuralist critics do - 49 Structuralist criticism: examples - 50 Stop and think - 53 Stop and think - 55 39 Stop and think - 57 Selected reading - 60 3 Post-structuralism and deconstruction - 61 Some theoretical differences between structuralism and post-structuralism - 61 Post-structuralism - life on a decentred planet - 65 Stop and think - 68 Structuralism and post-structuralism - some practical differences - 70 What post-structuralist critics do - 73 Deconstruction: an example - 73 Selected reading - 79 4 Postmodernism - 81 What is postmodernism? What was modernism? - 81 'Landmarks' in postmodernism: Habermas, Lyotard and Baudrillard - 85 Stop and think - 90 What postmodernist critics do - 91 Postmodernist criticism: an example - 91 Selected reading - 94 5 Psychoanalytic criticism - 96 Introduction - 96 How Freudian interpretation works...
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...We have read Learned Optimism by Martin Seligman in our English class this semester, our task is to address Seligman’s rules for being successful and deciding whether or not we agree with his argument. Although I have not read the whole book, we were assigned to read chapters 1, 2, 3, and 12 and by that I was supplied with enough information to construct my own opinion on his claims. Martin Seligman argues that learning to be optimistic can change your way of life and empower yourself through non-negative thinking and I agree because after reviewing everything that I’ve been though these past 5 years, I found that having a positive mindset has got me though some of the hardest times in my life. Summary: In Learned Optimism, Martin Seligman argues that how you explain events to yourself after they happen has a huge impact on your life. In chapter one, Seligman defines two different type of people, pessimists – people who believe in bad events are their own fault and the consequences of the event will last a long time and optimists – people who believe bad events are only temporary, the events are not their fault and can either be caused by bad luck or other people. He goes on to explain that after 25 years of research, he is sure that if we believe bad events are our fault, more of it will befall on us and that the point of his book is to teach us how to recognize out pessimistic tendencies, stop them, and practice an optimistic lifestyle. He believes that because of the negativity...
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...Elizabeth's reign, or if she had been born in a country where Queen Elizabeth is not recognized by her appearance, I claim that her identity would be constructed in a different way. She would not see the Queen when she looks in the mirror, and she would not be reluctant to take part in social situations because of her likeness to Queen Elizabeth. On the other hand, what separates Maggie and Queen Elizabeth, is not that they look like different people, but their circumstances. Maggie is working-class and Scottish, and thus her identity is working-class and Scottish. In "Not the Queen" we do not learn anything about Kay's Queen Elizabeth, which leaves us to form our own theories on whether Maggie and Queen Elizabeth are in the world of the story different only because of their class, or are their internal characters or temperaments in some way different? Would Maggie have become the same as Kay's Queen Elizabeth if she had been born in the same circumstances? If the Scottish identity is divided, is it more influenced by what it is not than what it is, and what does this negated identity do to the Scottish identity? In Kay's Maggie we seen that a negated...
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...is also important in cases where behaviours are destructive. Each theory has stipulated techniques which are meant to control behaviour. Types of Theories There are several types of theories which helps a counsellor to understand, predict and control behaviour. But for this course, emphasis will be placed on the following theories: • Psychological Theory • Behaviour Theory • Poison Centred Theory • Cognitive Behavioural Theory THE PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY Background Before the development of the psychological view point in terms of understanding, the human behaviour, in the late 18th Century and Mid 19th Century by Mesmer, Dr. John Breur, Dr. Jean Charcot among others. Psychological disorders and disturbances was mainly looked at from the perspective of the demon existence and from poorly medical/biological point of view. However, some development in the patients who exhibited this symptom could not be explained by medical or physiological factors alone. Therefore, the development of a psychological view point was an opening in not only understanding its development but also interventions. It’s under this...
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...9 CHAPTER PERSONALITY AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 348 CHAPTER OUTLINE module 29 Psychodynamic Approaches to Personality Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory: Mapping the Unconscious Mind The Neo-Freudian Psychoanalysts: Building on Freud Try It! The Life Orientation Test Projective Methods Behavioral Assessment Becoming an Informed Consumer of Psychology: Assessing Personality Assessments module 30 Trait, Learning, Biological and Evolutionary, and Humanistic Approaches to Personality Trait Approaches: Placing Labels on Personality Learning Approaches: We Are What We’ve Learned Biological and Evolutionary Approaches: Are We Born with Personality? Humanistic Approaches: The Uniqueness of You Try It! Assessing Your Real and Ideal Self-Concept Comparing Approaches to Personality module 32 Intelligence Theories of Intelligence: Are There Different Kinds of Intelligence? Practical Intelligence and Emotional Intelligence: Toward a More Intelligent View of Intelligence Assessing Intelligence Variations in Intellectual Ability Exploring Diversity: The Relative Influence of Genetics and Environment: Nature, Nurture, and IQ Psychology on the Web The Case of . . . Mike and Marty Scanlon, the Unlikely Twins Profiles of Success: Raymond J. Matlock Full Circle: Personality and Individual Differences module 31 Assessing Personality: Determining What Makes Us Distinctive Self-Report Measures of Personality Who was the Real Bernie Madoff? To some, Bernard L. Madoff was an affable, charismatic...
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