Ogden, Benjamin
Ogden, Benjamin
Beyond Psychoanalytic Literary Criticism
- Year: 2013
- Publisher / Date: Routledge, 2018
Through a series of radical and innovative chapters, Beyond Psychoanalytic Literary Criticism: Between Literature and Mind challenges the tradition of applied psychoanalysis that has long dominated psychoanalytic literary criticism. Benjamin H. Ogden, a literary scholar, proposes that a new form of analytic literary criticism take its place, one that begins from a place of respect for the mystery of literature and the complexity of its inner workings.
In this book, through readings of authors such as J.M. Coetzee, Flannery O’Connor, and Vladimir Nabokov, the mysteries upon which literary works rely for their enduring power are enumerated and studied. Such mysteries are thereafter interwoven into a series of pioneering studies of how the conceptions of thinking, dreaming, and losing become meaningful within the unique aesthetic conditions of individual novels and poems. Each chapter is a provisional solution to the difficult "bridging problems" that arise when literary figures work in the psychoanalytic space, and when psychoanalysts attempt to make use of literature for analytic purposes.
At every turn, Beyond Psychoanalytic Literary Criticism: Between Literature and Mind acts as a living example of the territory it explores: the space between two disciplines, wherein the writer brings into being a form of psychoanalytic literary criticism of his own making. Forgoing traditional applied psychoanalysis and technical jargon, this highly accessible, interdisciplinary work will appeal to psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists, as well as literary critics and scholars.
The Analyst's Ear and the Critic's Eye: Rethinking Psychoanalysis and Literature
- Year: 2013
- Publisher / Date: Routledge, 2013
The Analyst’s Ear and the Critic’s Eye is the first volume of literary criticism to be co-authored by a practicing psychoanalyst and a literary critic. The result of this unique collaboration is a lively conversation that not only demonstrates what is most fundamental to each discipline, but creates a joint perspective on reading literature that neither discipline alone can achieve.
This book radically redefines the relationship between psychoanalysis and literary studies in a way that revitalizes the conversation between the two fields. This is achieved, in part, by providing richly textured descriptions of analytic work. These clinical illustrations bring to life the intersubjective dimension of analytic practice, which is integral to the book’s original conception of psychoanalytic literary criticism. In their readings of seminal works of American and European literature, the authors address questions that are fundamental to psychoanalysis, literary studies, and the future of psychoanalytic literary criticism:
-What is psychoanalytic literary criticism?
-Which concepts are most fundamental to psychoanalytic theory?
-What is the role of psychoanalytic theory in reading literature?
-How does an analyst’s clinical experience shape the way he reads?
-How might literary critics make use of the analyst’s experience with his patients?
-What might psychoanalysts learn from the ways professional literary critics read?
This volume provides cutting edge work which will breathe new life into psychoanalytic ways of reading, free from technical language, yet drawing upon what is most fundamental to psychoanalytic theory and practice. It will be of great interest to mental health professionals, literary scholars and those studying psychoanalysis and literature.