Ferdinand de Saussure ( )... SIGN. Language is a system of relationships among signs. signification

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2 Ferdinand de Saussure ( )... SIGN Language is a system of relationships among signs signification 2

3 Symbolic view of language: WORD = THING 3

4 for Saussure... a Sign is composed of two parts: 4

5 Mind = (as a sign) Conscious Unconscious Text = (as a sign) structure of words unfulfilled desire 5

6 Psychoanalytic Criticism literature as symptom Sigmund Freud ( ) 6

7 Psychoanalytic Criticism ~ close reading ~ structure, form (metaphor vs metonymy) ~ relationship of parts ~ repetitions or gaps ~ what is not said but integrally apart of text 7

8 Unconscious?? A Problem of Definition What is Unconscious? ~ is it the Unconscious? (a thing) ~ is it an activity, a process of forces? 8

9 (manifest content) Conscious Mind (latent content) Unconsciousness Mind Unconscious erupts into Consciousness ~ slips of the tongue ~ compulsions to repeat ~puns ~ denials ~ literature ~ dreams ~ amnesia (forgetting) 9

10 Some axioms on the Unconscious The Unconscious can only be made Known through language 2. The study of the Unconscious is a study of textuality & narratives 3. The terms we use to discuss or describe or theorize about literary texts can be used in the same way for the Unconscious 10

11 The Interpretation of Dreams (1900) (Die Traumdeutung or Dream-Meaning) ~ dreams are one way the Unconscious expresses suppressed wishes and desires ~ the images, symbols, feelings in dreams have been reshaped or redirected in order to make them acceptable to the conscious mind 11

12 The Dream-Work Freud s term for what happens when content from the Unconscious moves into the Conscious Making the content acceptable to the Conscious mind involves reshaping, refiguring, substitutions, projections, or rationalizations Key Terms: Condensation & Displacement 12

13 Condensation... multiple elements from Latent Content combined into single image in Manifest Content example: Irma in his dream is a condensation of at Displacement... threatening emotions or experiences in Latent Content are transferred (displaced) elsewhere in Manifest Content example: Dr. M s role (repeated exam, conclusion, etc.) is a displacement for 13

14 from Dream-Work to Text-Work... ~ Psychoanalytic Criticism (PC): considers literary text as similar to a dream ( dream-work ) ~ literary text becomes a symptom ~ meaning of a text is NOT expressed in Manifest Content ~ must begin with the idea that the Text (like the Dream) has misinterpreted the Latent Content ~ texts misread their meanings 14

15 Method: close reading, structures of thought, language, and story telling (narratives) Goal: Uncover hidden (repressed) meanings Find motive & intention of text 15

16 The motive of human society is in the last resort an economic one. --Sigmund Freud 16

17 The motive of human society is in the last resort an economic one. --Sigmund Freud Human history is a story of labor, of the work of building society and institutions This has Consequences... Defers or Represses pleasure & gratification Reality Principle vs. Pleasure Principle 17

18 Art (literature) is similar to dreams... ~ an expression of the Unconscious ~ repressed desires, unresolved conflicts ~ images, symbols (the text) have been made acceptable to the conscious mind 18

19 Latent Content & Manifest Content... all material pertaining to the Unconscious... all material pertaining to the Conscious 19

20 In the original German.... Freud uses the word das Unbewusste Unbewusste = Unknown 21

21 Unconscious Two central questions: 1. Is it a place or is it an activity? 2. How can the existence of unconscious be known when, by definition, it is something we are not aware of? 22

22 The irony of the Unconscious, of the Unknown... forever condemned to being understood in terms of the Known... through analogy, metaphor, symbol, & story 23

23 Systematic/Topographic Model of Unconscious Ego Id wishes, drives Super-Ego moral self-control Ego formed by Id and Super-Ego Unknowingly part of both Ego becomes battleground of forces 28

24 The Dream-Work OR The Return of the Repressed Id Ego Unconscious Conscious ~ Drives, motives, past trauma ~ Repressed ~ Must be made acceptable to Conscious ~ Several processes for this... Condensation & Displacement 29

25 In The Method of Dream Interpretation Freud asserts... ~ dreams are psychological activity not simply a somatic (sleeping) process ~ dreams are a substitute for some other thoughtprocess ~ interpretation can yield this other meaning 30

26 Freud also asserts... ~ not doing symbolic dream-interpretation (i.e., replacing the whole dream for another content; he offers example of Joseph and Pharoah) ~ does not see dreams as prophetic, concerning the future ~ not doing cipher method of intepreting dreams (i.e., using selected fragments or ciphers of a dream and treating in whatever way possible) 31

27 Rather Freud asserts his dream interpretation... ~ clinical technique similar to his method of diagnosing and treating hysteria in patients ~ psychic concatenation... followed backwards from a pathological idea into the patient s memory ~ treat the dream itself as a symptom ~ conclusion: dreams = wish fulfillment motive is wish 32