Family Secrets and the Psychoanalysis of Narrative / / Esther Rashkin.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Princeton Legacy Lib. eBook Package 1980-1999
• VerfasserIn: Rashkin, Esther,
• Place / Publishing House: Princeton, NJ : : Princeton University Press, , [2014]; ©1992
• Year of Publication: 2014
• Edition: Course Book
• Language: English
• Series: Princeton Legacy Library ; 127
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (222 p.)

Family Secrets and the Psychoanalysis of Narrative is the first book to explore the implications of the psychoanalytic theory of the phantom for the study of narrative literature. A phantom is formed when a shameful, unspeakable secret is unwittingly transmitted, through cryptic language and behavior, transgenerationally from one family member to another. The "haunted" individual to whom the "encrypted" secret is communicated becomes the unwitting medium for someone else's voice--and the result is speech and conduct that appear incongruous or obsessive in a variety of ways. Through close readings of texts by Conrad, Villiers de l'Isle-Adam, Balzac, James, and Poe, Esther Rashkin reveals how shameful secrets, concealed within the unspoken family histories of fictive characters, can be reconstructed from their linguistic traces and can be shown not only to drive the characters' speech and behavior but also to generate their narratives. First articulated by the French psychoanalysts Nicolas Abraham and Maria Torok, the theory of the phantom here represents a radical departure from Freudian, Lacanian, and other psychoanalytic approaches to literary interpretation. In Rashkin's hands, it also provides a response to structuralist and poststructuralist critiques of character analysis, an alternative to deconstructive strategies of reading, and a new vantage point from which to consider problems of intertextuality, "authorship," and the formation and origins of narrative.Originally published in 1992.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Note on Documentation -- Introduction. Character Analysis, Unspeakable Secrets, and the Formation of Narrative -- CHAPTER 1. For a New Psychoanalytic Literary Criticism THE WORKS OF ABRAHAM AND TOROK -- CHAPTER 2. The Ghost of a Secret PSYCHOANALYTIC ALLEGORY IN JOSEPH CONRAD'S THE SECRET SHARER -- CHAPTER 3. The Interred Sign LTNTERSIGNE BY AUGUSTE DE VILLffiRS DE L'ISLE-ADAM -- CHAPTER 4. Legacies of Gold HONORE DE BALZAC'S FACINO CANE -- CHAPTER 5. In the Mind's I THE JOLLY CORNER OF HENRY JAMES -- CHAPTER 6. A Meeting of the Minds EDGAR ALLAN POE'S THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Index