Inaugural wounds : the shaping of desire in five ninetenth-century English narratives / Robert E. Lougy.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lougy, Robert E.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English fiction--19th century--History and criticism.

English fiction.

Psychoanalysis and literature--England.

Psychoanalysis and literature.

Desire in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (214 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Athens : Ohio University Press, c2004.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Desire, Jacques Lacan Suggests, Is A Condition or expression of our wounded nature. But because such desire is also unconscious, it can be expressed only indirectly, for what we consciously desire is hardly ever what we really want. Desire makes itself known, but disguises its presence - appearing, for example, in unconscious but repetitive, and sometimes even self-destructive, patterns of behavior. Informed by the voices of Freud and Lacan regarding the nature of language and desire, Inaugural Wounds examines the ways in which five major nineteenth-century English writers explored the trajectories and shapes of desire. Arguing that we need to give to novels the same kind of close scrutiny we give to poetry, author Robert Lougy suggests that when we do so, we discover that they often astound us by the resonance and range of their language, as well as by their ability to take us to strange and haunting places. Thackeray's Journey from Cornhill to Grand Cairo, Elizabeth Gaskell's Ruth, Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White, and Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure - testify to the mysterious origins of desire. Although each of the novels tells its own story in its own way, they share a fascination with the nature of desire itself. Drawing upon recent work that has challenged historicist approaches toward nineteenth-century British literature, Professor Lougy uses the insights of psychoanalysis to enable us to more fully appreciate the depth and power of these novels. Of great value to Victorian and psychoanalytic scholars, Inaugural Wounds will be useful for teaching undergraduates as well.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Insupportable Absence and the Writing of Desire

1 Martin Chuzzlewit

2 Exile and Desire in Thackeray's Notes of a Journey from Cornhill to Grand Cairo

3 Death, Desire, and the Site of the Prostitute in Elizabeth Gaskell's Ruth

4 Entangled Desire

5 Yearning and Melancholia

Notes

Works Cited

Index.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 165-197) and index.

ISBN:

0-8214-4165-5

OCLC:

80243128