Psychoanalytic perspectives on women and power in contemporary fiction : malice, the victim, and the couple / Rossella Valdré́.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Valdré, Rossella, author.

Lisciotto, Donatella, author of foreword.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Flynn, Gillian, 1971- Gone girl.

Flynn, Gillian.

Harrison, A. S. A. Silent wife.

Harrison, A. S. A.

Nugent, Liz. Unravelling Oliver.

Nugent, Liz.

Noll, Ingrid, 1935- Hahn ist tot.

Noll, Ingrid.

Fiction--Women authors--History and criticism.

Fiction.

Fiction--Women authors.

Women in literature.

Power (Social sciences) in literature.

Fiction--21st century--History and criticism.

Fiction--20th century--History and criticism.

Physical Description:

xi, 143 pages ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2017.

Summary:

Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Women and Power in Contemporary Fiction psychoanalytically examines contemporary fiction portraying the female in a reversal of the stereotyped victim role. The recent popularity of powerful female characters suggests that literature is ahead in its understanding the desires, fantasies and unconscious emotions of the public. This book explores a form of intimacy frequently observed in consulting rooms and in life in general: malicious intimacy. Specific to the conjugal bond, it is a type of intimacy connected to the relationship between the two halves of the couple that is extremely powerful and painful. Instead of clinical cases, Rossella Valdré examines four contemporary and widely successful novels, published contemporaneously, which capture perfectly this type of psychopathological universe. Valdré then maps out psychoanalytic hypotheses regarding the persistency of these malicious intimacies. Through analysis of these examples, Valdré investigates the roots and hypotheses of a new scenario on victim-executioner roles played out in the intimacy of the couple. Exploring how and if the contemporary couple is undergoing profound changes, she provides an overview of the various deep-seated psychological mechanisms and unconscious dynamics that may be at work. The book explores the need to not be dependant upon a love object as an extreme defence against abandonment or self-collapse. Valdré argues that such a configuration is very common, and that Idealization in contemporary life is one of the reasons behind the most of sufferance in modern couples, something which psychoanalysis can examine through art. Women, perhaps, after emancipation, are living overturned roles and paying a higher cost as a result. Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Women and Power in Contemporary Fiction will appeal to psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists, and be of interest to scholars and students of literature, gender studies, philosophy and sociology. Book jacket.

Contents:

Foreword by Donatella Lisciotto

Introduction "Will you please be quiet, please? "

Gone girl by Gillian Flynn : deceit and idealisation

The silent wife by A.S.A. Harrison : the power of silence

Unravelling Oliver by Liz Nugent: splitting and masks

"Hell hath no fury" by Ingrid Noll: who is the victim? the locus of power

"The new feminine" : psychoanalytic incursions into literature and cinema : cruelty, reversal, trauma and vengeance: an impossible conclusion.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Valdré, Rossella. Psychoanalytic perspectives on women and power in contemporary fiction.

ISBN:

9781138653290

1138653292

9781138659377

1138659371

OCLC:

975483832