The feminine "no!" : psychoanalysis and the new canon / Todd McGowan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McGowan, Todd, author.

Series:

SUNY series in psychoanalysis and culture

SUNY series in psychoanalysis and culture The feminine "no!"

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American fiction--History and criticism.

American fiction.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xviii, 144 p. )

Place of Publication:

Albany, New York : State University of New York Press, [2001]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The Feminine "No!" sheds new light on the recent culture wars and debates about changes to the literary canon. Todd McGowan argues that the dynamics of canon change, rather than being the isolated concern of literary critics, actually offer concrete insights into the source of social change. Through a deployment of psychoanalytic theory, McGowan conceives the rediscovery and subsequent canonization of previously forgotten literary works as recoveries of past traumas. As such, these rediscoveries call into question and disrupt not only the canon itself, but also the mechanisms of ideology, precisely because trauma is shown to be the key to radical social change. The book focuses on four of the most prominent rediscoveries in the canon of American literature: Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wall-paper," Kate Chopin's The Awakening, Charles Chesnutt's The Marrow of Tradition, and Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God.

Contents:

Front Matter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

The Canonical Unconscious

Dispossessing the Self

The Awakening of Desire, or, Why Edna Pontellier Isn’t a Man

Acting without the Father

Liberation and Domination

Agency and the Traumatic Encounter

Notes

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 109-140) and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780791491065

0791491064

OCLC:

1225547871