The Burdens of Intimacy: Psychoanalysis and Victorian Masculinity
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Book Overview
Why does passion bewilder and torment so many Victorian protagonists? And why do so many literary characters experience moments of ecstasy before their deaths? In this original study, Christopher Lane shows why Victorian fiction conveys both the pleasure and anguish of intimacy. Examining works by Bulwer-Lytton, Swinburne, Schreiner, Hardy, James, Santayana, and Forster, he argues that these writers struggled with aspects of psychology that were undermining the utilitarian ethos of the Victorian age. Lane discredits the conservative notion that Victorian literature expresses only a demand for repression and moral restraint. But he also refutes historicist and Foucauldian approaches, arguing that they dismiss the very idea of repression and end up denouncing psychoanalysis as complicit in various kinds of oppression. These approaches, Lane argues, reduce Victorian literature to a drama about politics, power, and the ego. Striving instead to reinvigorate discussions of fantasy and the unconscious, Lane offers a clear, often startling account of writers who grapple with the genuine complexities of love, desire, and friendship.
Format:Hardcover
Language:English
ISBN:0226468593
ISBN13:9780226468594
Release Date:December 1998
Publisher:University of Chicago Press
Length:344 Pages
Weight:1.30 lbs.
Dimensions:1.0" x 6.2" x 9.3"
Customer Reviews
1 rating
Thoughtful and Engaging
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 26 years ago
We are often taught that intimacy is pleasurable. Mr Lane brings authority and wisdom to bear on the proposition that whilst intimacy may indeed be a source of pleasure, the opposite (pain) is just as true. In support, he calls on the Victorians and their ideas on the subject, and his book is an excellent read on both counts. Mr Lane's arguments about gender and fantasy are likewise most interesting. Throughout, his writing is clear, to the point, and refreshingly free of jargon.
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