The Value of Using Analytic Criticism to Dig Deeper Into Literature Essay

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Theory Reading

What are the three or four most important concerns for the psychoanalytic criticism theory?

One concern off the bat is that no matter how valid the field of psychoanalytic investigation is, and how much respect that Freud's theory has garnered over the years, in terms of the psychoanalytic criticism theory's contribution to understanding humans and society, there are doubts as to its validity. When the psychoanalytic criticism theory it is used to look into the reasons that authors use certain conflicts, characters, themes and other literary tools, it can be seen as an inappropriate intrusion into literature. An author like Edgar Allen Poe, for example, has been deceased for many years, but 21st century critics can rip through his novels and short stories and conclude that his psychological makeup was twisted, that his mind was warped in the direction of hideousness. Obviously Poe had a dark imagination, and his work was intended to shock and startle the reader. But rather than a reader simply enjoying a journey into a Poe story, with psychoanalytic criticism, another path is now laid out for the reader beyond the pleasure of reading good literature.

Yes, psychoanalytic criticism has become widely accepted and as author Susan L. Feagin writes, it has become " ... established as one among a number of critical approaches" to literary criticism (Feagin, 1996). However, and this is a second concern, the subject of psychoanalysis has become so " ... complex that generalizations are increasingly suspect" (Feagin, 183). Freudian theories have actually reached the point where they become cliches, able to be used, able to be thrown out there to explain almost anything about the human condition, including literature.

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My third concern is that Freud's view of creative writers is arbitrary and narrow: he posits that a strong experience in the present, tends to awaken in the creative writer " ... a memory of an earlier experience" from childhood that "finds its fulfillment in the creative work" (Feagin, 187). Why does a reader necessarily have to dip into a writer's consciously intended outcome to be able to fully enjoy reading a story, or even a serious critic's spin on a story?

What are the most important ideas that motivate this school?

One very important aspect of psychoanalytic criticism is its search for meaning in any literary work. Psychoanalytic criticism interprets literary works, which helps the critic (or reader) understand not only the work, but the genesis of the ideas in the work that the author came up with to produce the work. When there are gender and ethnicity subplots or themes in the work, the goal of psychoanalytic criticism is to offer a deeper evaluation of the meaning of the work. Putting Sigmund Freud's work aside, the average literary work is mostly devised to entertain and to generate thought and ideas. But psychoanalytic criticism allows the reader (if and when that person is interested) to zero in on the symbolism (which might have duel meanings) and the deeper meanings….....

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