Title: Oedipus against Freud : myth and the end(s) of humanism in twentieth-century British literature /
Authors: Buchanan, Bradley W., 1970-
Publisher: University of Toronto Press,
Year: 2010
Subjects: Freud, Sigmund, Criticism and interpretation.; Oedipus In literature.; Freud, Sigmund,; English literature History and criticism; Humanism in literature.
Abstract: "Sigmund Freud's interpretation of the Oedipus myth - that subconsciously, every man wants to kill his father in order to obtain his mother's undivided attention - is widely known. Arguing that the pervasiveness of Freud's ideas has unduly influenced scholars studying the works of Modernist writers, Bradley W. Buchanan re-examines the Oedipal narratives of authors such as D.H. Lawrence, T.S. Eliot, W.B. Yeats, Virginia Woolf, and James Joyce in order to explore their conflicted attitudes towards the humanism that underpins Freud's views.
Contents: Oedipus Against Freud: The Origins of D.H. Lawrence's Anti-Humanism -- Anti-Humanists at Colonus: The Oedipus Myth in Wyndham Lewis and T.S. Eliot -- Dystopian Oedipus: Freudianism and Totalitarianism in Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, and Malcolm Lowry -- Freudful Mistakes in Sphinxish Pairc: Oedipal Humanism and Irish Nationalism in W.B. Yeats, James Joyce, and Samuel Beckett -- Oedipus Que(e)ried: Humanism, Sexuality, and Gender in E.M. Forster and Virginia Woolf