Oedipus against Freud
Subtitle: myth and the end(s) of humanism in twentieth-century British literature
By: Bradley W. Buchanan
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Toronto; Buffalo
Language: eng; fre
Number of pages: 199
ISBN-13: 9781442641570
Subjects: Oedipus (Greek mythology) in literature; Humanism in literature; English literature; Criticism and interpretation; History and criticism
Other titles: Myth and the end(s) of humanism in twentieth-century British literature
Description: "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.

In the alternatives to the Freudian version of Oedipus offered by twentieth-century authors, Buchanan finds a complex examination of the limits of human understanding. Following the analyses of philosophers such as G.W.F. Hegel and Frederick Nietzsche and anticipating critiques by writers such as Jacques Derrida and Gilles Deleuze, British Modernists saw Oedipus as representative of the embattled humanist project. Closing with the concept of posthumanism as explored by authors such as Zadie Smith, Oedipus Against Freud demonstrates the lasting significance of the Oedipus story."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [181]-192) and index.
Table of contents: title: Oedipus Against Freud: The Origins of D.H. Lawrence's Anti-Humanism; title: Anti-Humanists at Colonus: The Oedipus Myth in Wyndham Lewis and T.S. Eliot; title: Dystopian Oedipus: Freudianism and Totalitarianism in Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, and Malcolm Lowry; title: Freudful Mistakes in Sphinxish Pairc: Oedipal Humanism and Irish Nationalism in W.B. Yeats, James Joyce, and Samuel Beckett; title: Oedipus Que(e)ried: Humanism, Sexuality, and Gender in E.M. Forster and Virginia Woolf