Sussman here explores the relevance and value of object-relations theory to literature and literary studies. His study of character treats literature as a medium in which important relationships to conceptualized others--artifacts, mentors, activities, and schools of thought--are being worked through. Although rooted in the psychoanalytical model, this book is ultimately a study of character and of the conditions of subjectivity and intellectual work in the contemporary world. No background in literature or psychoanalysis ...
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Sussman here explores the relevance and value of object-relations theory to literature and literary studies. His study of character treats literature as a medium in which important relationships to conceptualized others--artifacts, mentors, activities, and schools of thought--are being worked through. Although rooted in the psychoanalytical model, this book is ultimately a study of character and of the conditions of subjectivity and intellectual work in the contemporary world. No background in literature or psychoanalysis is necessary for its understanding and productive use. Beginning his study of character with Sophocles' The Antigone and Shakespeare's Othello, Sussman then goes on to locate the underpinnings of twentieth-century notions of the grandiose and of subjective emptiness in the Romantic exploration of the sublime. Discussions of characterization in Kafka, Joyce, and Beckett lead to an extended reading of Musil's A Man Without Qualities. To show the increasing awareness of narcissistic psychopathology in contemporary popular culture, Sussman also includes readings of "Citizen Kane" and "The Silence of the Lambs."
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Seller's Description:
Minor rubbing, VG. 23x15cm, xiii, 233 pp. Contents: On Character; Characterization in 'Antigone' and 'Othello'; Grandiosity and the Romantic Sublime; Object-Relations Theory: Otto Kernberg; Heinz Kohut; Alice Miller; Robert Musil 'The Man without Qualities': Setting; 'The Man without Qualities': An Inter"personal" Reading; 'The Man without Qualities': Friendship & Persistent Envy: 'The Man without Qualities': Idealization and Repression: 'The Man without Qualities': Eroticism & Critical Detachment; 'The Man without Qualities': An Early "Borderline Character"; 'The Man without Qualities': Sibling Mirroring; Borderlinity and Contemporary Culture: 'The Silence of the Lambs'; Conclusion.
