The Burdens of Intimacy: Psychoanalysis and Victorian Masculinity [Paperback]

Christopher Lane (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0226468607 | ISBN-13: 978-0226468600 | Publication Date: December 15, 1998 | Edition: 1

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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Combining tough-minded polemic with intellectual flexibility, Lane revises Foucault's, Sedgwick's, and John Kucich's claims that erotic desire, homosocial love, and eroticized self-expression are products of social prohibition and collective alienation. With the help of a subtle array of critical readings, Lane recovers from eight Victorian and early-twentieth century novelists and poets a powerful theoretical model of eros and its relation to collective life. Lane's model instances sex, sexual intimacy, and especially same-sex intimacy, as a constant check on our desire to resolve the enigmas of sexual relations and social being." -- Robert L. Caserio, author of Plot, Story, and the Novel: From Dickens and Poe to the Modern Period

"This book counts among the finest works of literary criticism to have been published on nineteenth-century writing in recent years. It also makes a highly original contribution to critical texts that stand at the intersection of psychoanalytic theory and lesbian, gay, and bisexual studies." -- Joseph Bristow, author of Sexuality

Product Details

• Paperback: 344 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; 1 edition (December 15, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226468607
• ISBN-13: 978-0226468600
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,703,723 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Christopher Lane teaches literature at Northwestern University and is a recent Guggenheim fellow. A London-born literary critic and intellectual historian, his work has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, Slate, Chronicle Review, and many other newspapers and periodicals. He is the author of, most recently, The Age of Doubt: Tracing the Roots of Our Religious Uncertainty (Yale, 2011). His other books include Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness (Yale, 2007), winner of the Prescrire Prize for Medical Writing (France) and highly commended by the British Medical Association, translated into French, Spanish, Danish, Japanese, and Korean.

He writes a popular blog for Psychology Today called "Side Effects" (recent posts appear to the right). He also writes regularly for the Huffington Post.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thoughtful and Engaging, February 28, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Burdens of Intimacy: Psychoanalysis and Victorian Masculinity (Paperback)

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.