The Gothic Psyche: Disintegration and Growth in Nineteenth-Century English Literature (Studies in English & American Literature & Culture) [Hardcover]

Matthew C. Brennan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1997 | ISBN-10: 1571131043 | ISBN-13: 978-1571131041

Gothic literature and art often include dreamlike states, or resemble or represent dreams. Drawing on Carl Jung's ideas of dream interpretation, as well as Hartmann's biological research on nightmares and Victor Turner's anthropological work on the liminal, this work offers close readings of poems by Coleridge, Wordsworth, Byron and Keats, and novels such as "Frankenstein" and "Dracula", as well as analyses of paintings by Turner and Fuseli, to argue that the works' characters, plots and images represent failure of individuation: psychic disintegration in which the Self not only falls short of a centred consciousness, but also suffers the ego's absorption into the unconscious. Although recent studies of the genre have probed behind the traditional Gothic conventions to shed light on their psychological meanings, most have limited themselves to a single author or genre (usually fiction) and to the theories of Freud or Lacan. In contrast, this book emphasizes Jung's theory of individuation, and how the failure to achieve wholeness can lead to self-destruction.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 169 pages
• Publisher: Camden House (December 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1571131043
• ISBN-13: 978-1571131041
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,520,525 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Gothic Literature, April 6, 2010

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Steven Herrmann (California, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Gothic Psyche: Disintegration and Growth in Nineteenth-Century English Literature (Studies in English & American Literature & Culture) (Hardcover)

Steven B. Herrmann, PhD, MFT

Author of "William Everson: The Shaman's Call"

According to literary critic Matthew C. Brennan, when "the shadow of nineteenth century neoclassicism" was made conscious through "its fictional roots in the mid-eighteenth century," (1) the Gothic emerged. The Gothic was a symbolic psychological position that sought to correct for the one-sided attitude of materialism, rationalism, and science that neoclassicism had fostered with "an aesthetics of nightmare, an aesthetics of the liminal and of crossed or open boundaries" (6). The Gothic image became a symbol of the dark, sexual, and destructive sides of the personality--providing us with "cautionary tales about the dangers of neglecting the unconscious" (9). Gothic literature, a genre of the repressed shadow of Western civilization, tended toward "excess and exaggeration" (1). As Brennan points out, at least three of the most prominent examples of Gothic romance were germinated in dreams, the most notable of which were Marry Shelly's Frankenstein, Bram Stoker's Dracula, and Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (6-8). Brennan writes about the "neurosis dramatized" in these fictions as "a call to health" (12). He warns that "Gothic characters personify sides of the unconscious personality that have been neglected or repressed and need to be integrated to avoid catastrophic psychic destruction" (13). Brennan also employs Gothic poetry to portray how Gothic images can serve as agents of psychological growth, healing and transformation, by making the repressed shadow conscious in us. Certainly one of the most important novels for the twentieth century is the story of Frankenstein. How can Gothic poetry and fiction help us understand the psychology of "dangerous" archetypal images such as Frankenstein, Dracula, Hyde, Geraldine, or Lamia? Taken as a whole, the Gothic novel or poem, in Brennan's view, can help us see the dangers lurking in the unconscious if the shadow is not made sufficiently aware. The key to our release from that danger is the achievement of a liminal experience of the affect of Gothic terror and horror. Like a compensatory dream, the cautionary tale gives the reader a new outlook on life, an inner conviction to live life more fully recognizing of both the creative and destructive potentials stored up within these archetypes.