1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910213824103321

Autore

Jr Marshall W. Alcorn

Titolo

Narcissism and the Literary Libido : Rhetoric, Text, and Subjectivity / / Marshall W. Alcorn Jr

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New York, NY : , : New York University Press, , [1994]

©1994

ISBN

9780814707517

0814707513

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (266 p.)

Collana

Literature and psychoanalysis ; ; 4

Disciplina

801/.92

Soggetti

Narration (Rhetoric)

Subjectivity in literature

Narcissism in literature

Psychoanalysis and literature

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 229-237) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- 1. Political Ties and Libidinal Ruptures: Narcissism as the Origin and End of Textual Production -- 2. Self-Structure as a Rhetorical Device: Modern Ethos and the Divisiveness of the Self -- 3. Projection and the Resistance of the Signifier: A Reader-Response Theory of Textual Presence -- 4. Character, Plot, and Imagery: Mechanisms That Shift Narcissistic Investments -- 5. The Narcissism of Creation and Interpretation: Agon at the Heart of Darkness -- 6. Language and the Substance of the Self: A Lacanian Perspective -- 7. Conclusion: What Do We Do with Rhetorical Criticism? -- Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

What is it that makes language powerful? This book uses the psychoanalytic concepts of narcissism and libidinal investment to explain how rhetoric compels us and how it can effect change. The works of Joseph Conrad, James Baldwin, Michael Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Arthur Miller, D.H. Lawrence, Ben Jonson, George Orwell, and others are the basis of this thoughtful exploration of the relationship between language and subject. Bringing together ideas from Freudian,



post- Freudian, Lacanian, and post-structuralist schools, Alcorn investigates the power of the text that underlies the reader response approach to literature in a strikingly new way. He shows how the production of literary texts begins and ends with narcissistic self-love, and also shows how the reader's interest in these texts is directed by libidinal investment.Psychoanalysts, psychologists, and lovers of literature will enjoy Alcorn's diverse and far-reaching insights into classic and contemporary writers and thinkers.