Research Catalog

Details

Description

1. 246 pages; 24 cm

Summary

1. "Since Ernest Jones published Hamlet and Oedipus in 1949, psychoanalytic thinking has changed profoundly. This change, however, has not yet been adequately reflected in Shakespeare scholarship. In Hamlet and Narcissus, John Russell confronts the paradigm shift that has occurred in psychoanalysis and takes steps to formulate a critical instrument based on current psychoanalytic thinking. In his introduction, Russell clarifies Freud's assumptions concerning human motivation and development and then discusses, as representative of the new psychoanalytic paradigm, Margaret Mahler's theory of infant development and Heinz Kohut's theory of narcissism. Using these theories as his conceptual framework, Russell proceeds to analyze the action of Hamlet, focusing on the play's central problem, Hamlet's delay." "Previous psychoanalytic approaches to Hamlet have failed convincingly to explain the cause of Hamlet's delay because they failed to recognize the profound connection between Hamlet's pre-Oedipal attachment to his mother and his post-Oedipal allegiance to his father. By placing Hamlet's conflict with his parents in the new psychoanalytic framework of narcissism, Russell is able to show that Hamlet's post-Oedipal allegiance to his father and his pre-Oedipal attachment to his mother are driven by the same archaic and illusory needs. Though on the surface seeming to contradict one another, at bottom Hamlet's two attachments, to mother and to father, complement one another and work together to produce in Hamlet a conflicted ambivalence that propels him to his self-induced destruction. By clarifying the origin and effects of Hamlet's archaic narcissism, Russell is able to solve the problem of Hamlet's delay and forge a new and fruitful instrument of literary criticism."--Jacket.

Subject

1. Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616
2. Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 > Knowledge and learning
3. Narcissus (Greek mythological character) > In literature
4. Hamlet (Legendary character)
5. Narcissus (Greek mythological character)
6. Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616
7. Shakespeare, William 1564-1616
8. Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 > Knowledge > Psychology
9. Shakespeare, William (1564-1616). > Thèmes, motifs
10. Narcisse (mythologie grecque) > Dans la littérature
11. Shakespeare, William
12. Hamlet (Shakespeare, William)
13. Fathers and sons in literature
14. Psychoanalysis and literature > England
15. Drama > Psychological aspects
16. Narcissism in literature
17. Psychology in literature
18. Drama > Psychological aspects
19. Fathers and sons in literature
20. Literature
21. Narcissism in literature
22. Psychoanalysis and literature
23. Psychology
24. Psychology in literature
25. Narzissmus Motiv
26. Narzissmus
27. Psychoanalyse
28. Ödipuskomplex
29. Narcissus (Greek mythology) in literature
30. Psychoanalysis and literature > Great Britain
31. Narcissisme > Dans la littérature
32. England

Contents

1. Introduction: From Pleasure to Power -- 1. Dust and Divinity: Hamlet's Fractured World -- 2. It Hath Made Me Mad: The Failure of the Mother -- 3. Remember Me: The Failure of the Father -- 4. The Failure of the Son: Hamlet's Delay -- 5. The Fall of a Sparrow: Hamlet's Fantasy of Death -- Epilogue: The Way Out -- Appendix 1: Hamlet's Delay: The Arguments -- Appendix 2: Analogues and Act -- Appendix 3: Hamlet's Transformation, : The Arguments.

Owning institution

1. Princeton University Library

Bibliography (note)

1. Includes bibliographical references (p. 239-242) and index.