ENGL 300: Introduction to Theory of Literature
Lecture 12 - Freud and Fiction. In this lecture, Professor Paul Fry turns his attention to the relationship between authorship and the psyche. Freud's meditations on the fundamental drives governing human behavior are read through the lens of literary critic Peter Brooks. The origins of Freud's work on the "pleasure principle" and his subsequent revision of it are charted, and the immediate and constant influence of Freudian thought on literary production is asserted. Brooks' contributions to literary theory are explored: particularly the coupling of multiple Freudian principles, including the pleasure principle and the death wish, and their application to narrative structures. At the lecture's conclusion, the professor returns to the children's story, Tony the Tow Truck, to suggest the universality of Brooks's argument. (from oyc.yale.edu)
Lecture 12 - Freud and Fiction |
Time | Lecture Chapters |
[00:00:00] | 1. Brooks' Debt to Jakobson and de Man |
[00:06:10] | 2. Brooks' Debt to Freud |
[00:13:14] | 3. Brooks' Departure from Freud |
[00:22:04] | 4. Freud's Beyond the Pleasure Principle |
[00:27:01] | 5. "The Aim of All Life is Death" |
[00:34:08] | 6. Merging the Pleasure Principle with the Death Wish |
[00:41:42] | 7. Tony the Tow Truck Revisited |
References |
Lecture 12 - Freud and Fiction Instructor: Professor Paul H. Fry. Transcript [html]. Audio [mp3]. Download Video [mov]. |
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