THE MYSTERIOUS BRAIN...WHAT TICKS IT

PSYCHOANALYTIC CRITICISM

What makes  writers write such fantastic, dark stories yet intriguing tales  which delves into the human minds? This is where psychoanalytic criticism adopts the methods of "reading" employed by Freud and later theorists to interpret texts written by such writers. It debates that literary texts, like dreams, express the secret unconscious desires and anxieties of the author, that a literary work is a expression of the author's own neuroses. One may psychoanalyze a particular character within a literary work, but it is usually assumed that all such characters are projections of the author's psyche. A few authors such as Edgar Allan Poe, William Faulkner’s works have been used as research materials by psychoanalytical theorists.  Psychoanalytic literary criticism can focus on one or more of the following:

• the author: the theory is used to analyze the author and his/her life, and the literary work is seen to supply evidence for this analysis. This is often called "psycho-biography." Just like Poe’s literary works are mostly based on his life and his problem with alcohol.
• the characters: the theory is used to analyze one or more of the characters; the psychological theory becomes a instrument that to explain the characters’ behavior and motivations. The story is very real like when the full analysis is done.
• the audience: the theory is used to explain the appeal of the work for those who read it; the work is seen to embody universal human psychological processes and motivations, to which the readers respond more or less unconsciously.
• the text: the theory is used to analyze the type and role of the language used and symbolism in the work which are very significant in the story.

For my literature class, I will use A Rose for Emily as a short story and ask my students to write out their criticism of the story and about the main protagonist. I will also guide them in analyzing the story using psychoanalytic criticism. The task will cater to their standard. It will be very simple. I will ask questions like:

1. Why do you think Emily did not marry?

2. Do you think what Emily’s father did was right? (keeping her inside the house/suitors away)

3. What made the author write such a story?

These questions are to give the students a head start in writing out their criticism.

 The brain holds so much of mysteries and we will never know for sure how it creates ideas in one's mind.