Method in Madness

Control Mechanisms in the French Fantastic
Erscheinungsjahr 2005
ISBN: 978-90-420-1656-9
Verlag: Brill | Rodopi

Buch, Englisch, Band 16, 148 Seiten, Format (B × H): 150 mm x 220 mm, Gewicht: 263 g

Reihe: Chiasma

Method in Madness looks at the ways in which nineteenth-century French literature of the fantastic reflected what psychoanalysis would later define as mechanisms of defence. Each chapter of the book is dedicated to a particular mechanism – fetishization, projection, intellectualization, mechanization, and compulsion – and to a representative set of texts which illustrate and embody the process concerned. The book thus systematizes what has remained up to now a rather vague perception of the psychological processes at work in fantastic narrative and of the relationship between the fantastic and the emerging science of psychoanalysis. Although centred on French works, including texts by Gautier, Mérimée, Balzac, George Sand, Maupassant, and Villiers de l’Isle-Adam, the study necessarily deals with the German tradition of the fantastic, notably Hoffmann and Freud. It argues that mechanisms of defence not only take place in fantastic literature, but that the fantastic itself in fact consists in translating defence into the real, thus making clear to the reader the very processes by which defence occurs. The book finds that the defence mechanisms “fail” in the fantastic, because in this literature defence involves adding a real danger to a merely psychic one, thereby intensifying the anxiety and displeasure which the mechanisms of defence are ideally designed to minimize.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literarische Stoffe, Motive und Themen
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Romanische Literaturen Französische Literatur

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction
History and Theories of the Fantastic
The Fantastic and Psychological Defence
Outline
1 Fetishization
Fetishization and the Fantastic
Balzac’s “Le Chef-d’oeuvre inconnu”
Maupassant’s “ La Chevelure ”
Gautier’s “ Le Pied de momie ”
2 Projection
Projection and the Fantastic
The Uncanny
Sand’s “La Fée aux gros yeux”
George Sand and Idealism
Mérimée’s “Carmen”
3 Intellectualization
Intellectualization and the Fantastic
Mérimée’s “La Vénus d’Ille ”
Mérmimee’s “ Carmen ”
4 Mechanization
Mechanization and the Fantastic
Hoffmann’s “Der Sandmann”
Villiers de l’Isle-Adam’s L’Ève future
The Mechanical Monster
5 Compulsion
Compulsion and the Fantastic
Maupassant’s “Madame Hermet”
Maupassant’s “Fou”
Conclusion
Selected Bibliography