Reconstructing Desire: The Role of the Unconscious in Women's Reading and Writing - Hardcover
This provocative study explores the function of the unconscious in reading and creative processes. The book asks if reading can change the reader and if women, through reading, can change the unconscious fantasy structures that govern desire. Using models of the unconscious developed by Freud, Lacan, Kristeva, Cixous, Nay, and Chodorow, Wyatt explores the complex interactions between a text and a reader's unconscious. She theorizes specific processes whereby young readers can assimilate dynamic images of female autonomy in Heidi, The Wizard of Oz, and Little Women.
By tracing the imprint of father-daughter relations on women's unconscious fantasy life, Wyatt seeks to explain the hold of romantic love fantasies like Jane Eyre over many female readers. She looks to contemporary novels for alternative fantasies: to female artist novels by Lessing, Drabble, and Walker for fantasies of sexuality nurturing creativity; and to the flexible family circles of Beloved and The Color Purple for alternatives to patriarchal family arrangements. Wyatt argues that novels like The Awakening and Housekeeping that reflect and transform readers preoedipal fantasies offer women radical alternatives to dominant cognitive and social structures.
By tracing the imprint of father-daughter relations on women's unconscious fantasy life, Wyatt seeks to explain the hold of romantic love fantasies like Jane Eyre over many female readers. She looks to contemporary novels for alternative fantasies: to female artist novels by Lessing, Drabble, and Walker for fantasies of sexuality nurturing creativity; and to the flexible family circles of Beloved and The Color Purple for alternatives to patriarchal family arrangements. Wyatt argues that novels like The Awakening and Housekeeping that reflect and transform readers preoedipal fantasies offer women radical alternatives to dominant cognitive and social structures.
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Book Description:
"This challenging and beautifully written book will be useful to readers interested in issues of female creativity and in the family. It will be of particular interest to scholars who are seeking a way to reconcile their feminist desire for social change with psychoanalytic theory, which can seem intractable on the issue of changing our minds."-- Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature
About the Author:
Jean Wyatt is professor of English and comparative literary studies at Occidental College.
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- PublisherUniv of North Carolina Pr
- Publication date1990
- ISBN 10 0807819158
- ISBN 13 9780807819159
- BindingHardcover
- Edition number1
- Number of pages284
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Reconstructing Desire: The Role of the Unconscious in Women's Reading and Writing
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Univ of North Carolina Pr, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, U.S.A.
(1990)
ISBN 10: 0807819158
ISBN 13: 9780807819159
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Reconstructing Desire: The Role of the Unconscious in Women's Reading and Writing
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Univ of North Carolina Pr
(1990)
ISBN 10: 0807819158
ISBN 13: 9780807819159
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Reconstructing Desire: The Role of the Unconscious in Women's Reading & Writing
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University Of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
(1990)
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ISBN 13: 9780807819159
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Reconstructing Desire: The Role of the Unconscious in Women's Reading and Writing
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Univ of North Carolina Pr
(1990)
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ISBN 13: 9780807819159
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Reconstructing Desire: The Role of the Unconscious in Women's Reading and Writing
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The University of North Carolina Press
(1990)
ISBN 10: 0807819158
ISBN 13: 9780807819159
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. First Edition. Fine hardcover in fine dust jacket. Dust jacket has been placed in a Mylar sleeve. Book does not appear to have been read and is in excellent condition. This book would make a great gift. Full refund if not satisfied. Seller Inventory # 028540
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