Trump’s anxiety about sharks can be understood through an examination of “Jaws.”
Tag Archives: Sigmund Freud
The Meaning of Trump’s Shark Fears
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Carl Jung, Donald Trump, Jaws, Jungian psychology, Peter Benchley, sharks Comments closed
A Poem for When You’re Feeling Weary
Swinburne’s “Garden of Proserpine,” a good poem for when you’re feeling fed up with life.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Garden of Proserpine", "Lotus Eaters", Alfred Lord Tennyson, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Beyond the Pleasure Principle, Depression, T. S. Eliot, Waste Land Comments closed
Got a Problem? Call a Poet
Tragedy, it turns out, is a powerful literary form for dealing with posttraumatic fear.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Aeschylus, Agamemnon, Angus Fletcher, Aristotle, bibliotherapy, catharsis, literary technique, Oedipus, philosophy, posttraumatic fear, PTSD, Rhetoric, sophists, Sophocles, Wonderworks Comments closed
Freud: Lit Leads to Self Mastery
A Freudian analysis of why we are drawn to literature and what it does for us.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Bruno Bettelheim, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Interpretation of Dreams, Joseph Conrad, Oedipus, Robert Louis Stevenson, Sophocles Comments closed
Why I Think the Way I Think
I survey my intellectual history, especially the evolution of my thinking about literature’s impact on human behavior.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Antonio Gramsci, Beowulf, Carl Jung, Carleton College, Hans Robert Jauss, Harper Lee, Huckleberry Finn, intellectual history, J. Paul Hunter, J. R. R. Tolkien, Jerome Beaty, Karl Marx, Literary Theory, Madame Bovary, Mark Twain, New Criticism, Norman Holland, Percy Bysshe Shelley, racism, Reader Response Theory, reception theory, Terry Eagleton, To Kill a Mockingbird, Tobias Smollett Comments closed
Glück: Teen Sex, Rape and Persephone
Louise Glück’s “Persephone the Wanderer” is a nuanced exploration of teenage sex and rape that goes in some unexpected directions.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Persephone the Wanderer", Louise Glück, Persephone, Rape, teen sex Comments closed
Overcoming the Siren Call of Domination
A reader suggests that the island enchantresses in “Odyssey” help the hero in his quest for integration.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Carl Jung, emasculation fears, Homer, individuation, Joseph Campbell, Odyssey Comments closed
Fantasy and the Problem of Violence
Thursday Today I will be delivering the following talk as part of Sewanee’s Lifelong Learning series, delivered in a venue that used to be my high school and where I spoke 50 years ago. It may sound strange to some of you that a literary scholar such as myself would talk about fantasy. Aren’t we […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Beowulf, Beowulf poet, Carl Jung, fantasy, J. R. R. Tolkien, Joseph Campbell, Lord of the Rings, violence Comments closed
What Our Favorite Books Reveal about Us
I am having my students compose personal reading histories. Freud provides a useful framework for exploring anxieties and wishes.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Beyond the Pleasure Principle, fort/da game, Norman Holland, psychological approaches Comments closed
