Psychoanalytic Criticism
Helen Garners controversial novel The First Stone (1995) tells the story of a sexual harassment case in a Melbourne university, and attempts to analyse the power relations between men and women. By applying psychoanalytic criticism to this novel it clearly becomes an interesting work of investigative journalism that could be classed as valued Australian literature.Psychoanalytic Criticism is defined by Moon (1992, p.97) " as seeing literary texts as representing the unconscious thoughts and desires shared by members of a culture. It provides a way of exploring the social construction of personal identities, especially through the readers interaction with the text." Psychoanalysis is a theory developed by Sigmund Freud where concentration is placed on the unconscious life of individuals, however recent conceptions of psychoanalysis see it as a way of 'decoding' the sexual symbolism of literary texts in order to uncover the authors unconscious obsessions. Stevens and Stewart (1996, pp.108-109) state that " Freud viewed literature as the fantasy projection of the artist" and
Brace and Company, Orlando. Throughout the novel Garner emphasises the power of young women, the power she sees them having over men, and the power she thinks they should be educated and warned about. It seems that some young woman has done something to Garner that has in turn given her all of this built up animosity about the young woman in this case. Her unconscious fantasy is basically saying that these women got what they deserved. Perhaps this seems harsh, however it is up to the reader to interpret the text by what they themselves believe to be realistic or made up. Stone. Australian Book Review, no.174, 25-29. that if " fantasies exist in the unconscious of the artists, they also reside in the unconscious of the audience". So in relation to Garners controversial novel The First Stone, not only is it a compelling work of imagination but it could be classed as a work of fantasy. It seems that this novel is a far cry from the so called ' debate about sex and power' that Garner describes on the back cover. It is more obviously a symbolic statement of Garner's unconscious fantasies that she co
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Approximate Word count = 762
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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