Feminism and Psychoanalysis: A Critical Dictionary - Paperback

by Elizabeth Wright (Editor)

Feminism and Psychoanalysis: A Critical Dictionary is of major interest to those who are aware of the breadth of its two component areas, and wish to explore the common ground between them more intensively.
Entries deal with concepts from and significant figures in psychoanalysis, issues of sexual politics that intersect with psychoanalysis, feminist aesthetics and criticism which both use and challenge psychoanalytic thought. Each entry concludes with a short, carefully selected list of further reading.

Front Jacket

Feminism and Psychoanalysis is of major interest to those who are aware of its two component areas, and wish to explore the common ground between them more intensively. The Dictionary charts the intersection of feminism and psychoanalysis via a number of domains which establish cross-references for crucial themes and allow theory and practice to work upon each other. The entries present evidence of live issues rather than solely agreed definitions.

The underlying problematics of such issues will cluster largely around the following questions: To what extent has psychoanalysis contributed to the critique of phallocentrism and to problems of subjectivity, of masculinity and femininity? Can feminism show that it is biologism rather than nature that oppresses women? What are the diverse ways in which feminists have taken up the struggle over the production, distribution and transformation of meaning in a number of specific cultural practices? How has psychoanalysis been useful in enabling women to challenge the forms of representation that constrain and oppress them? Which parts of modernism, the avant garde, and postmodernism constitute an area of political relevance for feminism? What has come out of the intersection of psychoanalysis with literary theory and criticism that is of political use for feminists?

Back Jacket

Feminism and Psychoanalysis is of major interest to those who are aware of its two component areas, and wish to explore the common ground between them more intensively. The Dictionary charts the intersection of feminism and psychoanalysis via a number of domains which establish cross-references for crucial themes and allow theory and practice to work upon each other. The entries present evidence of live issues rather than solely agreed definitions.

The underlying problematics of such issues will cluster largely around the following questions: To what extent has psychoanalysis contributed to the critique of phallocentrism and to problems of subjectivity, of "masculinity" and "femininity"? Can feminism show that it is biologism rather than nature that oppresses women? What are the diverse ways in which feminists have taken up the struggle over the production, distribution and transformation of meaning in a number of specific cultural practices? How has psychoanalysis been useful in enabling women to challenge the forms of representation that constrain and oppress them? Which parts of modernism, the avant garde, and postmodernism constitute an area of political relevance for feminism? What has come out of the intersection of psychoanalysis with literary theory and criticism that is of political use for feminists?

Author Biography

Elizabeth Wright is Lecturer and Fellow in German at Girton College, Cambridge. Her main work has been in psychoanalytic literary criticism and she has written extensively in this area. Her books include Psychoanalytic Criticism: Theory in Practice (1984) and Postmodern Brecht: A Re-Presentation (1989).

Advisory Editors:

Dianne Chisholm, Assistant Professor of English, University of Alberta.

Juliet Flower MacCannell, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, University of California at Irvine.

Margaret Whitford, Reader in French, Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London.