12. Freud and Fiction

Introduction to Theory of Literature (ENGL 300) In this lecture, Professor Paul Fry turns his attention to the relationship between authorship and the psyche. Freud’s meditations on the fundamental drives governing human behavior are read through the lens of literary critic Peter Brooks. The origins of Freud’s work on the “pleasure principle“ and his subsequent revision of it are charted, and the immediate and constant influence of Freudian thought on literary production is asserted. Brooks’ contribution