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The Aesthetic Unconscious

ISBN: 978-0-745-64643-5

December 2009

Polity

84 pages

Description
This book is not concerned with the use of Freudian concepts for the interpretation of literary and artistic works. Rather, it is concerned with why this interpretation plays such an important role in demonstrating the contemporary relevance of psychoanalytic concepts.

In order for Freud to use the Oedipus complex as a means for the interpretation of texts, it was necessary first of all for a particular notion of Oedipus, belonging to the Romantic reinvention of Greek antiquity, to have produced a certain idea of the power of that thought which does not think, and the power of that speech which remains silent.

From this it does not follow that the Freudian unconscious was already prefigured by the aesthetic unconscious. Freud's 'aesthetic' analyses reveal instead a tension between the two forms of unconscious. In this concise and brilliant text Rancière brings out this tension and shows us what is at stake in this confrontation.

About the Author

Jacques Ranciere is a leading French philosopher and Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Paris-St. Denis. His many books include The Politics of Literature, Aesthetics and Its Discontents, and The Future of the Image.

Features
 • This book examines why the psychoanalytic interpretation of literary and artistic works plays such an important role in demonstrating the contemporary relevance of psychoanalysis
• Rancière shows that Freud's use of the unconscious as a device for interpreting literary and artistic works was preceded by a notion of the aesthetic unconscious that belonged to Romanticism
• In this concise and brilliant text, Rancière brings out the tension between the Freudian unconscious and the 'aesthetic unconscious' and shows us what is at stake in this confrontation
• Jacques Rancière is one of the leading philosophers in France today and is well-known for his work in aesthetics