First Advisor
Michael Clark
Date of Award
Spring 6-16-2024
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in English and University Honors
Department
English
Language
English
Subjects
Literary Criticism, Literature Review, Psychoanalysis, Beloved, Toni Morrison
DOI
10.15760/honors.1490
Abstract
Toni Morrison's Beloved was first published in 1987 and has amassed a wide range of scholarship throughout the years; with some literary scholars using psychoanalysis to suggest a reading of Beloved. Because of the volume of scholarship and Beloved's plot--dealing with a mother who represses the memory of killing her daughter, Beloved--I found it to be perfect for the scope of this project. This literature review focuses on the sometimes reductive qualities of psychoanalyzing Beloved (such as the Freudian universal psychoanalytic subject, and the 'drawbacks' of object relations theory), while also discussing some revelatory qualities via the same approach. This literature review is the first step in a larger project concerned with the pervasiveness of psychoanalysis in literary criticism and media studies; and the involvement of psychoanalytic theories in the formulation of (what is called) 'Insta-poetry' and in contemporary films, such as Wolf (Biancheri, 2021) and Smile (Finn, 2022).
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/42066
Recommended Citation
VanHook, Isaac, "Flattening Morrison's Beloved: The Limits of Psychoanalysis in Literary Criticism, A Literature Review" (2024). University Honors Theses. Paper 1458.
https://doi.org/10.15760/honors.1490