As criticism settles into an end-of-century milieu, its appropriations of psychoanalysis are increasingly polarized: while the last ten years have witnessed a spate of virulent and provocative attacks on psychoanalysis in general and Freud in particular, at no time has psychoanalysis burgeoned and thrived so strongly in literary theory and practice. In this thoroughly updated version of Elizabeth Wright's classic text, the author explores the ways in which Freudian theory has become essential to our experience of literature. Wright's comprehensive, historical approach to literary theory and practice since Freud loses none of its sharpness for its breadth: from Artaud to Zizek, Foucault to Kristeva, Psychoanalytic Criticism maintains a sharp focus on our experience of language, literature and consciousness.

As criticism settles into an end-of-century milieu, its appropriations of psychoanalysis are increasingly polarized: while the last ten years have witnessed a spate of virulent and provocative attacks on psychoanalysis in general and Freud in particular, at no time has psychoanalysis burgeoned and thrived so strongly in literary theory and practice. In this thoroughly updated version of Elizabeth Wright's classic text, the author explores the ways in which Freudian theory has become essential to our experience of literature. Wright's comprehensive, historical approach to literary theory and practice since Freud loses none of its sharpness for its breadth: from Artaud to Zizek, Foucault to Kristeva, Psychoanalytic Criticism maintains a sharp focus on our experience of language, literature and consciousness.