Psychoanalysis and the Patriarchal Tradition Augustine to Milton

<p><b>A work of feminist psychoanalytic literary criticism that offers original readings of early canonical works of the Western tradition.</b><br><br>In cogently argued and brilliant readings of texts ranging from St. Augustine’s <i>Confessions </i>to Milton’s <i>Paradise Lost</i>, <i>Paradise Regained </i>and <i>Samson Agonistes</i>, <i>Psychoanalysis and the Patriarchal Tradition </i>shows the ongoing cultural value of psychoanalytic approaches—flexibly and critically applied—to the interpretation of major literary works. Peter L. Rudnytsky makes a persuasive and striking case for tracing significant connections between the Judeo-Christian story of the Fall and the Greek myth of Oedipus: Proposing that the Oedipus complex can be viewed as the “latent content” of the Fall, Rudnytsky at once respects the explanatory power of these master-myths while he interrogates their claims to universality.<br><br> Drawing above all on Freud, Klein, Winnicott, and Lacan, Rudnytsky integrates a range of psychoanalytic perspectives with deconstruction, new historicism, and psychobiography to highlight issues of gender and sexuality not only in Augustine and Milton but also in Gottfried’s <i>Tristan</i>, <i>Sir Gawain and the Green Knight</i>, More’s <i>History of King Richard III</i>, Shakespeare’s <i>Othello</i> and <i>King Lear</i>, as well the poetry of Marvell and other 17th-century writers who exhibit the “dissociation of sensibility” Rudnytsky links to the execution of King Charles I.<br><br> Through synthesis of psychoanalysis, feminism, and literary criticism, <i>Psychoanalysis and the Patriarchal Tradition </i>sheds new light on old masterpieces even as it reveals the contours of an entire tradition.</p>