Transitional objects and potential spaces : literary uses of D.W. Winnicott
Peter L. Rudnytsky (Editor)
D. W. Winnicott is increasingly recognized as one of the most important psychoanalysts since Freud, but the relevance of his Independent version of object relations theory to psychoanalytic literary criticism has not been sufficiently appreciated. As Peter L. Rudnytsky notes, "There must be ten literary critics conversant with Lacan's ecrits for every one who has read Winnicott's Playing and Reality." Transitional Objects and Potential Spaces begins to redress this imbalance. The title and subtitle of this collection highlight three of Winnicott's key concepts: transitional objects, potential space, and the use of an object. Because Winnicott is unique in respecting the integrity of art as an autonomous human activity while continuing to insist on its infantile origins, he may be said to offer the first adequate psychoanalytic account of aesthetics. This volume is organized into three sections: The Analytic Frame, Literary Objects, and Cultural Fields. Beginning with Winnicott's "The Location of Cultural Experience," it features essays by a distinguished group of contributors, including Marion Milner and two current leading members of the British Psycho-Analytical Society, Christopher Bollas and Patrick J. Casement, as well as such eminent critics as Richard Poirier, Murray M. Schwartz, Ellen Handler Spitz, and Madelon Sprengnether. Transitional Objects and Potential Spaces makes a timely and persuasive case for the power of Winnicott's ideas. In defining for the first time an independent tradition of psychoanalytic criticism, it will reorient future work in literary and cultural studies
xxii, 315 pages ; 23 cm.
9780231075725, 9780231075732, 0231075723, 0231075731
27146150
Part I. The Analytic Frame. 1. The Location of Cultural Experience - D.W. WINNICOTT. 2. The Role of Illusion in Symbol Formation - MARION MILNER. 3. The Aesthetic Moment and the Search for Transformation - CHRISTOPHER BOLLAS. 4. Where is Literature? - MURRAY M. SCHWARTZ. 5. Poetry in Psychoanalysis: Hopkins, Rossetti, Winnicott - ALBERT D. HUTTER. 6. Ghost Writing: A Meditation on Literary Criticism as Narrative - MADELON SPRENGNETHER. Part II. Literary Objects. 7. Phantasmagoric Macbeth - DAVID WILLBERN. 8. Thomas Traherne and the Poetics of Object Relations - ANTOINETTE B. DAUBER. 9. Wordsworth and Winnicott in the Area of Play - JOHN TURNER. 10. Lawrence's False Solution - DAVID HOLBROOK. 11. Frost, Winnicott, Burke - RICHARD POIRIER. 12. Samuel Beckett's Relationship to His Mother-Tongue - PATRICK J. CASEMENT. Part III. Cultural Fields . 13. Jesus and Object-Use: A Winnicottian Account of the Resurrection Myth - BROOKE HOPKINS. 14. Picturing the Child's Inner World of Fantasy: On the Dialectic between Image and Word - ELLEN HANDLER SPITZ. 15. Gender and Voice in Transitional Phenomena - CLAIRE KAHANE. 16. From the Clinic to the Classroom: D. W. Winnicott, James Britton, and the Revolution in Writing Theory - ANNE M. WYATT-BROWN.
Collection of previously published articles, 1952-1989