Falling asleep and waking in jail

Freud and Fiction Introduction to Theory of Literature Professor Paul Fry

After discussion deconstruction we are taking back to psychological concerns in literature. The lecture concerns two parts of human behaviour which is repetition and a preoccupation with one's death. When we contemplate death we are in a strange way considering our end like one does the goal of a project or in special relevance, to a story.

In fact, we consider that stories often contain elements that are not pleasurable to read and trying to gather a meaning can be laborious on the mind. It causes us to pause and think why we are drawn to this rather than towards things that bring us joy. Like near the beginning of this survey we are reminded that the study of meaning comes from people who want meaning to be complicated and are serious about it. But this has a more Hemingway-ish notion to it in that we repeat uneasy aspects to master them and to die the way we choose. In this round about way we are stuck in a structuralist mindset while setting precedent that form comes about from psychological processes. We have a almost deterministic view of beginning, middle, and end.

St. Anastasia The Golden Legend Jacobus de Voragine

This tale is is oddly and severely neurotic. The reactions the characters have are shrouded in myth they are set in motion by something rather ordinary--pairing of incompatible lovers. Love here seems to be treated arbitrary as Anastasia is paired with one stranger after another predestined to end in tragedy. The unrealistic pairings have these strange effects on people either causing them to fake sickness, fall into a deep sleep in a tense moment, have clothes that cannot be taken off by force, or thrown into dungeons.

There is also a rapid pace where these things keep happening as if from a fevered mind of a story teller. The overwhelming feeling is a searing one rather than a sense of wisdom being granted or being washed in myth.