Ebook: Method in madness : control mechanisms in the French fantastic

Method in Madness looks at the ways in which nineteenth-century French literature of the fantastic reflected what psychoanalysis would later define as mechanisms of defence. Each chapter of the book is dedicated to a particular mechanism – fetishization, projection, intellectualization, mechanization, and compulsion – and to a representative set of texts which illustrate and embody the process concerned. The book thus systematizes what has remained up to now a rather vague perception of the psychological processes at work in fantastic narrative and of the relationship between the fantastic and the emerging science of psychoanalysis. Although centred on French works, including texts by Gautier, Mérimée, Balzac, George Sand, Maupassant, and Villiers de l’Isle-Adam, the study necessarily deals with the German tradition of the fantastic, notably Hoffmann and Freud. It argues that mechanisms of defence not only take place in fantastic literature, but that the fantastic itself in fact consists in translating defence into the real, thus making clear to the reader the very processes by which defence occurs. The book finds that the defence mechanisms “fail” in the fantastic, because in this literature defence involves adding a real danger to a merely psychic one, thereby intensifying the anxiety and displeasure which the mechanisms of defence are ideally designed to minimize. Contents Introduction History and Theories of the Fantastic The Fantastic and Psychological Defence Outline 1 Fetishization Fetishization and the Fantastic Balzac’s “Le Chef-d’oeuvre inconnu” Maupassant’s “ La Chevelure ” Gautier’s “ Le Pied de momie ” 2 Projection Projection and the Fantastic The Uncanny Sand’s “La Fée aux gros yeux” George Sand and Idealism Mérimée’s “Carmen” 3 Intellectualization Intellectualization and the Fantastic Mérimée’s “La Vénus d’Ille ” Mérmimee’s “ Carmen ” 4 Mechanization Mechanization and the Fantastic Hoffmann’s “Der Sandmann” Villiers de l’Isle-Adam’s L’Ève future The Mechanical Monster 5 Compulsion Compulsion and the Fantastic Maupassant’s “Madame Hermet” Maupassant’s “Fou” Conclusion Selected Bibliography