Melville, Shame, and the Evil Eye
A Psychoanalytic Reading
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Offers a complex analysis of the psychodynamic role of shame in Melville's work, with detailed readings of Moby-Dick, Pierre, and "Billy Budd. "
Description
This study offers a complex analysis of the psychodynamic role of shame in Melville's work, with detailed readings of Moby-Dick, Pierre, and "Billy Budd. " Its concrete application of the rich analytic framework supplied by the work of such theorists as Heinz Kohut, Léon Wurmser, Silvan Tomkins, and Donald Nathanson implicitly challenges the contemporary reliance on an often abstract poststructuralist model of psychoanalysis. As a paradigmatic, coherent reading of the work of a single author, the book will appeal both to the many scholars interested in Melville's work and to anyone interested in psychoanalytic or psychological approaches to literature.
Joseph Adamson is Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature at McMaster University. He has also written Northrop Frye: A Visionary Life and Wounded Fiction: Modern Poetry and Deconstruction.
Reviews
"It is a very erudite book, bringing together sound scholarship in several areas: comparative literature, psychoanalysis, history, and philosophy. Yet, it is very well written and easy to follow. I found it fascinating, very clear to read, excellent. " — Léon Wurmser, author of The Hidden Dimension and The Mask of Shame
"There is no better literary study of any corpus using psychodynamic notions, and none which wields the contemporary literature on shame with anything like the skill and coherence demonstrated by Adamson. " — Benjamin Kilborne, Los Angeles Institute & Society for Psychoanalytic Studies
Joseph Adamson's Melville, Shame, and the Evil Eye makes an important contribution to the study of psychoanalysis and literature. Adamson is the first literary critic I know of to make an extended use of psychoanalytic studies of shame. His book is also a valuable addition to recent narcissistic—including Kohutian—investigations of literature. He proves to be a careful and trustworthy guide through the fascinating complexities of the various shame theorists he investigates. " — J. Brooks Bouson, Loyola University of Chicago