James M. Mellard's Books

Beyond Lacan

By: James M. Mellard

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In Beyond Lacan, James M. Mellard traces psychoanalytic literary theory and practice from Freud to Lacan to Zðizûek. While Freud effectively presupposes an unconscious that is textual, it is Lacan whose theory all but articulates a textual unconscious as he offers the epoch a cutting-edge psychoanalytic ideology. Mellard considers this and then asks, "Which Lacan? Is there one or many? Early or late?" As Zðizûek counters the notion of a single, unitary Lacan, Lacanians are asked to choose. Through Lacanian readings of various texts, from novels like Ellison's Invisible Man and O'Connor's Wise Blood to short stories by Glaspell and Fitzgerald, Mellard shows that in critical practice Lacanians produce a middle Lacan, between early and late.

Mellard concludes by examining why Zðizûek has perhaps transcended Lacan. More than any other, it is Zðizûek who has constructed early and late Lacan, making possible that middle Lacan of praxis, but in the process he has also claimed an independent authority. Ultimately, Mellard explains how Zðizûek offers a post-Lacanian critique—one built on a pervasive philosophy of paradox—that opens new avenues of analysis of contested cultural and literary issues such as subjectivity, political economy, multiculturalism, and religious belief.

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Page Count

302

Publisher

SUNY Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0791481034

ISBN 13

9780791481035

The Exploded Form

The Modernist Novel in America

By: James M. Mellard

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The Exploded Form

The Modernist Novel in America

By: James M. Mellard

Mellard posits a Hegelian progression to literary history, and particularly to the literary history of the last 40 years. For him, thesis/antithesis/synthesis is roughly parallel to naive/critical/sophisticated and he uses works by William Faulkner, Joseph Heller, and Richard Brautigan as examples of each phase.

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Page Count

236

Publisher

Urbana : University of Illinois Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0252008014

ISBN 13

9780252008016

Henry Miller and Narrative Form

Constructing the Self, Rejecting Modernity

By: James Decker

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Henry Miller and Narrative Form

Constructing the Self, Rejecting Modernity

By: James Decker

In this bold study James M. Decker argues against the commonly held opinion that Henry Miller’s narratives suffer from ‘formlessness’. He instead positions Miller as a stylistic pioneer, whose place must be assured in the American literary canon. From Moloch to Nexus through such widely-read texts as Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn, Decker examines what Miller calls his ‘spiral form’, a radically digressive style that shifts wildly between realism and the fantastic. Drawing on a variety of narratological and critical sources, as well as Miller’s own aesthetic theories, he highlights that this fragmented narrative style formed part of a sustained critique of modern spiritual decay. A deliberate move rather than a compositional weakness, then, Miller’s style finds a wide variety of antecedents in the work of such figures as Nietzsche, Rabelais, Joyce, Bergson and Whitman, and is viewed by Decker as an attempt to chart the journey of the self through the modern city. Henry Miller and Narrative Form affords readers new insights into some of the most challenging writings of the twentieth century and provides a template for understanding the significance of an extraordinary and inventive narrative form.

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Page Count

193

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1134238398

ISBN 13

9781134238392

Book's by James M. Mellard

Beyond Lacan

Beyond Lacan

The Exploded Form

The Exploded Form

Henry Miller and Narrative Form

Henry Miller and Narrative Form

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