Wen Hui Translation Series: In-depth Exploration -- Sexual Motivation in Literature

Author: (USA) Modell
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-02-01
Features: Why can literary works from centuries ago still deeply move us? This is a major challenge for literary critics. Modell addresses this question in this book. Using the perspective of psychoanalysis and with a rigorous academic approach, he analyzes numerous classic Western and American writers and their works, revealing that in literary creation, apart from various social, political, and cultural reasons, there exists a deeper underlying drive—the subconscious motivations of the author. Since this subconscious motivation is largely linked to the author's unconscious mind, Modell calls it "erotic motivation." This has nothing to do with the author's personal morality; it does not mean the author consciously engages in eroticization, but rather that the author unconsciously reveals his inner secrets in the work, thereby unconsciously infecting the reader. This book is Modell's masterpiece and was praised by Freud himself, making it considered a classic work of Freudian literary criticism.