Psychoanalysis, Historiography, and Feminist Theory by Katherine Kearns

Psychoanalysis, Historiography, and Feminist Theory by Katherine Kearns

In this book Katherine Kearns explores the feminist, theoretical, and psychoanalytic implications inherent in the relationship between history and narrative. She poses a feminist challenge to the hidden assumptions within conventional historiography by focusing on the troubled relationship between subjectivity and history. By applying Freud's theories of how adult authority is forged, especially his notion of the Oedipus Complex, Kearns considers the anti-feminist, anti-individualist implications of any fully oedipalised discourse. While recognising the principle that history always occurs within a shared social context, Kearns explores the disguised positivisms that remain embedded within conventional historiographic procedures, and reveals their implications for feminist discourse. The study of history, she argues, whether literary, political or social, must take us beyond traditionally defined historical contexts to include individual psychological moments and states in which thought and action occur.

'Kearns's book should be studied by all historians, social scientists and those working in the humanitiesIt is consistently illuminating on the role history and narrative play in historiography and critical theory. It conveys its thought-provoking analysis in a prose of sustained wit and vivacity that will induce even those who criticise its conclusions to enjoy reading its argument.' Dominick LaCapra

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780521587549
ISBN 10	0521587549
Title	Psychoanalysis, Historiography, and Feminist Theory
Author	Katherine Kearns
Series	Literature Culture Theory
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Cambridge University Press
Year published	1997-10-16
Number of pages	183
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.