Séminaire international sur l'Émergence de l'inconscient dans les littératures européennes, organisé par le DESE en collaboration avec Scuola Superiore di Studi Umanistici dell'Università di Bologna.

31 mai 2005

Eric S. Rabkin
Metamorphosis, the Mechanism of Repression and the evolution of the unconscious in european literature

The trope metamorphosis, when central in a narrative (e.g., Ovid Grimm, Kafka), typically reveals a previously existing psychological state of the character who changes. From the ancients through the present, we can trace a development of such revelations (those that were states misunderstood by the character, Gregor Samsa). By examining the stories of metamorphosing characters, we can trace the development of an idea of the unconscious as a reflex of repression. Literary metamorphoses reveal diverse mechanism of repression that themselves reveal an historical development from the personal to the social. Sometimes, of course, repression, especially social repression (see Marx, Freud, and Fromm) is socially desirable. If prior repression is comfortable for the individual (see Skinner), no metamorphosis is needed and there is no drama, no struggle for expression. But if repression fails to disable desire, metamorphosis may represent a fantastic expression of the individuality that stands against the mechanism of repression that created the unconscious state initially. As mechanism of social repression become more powerful and impersonal in the industrial world, literature, becomes a favored medium for the expression of the individual unconscious. Especially in the twentieth century, literary metamorphosis offers a uniquely powerful opening for criticism on the social mechanism of repression.