Annotated Bibliography: Midterm Paper

Annotated Bibliography

Gilead, Sarah. "Magic Abjured: Closure in Children’s Fantasy Fiction." PMLA
106.2 (1991): 277-93. JSTOR. Web. 9 March 2010. . Gilead examines children’s literature from the adult reader’s perspective. She suggests that “a return-to-reality closure” often happens in children’s fantasy literature, “reestablishing the fictional reality of the opening” of the story (Gilead 277). She states that although this pattern seems to occur often in this type of literature there are three different types of mode and meaning with a return-to-reality ending. “The Return as Bildung”, in which the child undergoes either moral, psychological, and intellectual development during their journey through the fantasy, “The Return as Narrative Repression” that rejects the fantasy by failing to understand its meaning and ignoring its power of influence, and “The Return as Tragic Ambiguity” where the return becomes unclear and the child misses the closure between what is fantasy and reality (Gilead 285). This article is useful for those that wish to explore not only the different types of fantasy fictions, but the psychological process that the child hero undergoes through their influence of the fantasy realm.

Morgan, David. "The Father's Shadow/Father's Body." Journal of Religion and Health 34.3 (1995): 219-32. JSTOR. Web. 10 Mar. 2010. . Morgan stresses the importance of the father’s shadow for his son living a significant life. He first finds this essential meaning of the father’s shadow in the myth of Cronos and his son Zeus. This myth conveys how Cronos’ son is able to connect to his father’s body through his illusive shadow. The valuable meaning of the father’s shadow is based on research conducted by a developing men’s group. Morgan takes a phallus dream analyzed by C.G. Jung that highlights the importance of the father and son body connection in determining the success of the son’s imaginative growth. This article will be useful for those researching a son’s creative development and how it can be influenced by their relationship with their father.

Payne, Michael. "What Difference Has Theory Made? From Freud to Adam Phillips." College Literature 32.2 (2005): 1-15. JSTOR. Web. 9 Mar. 2010. . Payne recognizes that Adam Phillips has gained a reputation in understanding and explaining Freud’s psychoanalytic theory. Therefore through Adam Phillips work, we can better comprehend Freud’s theory and our understanding of children. He suggests that psychoanalytic theory has been useful in viewing the child’s perceptive of life, and how it is possible for a child to comprehend their own gender experience. He greatly affirms the idea that theory is how we view the world, how we see our mistakes and are able to learn from them. This article can be useful to those interested in understanding Freud’s psychoanalytic theory and its effect on understanding child development and our view of the world.

Peters, R.S. "Freud's Theory." British Journal for the Philosphy of Science 7.25 (1956): 4-12. JSTOR. Web. 10 Mar. 2010. . Peters takes Sigmund Freud’s theories and summarizes them in this article, so that it may be useful to compare his theories with others. He begins with the preservation of equilibrium where he discusses human instincts, and then discusses the mechanisms or “techniques of defence” on the ego. He then summarizes the development of sexual desires and its stages in the mind, and lastly the genetic expectations of childhood influences and how they become impressionable through development of character. Morgan’s effort is to compile as clearly as possible Freud’s main principles.

Stott, Jon C. "Midsummer Night’s Dream: Fantasy and Self-Realization in Children’s
Fiction." The Lion and the Unicorn 1.2 (1977): 25-39. Project Muse. Web. 4 March 2010. . Stott explains the two types of structural patterns of a journey that the child hero in literature experiences. The first one is the linear journey where the hero ventures from Point A to Point B. It is clear to the reader why the protagonist goes through the journey and how he or she reaches their final destination (Stott 25). However, Stott chooses to focus on the second type of journey, the circular journey, in which the hero returns to the same point he started from. Stott states that the hero in this type of journey desires to escape his “normal” world and thereby enters into a fantasy world where his experiences allow him to return home changed and matured. Although fantasy worlds stray away from reality they serve an important purpose of inner growth and supply a clearer understanding of life. This article is useful for those trying to understanding the usefulness of a child exploring their imagination and what they can learn from it.

The Father's Shadow in Equus

After reading Equus I read another article for my midterm paper “The Father’s Shadow/Father’s Body” by David Morgan. In his introduction he states, “the need of a young boy to achieve a successful bond with the body of his father is a determining factor in whether the son is able to develop his own creative life, or must go through life in a state of passive creative frustration” (219). For my midterm paper I was interested in looking at Peter Pan and applying Freud’s theory to his condition. But I think this article really speaks to Alan and Frank in Equus. Alan is not able to have a close relationship with his father and therefore tries instead to bond with his father’s shadow. What I mean by that is Frank’s unconscious that he tries to repress. When Alan sees his father watching the same pornographic film as him Alan is able to connect to him, but on a level his father is not comfortable with. Just like Frank, Alan cannot perform sexually with a woman, he instead becomes embarrassed and feels as though he is being watched and judged. Morgan uses Freud’s Oedipus complex to explain why the son has a destructive perception of what it means to be a man. “The development of an inner creative life by a boy is blocked if he unconsciously bonds with his father’s shadow qualities. Such negative qualities include a distant father, or a father who violently abuses his son…As a result, he cannot accomplish anything truly creative of his own life—all he has is his father’s shadow” (Morgan 226). Alan seems to be struggling with his father’s shadow and cannot move on from there. He has the same urges and reactions as his father with sex. The stare in the play seems to be of guilt and embarrassment by both Frank and Alan. They both seem too worried about judgment brought out from their sexual urges and they both seem to be having a problem with performance. I think that Alan being able to tell Dysart what has happened to him becomes the point where he can separate himself from his father and be his own man. Frank is never able to come to terms with what he has done and what his son has seen, and so he cannot break from his own shadow.

Hiding behing the Mask of Punishment

When reading Michel Foucault’s Disciple and Punish this idea of always being watched as a form of punishment made me think of the film V for Vendetta when the whole city of London is constantly being monitored and given strict rules that they must follow. In this film ordinary life becomes a prison. They do not know when or if they are being watched at that very moment, but they fear being seen or noticed by officials the most. So instead of having a prison in this case they are already punished by being monitored by their every move. The authority figures are not officers in uniforms, so anyone you do not know could be part of the police. Therefore you never know who is watching you. There is surveillance all over the city as well, so if they want to find you they have the power to. The only way for V to hide is under a mask, so that even if he is seen no one will know who he is.



For me this film shows how restricting and cruel it can be just to know you are being watched. This form of punishment in prisons would probably prove to me very effective.

Postmodern piece Wicked

Just like we discussed in class a good example of how the postmodernists changed the metanarrative would be Milton’s Paradise Lost, I could not help to think about Wicked the novel by Gregory Maguire that is most famous for its Broadway musical. Even though it does not change history or religion, it takes a classical piece of children’s literature and focuses on the wicked witch of the west. Telling the story through her experience she no longer remains the villain but the victim or hero of the society she has been born into. She is no longer ugly, but still green. She has a kind heart, and it uses all the scenes specifically from MGM’s film, but simply changes the perspective where the audience can understand and sympathize for Elphaba’s (the wicked witch of the west) perspective. The good witch and the bad witch are friends, and it shows how the evil villains are perceived that way because they have been rejected or misunderstood by society.

Dexter: The Code of Harry and Freud on human repression

When reading Freud I could not help to think about Showtime’s Dexter. Eagleton discusses Freud’s analysis on human repression of the “pleasure principle” by the “reality principle”. Then he mentions how this repression could become a negative aspect of one’s life and make them sick. Too much repression cannot be a good thing, but humans can put up with some. “One way in which we cope with desires we cannot fulfil is by ‘sublimating’ them, by which Freud means directing them towards a more socially valued end.” In Dexter’s case, he lives by Harry’s code. Harry, his adopted father realizes that Dexter has tendencies and urges to kill, and creates a code where Dexter can still kill, but only killers. He does not harm the innocent, but instead protects them by eliminating other killers. By doing this Dexter is able to control a lot of his urges and pretend to live a normal life.

"Dexter: The Code of Harry"

In disagreement with Hirsch

Hirsch highlights the differences between the author’s “meaning” and the work’s “significance”. Of course the only way to know what the author’s intentions are is to have the author explain the meaning. However, why is the author’s meaning so important to their work? The author creates the piece of work properly because he has been inspired or influenced by specific events or people in his life., but once the work is produced and open to be read by the public, doesn’t it grant the readers their own interpretation? As important as the meaning of the work might be in order to appreciate the art they have created, how does it influence the reader? I think you can look at art in two ways; one to appreciate the skill and process of the artist to produce various works, and the other to allow for the art to touch the reader or observer in a special way, but that can only happen with their interpretation of each piece of art work. I think that is what makes art special in that the person appreciating the art can have their very own unique connection with the piece. Art touches each person in a different way, so to read Shakespeare and still not know for sure his intent if anything allows the reader to open their interpretation even more. They can have a truly “pure” experience with the text without having to know why it was created and what the meaning was for Shakespeare. I also think that meaning and significance go hand in hand, the reader finds the meaning only when the text is significant in some way to their lives. Without the readers connection to the text they will not be able to find or understand the meaning of the work.

Looking at the Formalists through Morrison's The Bluest Eye

In the “Introduction: What is Literature?” Eagleton states, “The Formalists, then, saw literary language as a set of deviations from a norm, a kind of linguistic violence: literature is a ‘special’ kind of language, in contrast to the ‘ordinary’ language we commonly use. But to spot a deviation implies being able to identify the norm from which it swerves” (4). This statement reminded me when Toni Morrison begins her novel The Bluest Eye with a narrative from a Dick and Jane reading primer. Morrison repeats the story three times consecutively, the second time without punctuation, and the third time without spacing. In the second narrative form, only the first letter “Here is the house” becomes capitalized, and then following, none of the words are capitalized after that, and it lacks any sort of punctuation. The third narrative form, begins with the same capitalization, but then leaves no spacing in between any of the words, creating a jumbled and chaotic paragraph of letters, “willplaywithjanetheywillplayagoodgameplayjaneplay”. As the Dick and Jane story becomes distorted by the lack of punctuation and spacing so does Pecola’s world. By presenting the Dick and Jane narratives in all three forms, Morrison chooses to question the why and how racism continues to disrupt and destruct the American society. We are able to see the strong desire in Pecola to be given blue eyes, and why she wants to possess qualities of the white Shirley Temple. Morrison also shows how Pecola and the rest of the Breedlove family is affected and hindered from growing individually and in society. Therefore, by knowing the “norm” of writing and “deviating” away from it, Morrison can create her language of meaning.