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The Subject of Reading and the Colonial Unconscious: Countertransference in J. M. Coetzee's Waiting for the Barbarians

The Subject of Reading and the Colonial Unconscious: Countertransference in J. M. Coetzee's... The American Journal of Psychoanalysis, Vol. 60, No. 1, 2000 THE SUBJECT OF READING AND THE COLONIAL UNCONSCIOUS: COUNTERTRANSFERENCE IN J. M. COETZEE’S WAITING FOR THE BARBARIANS Yuan Yuan Central to the concept of countertransference developed by either Freud and Lacan is the problematic relationship between the subject of reading (both reading and read) and the unconscious desires. Actually, counter- transference in psychoanalytic situations exposes ªthe primal sceneº in which the analyst fully dramatizes his unconscious desires in front of the analysand. Similar kinds of primal scenes, I discover, figure importantly in J. M. Coetzee's fiction Waiting for the Barbarians to address the issues of the subject of reading and unconscious desires within a postcolonial con- text. Henceforth, countertransference is an important theoretical apparatus to explore the relationship between the colonizer's reading and the colo- nial unconscious of the Empire in Coetzee's fiction. FREUD’S COUNTERTRANSFERENCE AND NARCISSISTIC DISCOURSE Freud's concept of countertransference is generically based on and in- herently developed from his theory of transference. In ªThe Dynamics of Transference,º Freud offers his first general exposition of the idea of trans- ference which is, according to him, mainly associated with ªimagosº of the father and through transference patients unconsciously http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png The American Journal of Psychoanalysis Springer Journals

The Subject of Reading and the Colonial Unconscious: Countertransference in J. M. Coetzee's Waiting for the Barbarians

Yuan, Yuan
The American Journal of Psychoanalysis , Volume 60 (1) – Sep 24, 2004
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References (20)

Publisher
Springer Journals
Copyright
Copyright © 2000 by Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis
Subject
Psychology; Clinical Psychology; Psychotherapy; Psychoanalysis
ISSN
0002-9548
eISSN
1573-6741
DOI
10.1023/A:1001879912634
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis, Vol. 60, No. 1, 2000 THE SUBJECT OF READING AND THE COLONIAL UNCONSCIOUS: COUNTERTRANSFERENCE IN J. M. COETZEE’S WAITING FOR THE BARBARIANS Yuan Yuan Central to the concept of countertransference developed by either Freud and Lacan is the problematic relationship between the subject of reading (both reading and read) and the unconscious desires. Actually, counter- transference in psychoanalytic situations exposes ªthe primal sceneº in which the analyst fully dramatizes his unconscious desires in front of the analysand. Similar kinds of primal scenes, I discover, figure importantly in J. M. Coetzee's fiction Waiting for the Barbarians to address the issues of the subject of reading and unconscious desires within a postcolonial con- text. Henceforth, countertransference is an important theoretical apparatus to explore the relationship between the colonizer's reading and the colo- nial unconscious of the Empire in Coetzee's fiction. FREUD’S COUNTERTRANSFERENCE AND NARCISSISTIC DISCOURSE Freud's concept of countertransference is generically based on and in- herently developed from his theory of transference. In ªThe Dynamics of Transference,º Freud offers his first general exposition of the idea of trans- ference which is, according to him, mainly associated with ªimagosº of the father and through transference patients unconsciously

Journal

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis – Springer Journals

Published: Sep 24, 2004

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