Baudelaire and Freud

By Leo Bersani

Book Overview

This title delves into the interplay between Charles Baudelaire's poetic vision and Freudian psychoanalytic theory, offering a nuanced exploration of fragmented identity and the dynamic tension between traditional ideals and modern psychological complexity. Baudelaire's work is framed as a pivotal cultural drama, encapsulating the struggle between spiritual aspirations and self-degradation--a dualism rooted in his concept of "two postulations" of human nature, toward God and Satan. This framework aligns with a broader structure of oppositions--high and low, spirit and matter, reality and appearance--that has traditionally defined idealistic visions in literature.

However, the book challenges reductive readings of Baudelaire's dualism, arguing instead for a recognition of his deeper engagement with psychic mobility and the destabilization of identity. Baudelaire's poetry, like Freud's theories, emerges at a cultural crossroads where traditional views of the self are simultaneously upheld and dismantled. This study emphasizes Baudelaire's resistance to the indeterminacy of self, contrasting it with more radical contemporary experiments in fragmented subjectivity. Using Freudian theory, particularly the notions of fantasy and psychic deconstruction, the book highlights Baudelaire's complex interplay between rigid dichotomies and the liberating yet disruptive forces of self-scattering desire, offering a profound examination of the tensions that define both his work and the evolution of modern thought.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1977.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0520328957
• ISBN13: 9780520328952
• Release Date: September 2020
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Length: 268 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.0" x 8.0"