123 School Work

Discuss the similarities of Psychoanalysis Textual Analysis paying particular attention to one or more of the

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  The field of Textual Analysis shares a great many properties with that of Psychoanalysis, even though one is grounded in philology and the study of premeditated linguistic compositions and the other is concerned with unpredictable anomalies of the human mind. In Textual Analysis it is important to understand that critics who come to radically different conclusions about a text still evaluate it in essentially the same manner, looking for the same devices only drawing different conclusions from them. The search for these devices such as symbolism and metaphor in Textual Analysis is one which is mirrored in the Psychoanalytical case studies of Sigmund Freud. This is quite a far reaching statement and requires some justification and it is justification which is readily available. However, prior to that it is important to understand that, in spite of the many flavours of Textual Analysis, analysts of fictional works conduct their investigations using the same fundamental principles and by looking for and commenting on the same things.
  The Merchant of Venice, for example, is a play which could conceivably be critiqued by a Marxist reader intent on highlighting Shakespeare's perspicacity regarding the interrelations of different economic classes in Venice or a Feminist reader whose aim was highlighting gender inequality. However, it could also be assessed equally rigorously by a gay academic like Alan Sinfield whose opinions of the plays primary themes would differ radically from those of the Marxist and (to a slightly lesser extent) the Feminist. It is perfectly possible, in fact, to compose two or three analyses with a great disparity between them without selectively cherry picking the material from the primary text. In other words the same excerpts can, to an extent, be used to justify both a Feminist and Gay reading of The Merchant of Venice. For example, Act 4 Scene 1 Antonio says:
  
  "My Lord Bassanio, let him have the ring, let his deservings an my love withal be valued 'gainst your wifes commandment...