Death-Ego and the Vital Self: Romances of Desire in Literature and Psychoanalysis

Approaching the genre of romance from Freudian and Lacanian perspectives, Reisner (an online instructor for the Jerusalem College for Women) applies the notion of the self as the desiring self to readings of such novels as Wuthering Heights, Frankenstein (a "failed" romance), Jane Eyre, and Sons and Lovers. He finds romance to be characterized competition between the death-drive and the life-drive. If the death-drive triumphs, as in Wuthering Heights, the romance is fulfilled. If the converse, the romance is over. Distributed by Associated University Presses. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR