Symptom, Symptomatic Reading And Literary Criticism

Louis Althusser put forward a kind of reading method and a literature interpretative theory from his work Reading Das capital,which are some innovation and revolution standpoints.The reading method has played huge role in reading Marxism and have an important influence on literary criticism.Because Althusser uses and absorbs some relevant concepts from Freudianism,the are some confusion phenomena about using the concept of "symptomatic reading" in the field of literary studies.In most cases,we confuse psychological criticism with symptomatic reading.So the precise meaning of Althusser's theory is easily obscured and then influenced the interpretation and absorption of the deep drawing.This paper has attempted to traces to the sources and changes,search for the original meaning of symptomatic reading in the field of literary criticism.Finally to clarify the current academic status of the theory of mixed and better used in the field of literary criticism.My dissertation is constituted by three parts-introduction,main part and conclusion. In the introduction,I will introduce the issue discussed in this article,point out the necessities of the analysis for the sources and changes of symptomatic reading.It mainly explained the value of symptomatic reading as a way to interpret literature.The main part can be devided into five chapters.In order to explore the Althusser's symptomatic reading,in chapter one I try to clearly explain the "symptom" concept of Freud from which Althusser draws the concept.Although literally showing the relationship between the origin and Althusser's reference,their connotations are very different.In addition,the origin relation between Freud and Althusser lead to symptomatic reading was misread in the practice of literary criticism.According to the analysis of the nature,the formation condition and significance of symptoms to reveals it as a repressed unconscious desire and characterization of an alternative.The second chapter will reveals Lacan's linguistic unconscious and symptoms,Lacan pointed out unconscious is a product of language but also has the structure of language.In Lacan's points,language can become a signifier and metaphor for the unconscious.It is can refer to the alternative between signifiers and then produce the meanings.He studies linguistics combined with mental analysis and provides a new visual angle and theoretical frame for studying unconscious speech.The three chapter is the core my thesis,which intends to set out the precise meaning of Althusser's symptomatic reading. He suggests that "symptomatic reading" be adopted in reading a text in order to discover the implicit discourse within explicit discourse,and to detect the internal gaps from apparent fullness.Althusser believed that cognition is production rather than reflection, so he suggests that we should explore the problematic and seize the symptom to expose the deceptive ideology.Chapter four mainly investigates how does Pierre Macherey use Althusser's symptomatic reading to analyze literary works.Macherey draws upon the concept of symptomatic reading which enables us to identify the gaps and silences, contradictions and reveal the repressed presence of those ideological materials.Macherey spares no effort to deconstruct the ideology in text,to establish a ideological critic.The final chapter is a summary of symptomatic reading.As a method of literary criticism, symptomatic reading should contain corresponding literary concept and text viewpoint. Methods of literary criticism as a symptomatic reading should see literature as a production and the text is a structure,which contains silence,gaps and contradictions.In the last part it is proposed that there are still some problems have not been solved.