Using Psychoanalytic Literary Theory to Analyze Ceremony
QUESTIONS TO HELP YOU GET STARTED:
1. Which characters represent the different Symbolic Orders outlined above?
2. How might the poems/prayers that appear in/break up the narrative be read through
psychoanalytic literary theory? That is, what might they signify when approached as a
phenomenon (that is, taken all together, with a focus on their form rather than or in addition to
their content)?
3. Which passages seem to lend themselves most easily to a psychoanalytic reading? That is, which
seem to showcase the dichotomy between the conscious and unconscious mind, between
manifest and latent meaning, between rational thought action and irrational, id-driven
behavior? Which passages seem to represent the uncanny? Which passages represent
character-expressed or text-expressed symptoms?