Desire: Flaubert, Proust, Fitzgerald, Miller, Lana Del Rey
Desire: Flaubert, Proust, Fitzgerald, Miller, Lana Del Rey
by Per Bjørnar Grande
Michigan State University Press, 2020 Paper: 978-1-61186-321-5 | eISBN: 978-1-60917-600-6 Library of Congress Classification PN56.D48G73 2020 Dewey Decimal Classification 809.93353
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Desire can take many forms. Hegel related desire to acceptance, Nietzsche to power, and Freud to the erotic. In novels and plays by Gustave Flaubert, Marcel Proust, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Arthur Miller and music by Lana Del Rey, desire operates in a complex, slippery way that eludes philosophical and psychoanalytic attempts to pin it down. These and other great works of literature corroborate René Girard’s understanding of desire as taking shape “according to the other’s desire.” The mimetic approach frees desire from the preconceptions of both subject- and object-oriented psychologies and puts literary criticism in touch with the concrete substance of fictional narratives. Drawing on both modern masterpieces and iconic works of contemporary pop culture, Per Bjørnar Grande sketches a Girardian phenomenology of desire, one that sheds new light on the frustrating and repetitive nature of human relations in a world of vanishing taboos.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
PER BJØRNAR GRANDE is Professor in the Department of Pedagogy, Religion and Social Studies at the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences.
REVIEWS
“Literature and theology is a burgeoning field. The author deploys his expert knowledge of Girard to splendid effect in his analysis of some of the great works of modern literature. Highly recommended!”
—DOUGLAS HEDLEY, Professor of the Philosophy of Religion, Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
Preface
Chapter 1. The Nature of Desire
Chapter 2. Desire in Madame Bovary
Chapter 3. Proustian Desire
Chapter 4. Desire in Th e Great Gatsby
Chapter 5. Desire in Death of a Salesman
Chapter 6. Desire in Lana Del Rey
Notes
Bibliography
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