Wallace Stevens’ complex poetry often eludes the grasp of the most tenacious reader. This critical text attempts an intensive reading of the most obscure verses through the lens of psychoanalytic criticism. Using Lacanian theory, the book corroborates the suspicion of various critics regarding Stevens’ psychical health, examining the nature of its crisis and the cause. Avoiding intentional fallacy, the work concentrates on Stevens’ language itself, revealing a use of symbols that characterize neurosis, thus shifting criticism from the poet’s person to his text.

Chetan Deshmane is associate professor of English at the University of Pune, India. He has published in a number of journals, including The Explicator, Interdisciplinary Literary Studies, Plath Profiles, South Asian Review, Academic Research, IUP Journal of English Studies, and Asian Quarterly. He is now editing a volume of essays on Indian English literature.

Chetan Deshmane
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 248
Bibliographic Info: notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2012
pISBN: 978-0-7864-6457-9
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments      ix

Guide to Abbreviations      xi

Preface      1

1. Prolegomena      5

2. Neurosis of Winter      14

3. Bits of Blue      51

4. Jouissance      85

5. Rubbings of Reality      124

6. Apogee      156

Epilogue      205

Notes      209

Bibliography      221

Index      229