Speaking the Unspeakable - Religion, Misogyny, and the Uncanny Mother in Freud''s Cultural Texts

"Jonte-Pace offers an original reading of selected Freudian texts that lie at the interface of his theories of religion, culture, psyche and gender. She shows that beneath Freud's Oedipal 'masterplot' are unthematized but potent images that meet in 'the uncanny,' images of maternal corpses and dead(ly) mothers, immortality or afterlife, an absent God, and the wandering Jew. Freud's familiar texts become unfamiliar, especially to readers of the English translations. Jonte-Pace unearths Freud's unsaid preoccupations and in doing so unsettles what scholars say that he said."—Judith Van Herik, author of Freud on Femininity and Faith

List of contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction. Misogyny and Religion under Analysis: Masterplot and Counterthesis in Tension
1. The Counterthesis in "The Dream Book" and "A Religious Experience": The Beginning and End of Interpretation
2. Death, Mothers, and the Afterlife: At Home in the Uncanny
3. Jewishness and the (Un)Canny: "Death and Us Jews"
4. The Sources of Anti-Semitism: Circumcision, Abjection, and the Uncanny Mother
5. Modernity, Melancholia, and the (In)Ability to Mourn: When Throne and Altar are in Danger
Epilogue. Guessing at What Lies Beneath
Notes
References
Index

About the author

Diane Jonte-Pace is Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Associate Vice Provost for Faculty Development at Santa Clara University. She is coeditor of Religion and Psychology: Mapping the Terrain (with William B. Parsons, 2001).

Summary

Reveals an undeveloped 'counterthesis', one that repeatedly interrupts or subverts Freud's well-known Oedipal masterplot. This work opens different vistas for the feminist analysis of Freud's intellectual legacy.

Product details

• Authors: Diane Jonte-Pace, Diane E. Jonte-Pace, Jonte-Pace Diane
• Publisher: University Of California Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 03.12.2001
• EAN: 9780520230767
• ISBN: 978-0-520-23076-7
• No. of pages: 200
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Religion/theology > General, dictionaries; Non-fiction book > Psychology, esoterics, spirituality, anthroposophy > Psychology: general, reference works; Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > Sociological theories; PHILOSOPHY / Religious, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Gender Studies, RELIGION / Philosophy, RELIGION / Sexuality & Gender Studies, RELIGION / Psychology of Religion, Psychoanalytical and Freudian psychology, Gender studies, gender groups, Philosophy of religion, Psychoanalytical theory (Freudian psychology), PSYCHOLOGY / Psychotherapy / Psychoanalysis