Literary Character

Literary character as human representation has been long neglected by mainstream theorists; particularly deconstructionalists. In his collection of inter-disciplinary essays, John V. Knapp seeks to commence negotiations between the empirical sciences and hermeneutical fields. The synthesis of mainstream psychology and literary criticism could enrich the study of literary character, Knapp proposes in his introductory essay. He closely discusses Freud's hegemony and explains his ideas for dismantling this confining system used to analyze the behavior of fictional beings. All the essays re-discover and re-assess "character type" as human type. Contributors: John V. Knapp, Kenneth J. Gergen, Richard J. Gerrig, David W. Allbriton, Gerald Mead, Uri Margolin, Okey Goode, Baruch Hochman, Ilja Wachs, James Phelan and David Fishelov,