Critical Psychology As Alternative Paradigm For Literary Theory

This dissertation, on the basis of a critique of the psychological criticism of APassage to India (by E. M. Forster), aims to problemize the current psychoanalysisand analytical psychology as literary analytical tools and extend the critique ontoWestern mainstream bourgeois psychologies; consequently to construct criticalpsychology (especially Klaus Holzkamp’s German critical psychology) as asubstitutive literary theory and psychopolitical reading as its methodology; and finallyto put the theory and methodology into concrete analysis of Passage from twoperspectives of race and gender.My argument in this dissertation is that the ahistorical, asocial and apoliticalFreudian and Jungian interpretations of the sample literary text of Passage fail toexplore the “real” material world neither of the Indians nor of the Anglo-Indians;however, critical psychology as a potential alternative paradigm with itspsychopolitical reading method delves into the text from both racial and feministperspectives, showing that, on the one hand, all the characters are psychologicallytinged with politics, and on the other hand, in different forms, they reinforce their ruleor resist the hegemony in a psychological way, which proves that critical psychologyis an alternative paradigm of literary theory and psychopolitical reading is an effectivemethod of literary analysis.Theoretically speaking, the Western mainstream bourgeois psychology whichenjoys a history of more than a century could possibly have been a warehouse of richmaterials for literary study; however, in the history of Western literary theory only thebranch of Freudian psychoanalysis, through Jungian analytical psychology down toLacanian psychoanalysis is available. This branch, though highly influential, has itsapparent limitations. Firstly, it is featured with master-apprentice relation in person orinheritance relation in theory. Secondly, it is unfortunately stripped of its connectionto reality. Thirdly, it notoriously attempts to represent the psychology ofde-historicized individuals chiefly with an eye to the able-bodied middle-class white males.The grafting of psychology with politics, society, history and culture isrevolutionary. Critical psychology as the focus of this dissertation is constructed onthe basis of the critique of traditional Western psychology which attaches soleimportance to scientificity and objectivism with quantitative methods and positivism.Obviously, the contribution of scientific psychology to human knowledge isconspicuous; however, an individual psyche can be classified into the biological level(lower level) and the humanistic level (higher level). The discoveries of theStimulus-Response (S-R) Model based on the test of white mice may be applicable tohuman beings to some extent. But when human cultural and political relationship isbrought into consideration, this model is found insufficient.On critiquing such a “pseudoscience” emerged critical psychology in1960s. Itsforefather is Klaus Holzkamp on whose theory this dissertation is founded. Criticalpsychology severely attacks the Western mainstream bourgeois psychology, arguingthat the pseudoscientificity aims to maintain the status quo both of knowledge and therule of the patriarchal bourgeois white androcentrism. Freudianism, for example,advocates that physiology determines fate and in essence its undercurrent is biologicaldeterminism, pansexualism, patriarchy and middle-class white male superiority,which, no wonder, is vociferously criticized by both women and third-world people.Critical psychology champions politics. First of all, at the disciplinary level, it isvehemently critical of Western traditional psychology as illustrated above. Secondly,at the theoretical level, Holzkamp carries out a categorial revolution, creating suchfundamental categories as “meaning structure”,“subjective ground for action”,“action potence”,“restrictive action potence” and “general action potence”, etc.Thirdly, at the political level, Holzkamp believes that people under the regime ofcapitalist society can change and improve their subjective quality of life beyond the“allowed” limits, regardless of the conflict with the powers and the threat to theexisting level of action potence. It is just the point where the revolutionarysignificance lies.The disadvantages and advantages of the critical psychology for its grafting with literary theory coexist. As for the disadvantages, first of all, critical psychology iswidely varied and has become an umbrella term; secondly, as a pure psychologicalbranch, it is more theoretical and critical than practical and constructive for concreteanalysis of literary texts. The solution to the former is, for the present research, tofocus on Claus Holzkamp, the founding father of critical psychology, and his theory;to the latter, is to contextualize his theory in such two specific conditions as race andgender and thus extend the theory to a postcolonial critical psychology and criticalfeminist psychology. The trinity of psychology, politics and literary text requires abrand-new methodology—psychopolitical reading, which to critical psychology islike close reading to New Criticism.Psychopolitical reading is a “to-and fro-movement” in which politics isconstantly brought into the realm of psychology, and psychology into politics. On theone hand this two-way movement stresses the political nature of the psychologicaland on the other hand it emphasizes how power is psychologically conducted, that is,the colonising of the mind.A psychopolitical reading of Passage reveals “epistemological violence” of AdelaQuested, which serves as one of the main causes to the mental collapse in the Marabarcaves. The same reading from postcolonial perspective witnesses the rise of Aziz’s“black consciousness” and the development of his “psychology of resistance”. Apsychopolitical reading from the perspective of female voices illustrates how Adelasingle-handedly deconstructs the well-woven plan of conquest by her Anglo-Indiancompatriots. These readings show the anatomies of Passage by the two-way methodof psychopolitical reading.The present research focuses only on E. M. Forster’s Passage for the followingreasons. The importance and significance of Passage is never over-exaggerated,because it is not only Forster’s “best-known and most widely read novel” as LionelTrilling puts it, but also the one under the scrutiny of a wide range of literary theories.Criticism of masterpiece invariably reflects prevailing critical fashions. Moreover, tomake abstract theory more concrete, this study chooses Passage as the sample text,just like what Louis Tyson did with F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby in her Critical Theory Today.This dissertation consists of five parts. Part One, the Introduction, introduces thetopic, provides a literature review of Passage and illustrates the thesis’s argument, theaim, the significance, the originality, the methods and difficulties.Chapter One begins with a critique of psychoanalytic criticism of Passage andthen extends the critique to psychoanalysis as a whole and finally to the traditionalWestern mainstream psychology.Chapter Two introduces critical psychology and the status quo and transformsthis branch of psychology into a new paradigm for literary theory. Furthermore,psychopolitical reading as a method of literary criticism follows the illustration ofcritical psychology as a theory. The relation between them is like close reading toNew Criticism, unconscious study to Freudianism, and archetype to Jungian analyticalpsychology. At the end of this chapter, a sample analysis will be provided.Since critical psychology as a literary theory rather than just as a branch ofpsychology requires the contextualization of analysis, Chapter Three, therefore,provides two sample analyses from both the perspectives of race and gender,discussing Passage from the perspectives of postcolonial critical psychology andcritical feminist psychology.The last part is the Conclusion, which summaries critical psychology andpsychopolitical reading as a new paradigm for literary theory and an analytical tooland points out the space of the further theoretical development.