How does Bayard use psychoanalysis in literary criticism?
I employ psychoanalytic concepts to explore the unconscious dimensions of both the text and the reader's experience. By examining the 'silences,' the gaps, and the apparent illogicalities within a narrative, I look for underlying desires, resistances, and hidden meanings that might not be immediately apparent. My method involves treating the literary work itself as a kind of psychic landscape, where the act of interpretation can reveal the unspoken forces at play, akin to how a psychoanalyst approaches a patient's narrative.
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