The Poetics of Transgression: Schizophrenia, Paranoia, Narcissism, and Hyperreality in Thomas Pynchons The Crying of Lot 49

Bryan Snyder wilsonistrey at gmail.com
Thu May 17 16:20:11 CDT 2007


Yes!!  Where??  I just got a book of essays on TCOL49... can't wait to tear
that thing apart.

Funny... I'd rather read about TRP's work than read most other novelists out
there... lol.. 

Probably sad, but very true.

B

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On Behalf
Of robinlandseadel at comcast.net
Sent: Thursday, May 17, 2007 12:21 PM
To: pynchon-l at waste.org
Subject: Re: The Poetics of Transgression: Schizophrenia, Paranoia,
Narcissism, and Hyperreality in Thomas Pynchons The Crying of Lot 49

Great, wonderful, How do I get a copy?
 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Werner Presber <wernerpresber at yahoo.de>
> The Poetics of Transgression: Schizophrenia, Paranoia,  Narcissism, 
> and Hyperreality in Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49
> 
> Abstract
> This thesis aims to excavate and accentuate the poetics of 
> transgression manifested in Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49 in 
> the light of psychoanalytical theory.  The psychoanalytical reading of 
> this novel is indispensable since it provides an illuminating 
> comprehension of the concept of transgression.  The idea of 
> transgression refers emphatically to the act of crossing, traversing, 
> or violating boundaries and, more significantly, to the subversion and 
> undermining power latent in the act of transgression.  Chapter one 
> offers a general introduction of the historical and cultural context 
> of the novel, the theoretical framework and thesis structure. Chapter 
> two resorts mainly to Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s 
> understanding of the unconscious syntheses in Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism 
> and Schizophrenia to delineate the textual structure, which refers to 
> San Narciso.  The city is simultaneously the projection of Pierce 
> Inverarity’s unconscious topography and the projection of capitalist 
> society.  The psychic and social registrations are similarly founded 
> on the model of the unconscious syntheses, or, in Deleuze and 
> Guattari’s words, the desiring-machines, manifesting their assertion 
> that there is no boundary between the
> psychic and the social and the two are both invested by the desire.   
> The underground network of the Tristero otherwise projects an 
> alternative force in contrast to the capitalist dictatorship of 
> Pierce.  The Tristero represents the schizophrenia that is produced 
> yet renounced by capitalism and it also stands for the aggressive 
> force that pushes the capitalist machine to its limits.  Chapter three 
> analyzes the relation between Oedipa Maas and the city San Narciso.  
> Oedipa represents a bourgeoisie housewife whose ego centrism is 
> cultivated by the narcissistic enclosure of the capitalist society in 
> San Narciso.  The permeating aura of narcissism precipitates her 
> paranoia, depriving her of the
> alternative sight to see the real Tristero.    Oedipa’s paranoiac  
> obsession makes her see the Tristero as a simple conspiracy, ignoring 
> its schizophrenic nature.  Opposite to such an arbitrary 
> misconception, this thesis attempt to recover the proper character of 
> the Tristero as a hyperreality in the light of Jean Baudrillard’s 
> notion of simulation.







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