Speaking the Unspeakable
Religion, Misogyny, and the Uncanny Mother in Freud's Cultural Texts
Diane Jonte-Pace(Author)
University of California Press
1st Edition
Published on 3. December 2001
Book
Hardback
200 pages
978-0-520-22600-5 (ISBN)
Description
In this bold rereading of Freud's cultural texts, Diane Jonte-Pace uncovers an undeveloped "counterthesis," one that repeatedly interrupts or subverts his well-known Oedipal masterplot. The counterthesis is evident in three clusters of themes within Freud's work: maternity, mortality, and immortality; Judaism and anti-Semitism; and mourning and melancholia. Each of these clusters is associated with "the uncanny" and with death and loss. Appearing most frequently in Freud's images, metaphors, and illustrations, the counterthesis is no less present for being unspoken--it is, indeed, "unspeakable." The "uncanny mother" is a primary theme found in Freud's texts involving fantasies of immortality and mothers as instructors in death.In other texts, Jonte-Pace finds a story of Jews for whom the dangers of assimilation to a dominant Gentile culture are associated unconsciously with death and the uncanny mother. The counterthesis appears in the story of anti-Semites for whom the "uncanny impression of circumcision" gives rise not only to castration anxiety but also to matriphobia.
It also surfaces in Freud's ability to mourn the social and religious losses accompanying modernity, and his inability to mourn the loss of his own mother. The unfolding of Freud's counterthesis points toward a theory of the cultural and unconscious sources of misogyny and anti-Semitism in "the unspeakable." Jonte-Pace's work opens exciting new vistas for the feminist analysis of Freud's intellectual legacy.
It also surfaces in Freud's ability to mourn the social and religious losses accompanying modernity, and his inability to mourn the loss of his own mother. The unfolding of Freud's counterthesis points toward a theory of the cultural and unconscious sources of misogyny and anti-Semitism in "the unspeakable." Jonte-Pace's work opens exciting new vistas for the feminist analysis of Freud's intellectual legacy.
More details
Edition
First Edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Berkerley
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 0 mm
Weight
454 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-520-22600-5 (9780520226005)
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Schweitzer Classification
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Additional editions

Diane Jonte-Pace
Speaking the Unspeakable
Religion, Misogyny, and the Uncanny Mother in Freud's Cultural Texts
E-Book
12/2001
1st Edition
Naval Institute Press
€30.99
Available for download
Person
Diane Jonte-Pace is Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Associate Vice Provost at Santa Clara University. She is coeditor of Religion and Psychology: Mapping the Terrain (with William B. Parsons, 2001).
Content
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