Sigmund Freud, Der Wahn und die Traüme in W. Jensens 'Gradiva' [Delusions and Dreams in Jensen's 'Gradiva']

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Freud’s long essay, an analysis of the German novelist Wilhelm Jensen’s story

Gradiva

, is his first work to deal explicitly and systematically with literature and aesthetics, although he had commented at some length on

Oedipus Rex

and

Hamlet

in

The Interpretation of Dreams

(1900). In asserting that dreams have meaning, psychoanalysts are aligned with the ancients, a “superstitious” public and creative writers. Through the close analysis of a story that Jensen termed a “Pompeiian phantasy”, Freud considers “the class of dreams that have never been dreamt at all – dreams created by imaginative writers and ascribed to invented characters in the course of a story.”

The story concerns Norbert Hanold, a young German archaeologist who becomes fascinated, even obsessed, by a

1374 words

Citation: Brewster, Scott. "Der Wahn und die Traüme in W. Jensens 'Gradiva'". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 28 April 2002 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=5620, accessed 19 March 2024.]

5620 Der Wahn und die Traüme in W. Jensens 'Gradiva' 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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