There is a natural affinity between psychoanalysis and literature. Each reaches into our inner human core to catch hold of the motivating elements hidden deep within us and hold them up, wriggling and squirming, for us to view. Freud made ample use of the intuitive observations of Sophocles, Shakespeare, Goethe, Dostoevsky, and others to help him understand human nature; and psychoanalysts have continued to do so ever since. Writers and literary critics, in turn, have been fascinated with the young science of psychoanalysis, and there has been ample cross-fertilization between the two fields.

In this volume, twelve scholars with an abiding interest in the interaction between literature and psychoanalysis grapple with the idea of the preservation and transformation of personal identity