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Article: Translations of Power: Narcissism and the Unconscious in Epic History.
- Article from:
- Renaissance Quarterly
- Article date:
- December 22, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 The Renaissance Society of America. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Translations of Power provides a strong challenge to new historicist readings of the Renaissance dynastic epic. Bellamy argues with passion and insight for the importance of the concept of the unconscious in any theory about how imperial ideology is internalized and at times resisted (if traumatically) by epic subjects. She thus sets out to "psycho-analyze epic history," focusing on the conditions for the emergence of what she calls "epic subjecthood." This book aims, then, to contribute to the post-1980s debates about the status and adequacy of historicist interpretation. After a first chapter that challenges new historicist critiques of psychoanalysis, and a second that ...