The mimetic twist of the real: on Freud's concept of literature

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to make a reading of conceptual elements present in the Freudian view on poetry and literature, pointing out its problematic aspects, but also the relevant ones to the analysis of the aesthetic phenomenon. Initially, we review briefly the significant points in the tradition of critical comments on Freudian aesthetic reflections, then comment on the text "Creative Writers and Day-Dreaming" (1908), in which we employ the comparison with themes and concepts in the Poetics of Aristotle and in the Critique of Judgment of Kant. In the last part we opposed some of the concepts presented in this first text to the article "The Uncanny" (1919), where we propose a reading that makes a contrast of the role and importance given to the aesthetic dimension in both texts. The entire trajectory is oriented to demonstrate the need to conceive of the aesthetic from the intertwining, from identity and difference, between the unconscious psychic field and its ways of actualization refracted by the imagistic-imaginary dimension.