| dc.description.abstract | Thomas De Quincey was generally studied as a Romanticist or an Imperialist writer; the focus has been on how De Quincey’s work embodies the spirit of his age. However, in my thesis, I would like to examine the internal relationship between De Quincey and his Confessions of an English Opium-Eater from a psychoanalytical point of view, and I hope my thesis could help to understand the psychological reason behind the writing of this work. There are three chapters in the thesis: “A Close Reading of De Quincey’s Dreams”; “Healing through Writing”, and “An Autobiographical Confession: the Select Genre.”
In the first chapter: “A Close Reading of De Quincey’s Dreams”, the focus will be on De Quincey’s own concept of dreams as well as the dreams he shared with readers in the Confessions. From a close reading of his work, I would like to show that dreams do help to bring De Quincey closer to the veiled world of unconscious. In “Healing through Writing”, the discussion will be switched to the act of writing. This chapter will deal mainly with theoretical discussions of the psychological values of writing. I think the theoretical elaborations will make it easier to understand the positive and pleasant traits of writing which helps the writer to deal with his own predicaments. Finally, in the last chapter, “An Autobiographical Confession: the Select Genre”, I would like to show that it is not without reasons to write an autobiographical confession because such a work does not only help De Quincey to present himself in front of the public but also enables the writer to know about another self which has always hidden in the world of unconscious.
My thesis aims to probe into the internal relationship between De Quincey, as a writer, and the writing of the Confessions. In De Quincey’s case, when writing is considered as a way of communicating with the outer world, it also unveils, to the writer, some part of his true self that has always been outside of the conscious perception. Therefore, I hope my thesis would be able to uncover the psychological values of writing, and how writing is the access to know more about the self. | en_US |