ABSTRACT
Gunn is careful in his invocation of both authors and analysts and attempts to provide a rationale for almost all his theoretical choices. This text is designed to appeal to students of comparative literature and critical theory. Gunn attempts again and again to map the analogical possibilities inherent in psychoanalysis and literature. Here is an example. The text begins with a consideration of the similarities between the act of writing and the act of free association in the analytic situation. Both are fraught with anxieties, resistances, and a sense of futility. They both demand a willingness to ‘work through’ this resistance in the hope that something will emerge in the end to justify the effort involved. Gunn writes that:
Bizarre as such an attempt might seem, it bears a curious resemblance to the act of writing. As autobiographies testify, there are very few authors indeed who look forward to the act of writing.
