ABSTRACT
The revisions and transformations by which psychoanalytical theories and criticisms continue to construct themselves have retained so far the concept of the unconscious and its powerful influence on the ego’s development and struggle in the world. Children’s literature, whose language signifies the substitutions and displacements necessitated in that struggle, intimates and makes acceptable the dream of desire. Crucial for Freudian critics of children’s literature is the importance Sigmund Freud gave to the child in the psychoanalytic process. The generation of psychoanalysts that was influenced by, reacted against and revised Freud, distinguishes itself by overcoming Freud’s pessimism regarding the ego’s inevitable discontent. In criticisms of children’s literature, Melanie Klein’s approach can reveal how the text enables the actualisation of the ego intentionally or how it falls short of it. The development of the ego as self-reliant and socially accepted is perhaps most evident in the young adult novel whose comic resolution integrates the young person with socially acceptable norms.
