The Influence of Freud and Psychoanalytic Concepts on Modernist Writers

Abstract

This paper examines the influence of Sigmund Freud on Modernist writers, with particular emphasis on D. H. Lawrence and James Joyce. This paper illustrates the ways in which Freud’s conceptualization of the human psyche, with the deeper inner drives foremost, came to bear an imprint on the thematic and structural tenets of modern literature. This paper shows that Freudian thinking was so pervasive as to bear an imprint, even on authors who outwardly refuted psychoanalysis.