Abstract

This study articulates and confronts two seminal problems in Freud's development of a metapsychology of culture. The first of these concerns the nature of the postulation of the death instinct, and the subsequent tenuousness of the connections Freud establishes between this instinct and the sense of aggressiveness, destruction and cruelty which he comes to see as its primary manifestation. This problem, and its implications for a theory of human instincts based on the opposition of Eros and Death, are first drawn out through close readings of germane texts, particularly Beyond the Pleasure Principle. They are then considered in light of analogous notions in the writing of Georges Bataille. In effect, the irreducible dualism of Freud's Eros and Death is confronted with Bataille's identification of "death and sensuality" as mutual expressions of his vision of a radical expenditure in which humanity loses itself. ;The second problem articulated concerns the formulation of psychoanalytic rationale for aesthetic creation. Limitations in Freud's interpretation of the drive to create art and literature are considered in light of both Bataille's understanding of the aesthetic and the openings created through the divorce of death and aggression. An exploration of possible connections between death, sex and creativity will lead to the argument that the writings of both Bataille and Freud foster the conception of a "literary thanatic", of poetic impetus as a non-pathological and non-destructive expression of the death instinct. ;This thanatic conception of poetic will is then contrasted to one of the dominant models for contemporary Freudian literary interpretation, that of Harold Bloom. This study will close with a demonstration of the "literary thanatic" by indicating self-destructive strategies and techniques in the writings of Franz Kafka