Loathsome Jews and Engulfing Women: Metaphors of Projection in the Works of Wyndham Lewis, Charles Williams, and Graham Greene

Andrea Freud Loewenstein

Published by New York University Press 1995

Loathsome Jews and Engulfing Women

Metaphors of Projection in the Works of Wyndham Lewis, Charles Williams, and Graham Greene

Andrea Freud Loewenstein

Volume 4 in the series Literature and Psychoanalysis

https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9780814752753.001.0001

Overview
Contents

About this book

"A remarkable study, one that I recommend to any reader fascinated by the shaping of culture and the power of the psyche." - The Forward
How typical of his generation was T.S. Eliot when he complained that Hitler made an intelligent anti-semitism impossible for a generation? In her new book, Loathsome Jews and Engulfing Women, novelist and critic, Andrea Freud Loewenstein examines the persistent anti-semitic tendencies in modernist, British intellectual culture. Pursuing her subject with literary, historical, and psychological analyses, Loewenstein argues that this anti-semitism must be understood in terms of its metaphorical link with misogyny.
Situated in the context of the history of Jews in Britain, Loathsome Jews and Engulfing Women begins by questioning the widespread belief that the British government was a friend to the Jews in the 30s and 40s. Loewenstein shows that, as evident in the hypocrisy of many British governmental policies prior to and during WWII, Britain actively collaborated in the Jews' destruction. Against the backdrop of this tragic complicity in the Holocaust, Loewenstein evaluates Jewish stereotypes in the works of three representative twentieth-century British thinkers and writers. Her analysis provides a revealing critique of British modernism.
In a larger sense, Loathsome Jews and Engulfing Womenexplores the riddle of prejudice. Loewenstein argues that anti-semitism is nurtured in an environment populated by other hatreds --misogyny, homophobia, and racism. To explain the interaction of these prejudices, she develops an investigative model grounded in object relations theory and informed by the works of such theoretically diverse authors as Virginia Woolf, Kate Millett, and Alice Miller. Loewenstein lucidly argues within an autobiographical framework, insisting on the need for critics to . . . look within ourselves for 'that terrible other' rather than to complacently assume that we ourselves exist outside the ideology of power.
This well-written and readable book will be of interest to many people, ranging students of British history to psychoanalysts, from historians of Jewish culture to anyone interested in feminist and literary theory.

Author / Editor information

Loewenstein Andrea Freud :

Andrea Freud Loewenstein is the author of This Place, a novel set in a women's prison, and The Worry Girl, a collection of autobiographical short stories. She directs the Master of Fine Arts program in Creative Writing at Goddard College in Vermont.

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Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Foreword Jeffrey Berman Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xv
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. The Jews of Britain: A Historical Overview Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	16
2. A Survey of the Surveys Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	44
3. In Search of a Psychoanalytic Theory Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	78
4. The Molten Column Within: Wyndham Lewis Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	119
5. Charles Williams's Extrusion Machine Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	188
6. Escaping the Inner Void: The Early Novels of Graham Greene Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	241
7. Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	312
Appendix: A Historical and Literary Timeline of Jews in England Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	319
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	333
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	359
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	373

Language: English
Publisher: New York University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Keywords: Andrea; anti-; British; critic; culture; Engulfing; examines; Freud; intellectual; Jews; Loathsome; Loewenstein; misogynist; modernist; novelist; persistent; semitic; tendencies; Women

eBook

Published: June 1, 1995
ISBN: 9780814752753