Symbols of the unconscious in George MacDonald’s “The Light Princess” Cover Image

Символи на несъзнаваното в „Леката принцеса“ на Джордж Макдоналд
Symbols of the unconscious in George MacDonald’s “The Light Princess”

Author(s): Pavel Petkov
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Theory of Literature, British Literature, American Literature
Published by: Великотърновски университет „Св. св. Кирил и Методий”
Keywords: George MacDonald; psychoanalysis; Freud; unconscious; repression

Summary/Abstract: The article explores some of the aspects of George MacDonald’s fairy tale “The Light Princess”, related to the sphere of the unconscious. Using Freudian psychoanalytical theory as a basis, I demonstrate that the author’s words tell us more than they were meant to and that some of them are symbols which, more than thirty years after the publication of the fairy tale, Freud recognised as messengers of the repressed. I first give a brief outline of Freud’s ideas concerning the unconscious; then I discuss in detail the implications of the symbol of falling in “The Light Princess”; lastly, I give several examples of repression as they appear in the fairy tale.

  • Issue Year: 30/2021
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 159-167
  • Page Count: 9
  • Language: Bulgarian