Victor Hugo and John Keats: a psychological landscape for poetic dreams
Victor Hugo and John Keats: a psychological landscape for poetic dreams

Summary/Abstract: This paper addresses poetic dreams from a psychological viewpoint by comparing two Romantic poets, John Keats and Victor Hugo. The study proceeds through the analysis of three major elements that are significant in the creation of Romantic identity, that is: memories, sleep and dreams. Throughout the poetic example, we attempt at a psychological reading of the depicted images and expressions that conceal symbolic meaning, mainly those in relating to natural elements. The examples analysed in this paper also raise the question of the collective unconscious as a way of joining human thoughts and needs through poetic representations of dream codes. This objective is accomplished by highlighting two psychological components: the conscious and the unconscious, as defined by Freud and Jung. The paper hence demonstrates the tension that both aspects of the psychological self can generate within the poetic extracts through deconstructing and constructing the self itself. The search for the reconciliation of each side helps define a new poetic Self.

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