The Dynamics of Literary Response

Reading a poem or a novel, seeing a play or a film, is a special kind of experience. Yet the essential nature of that experience has remained a mystery. Philosophers have discussed the writer’s role, and critics the writer’s craft, but there has been little disciplined inquiry into the relation of literature to people’s minds—the way in which people re-create within themselves the literary experience. Norman Holland approaches the problem armed with a thorough understanding of psychoanalytic concepts, and develops a comprehensive theory of the psychology of literature that deals with poetry, theater, and film, as well as with fiction, myth, pornography, and humor.