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From the perspective of [[literary ]] studies, the discovery of [[Lacan ]] in the mid-1970s, initially by [[feminist ]] and [[Marxist ]] literary critics, revitalized the rather moribund [[practice ]] of [[psychoanalytic ]] criticism and reinstated [[psychoanalysis ]] at the cutting edge of critical [[theory]]. After much initial enthusiasm for [[Freudian ]] and post-Freudian readings of [[literature ]] (see Wright (1998) for an account of classical Freudian readings), psychoanalytic criticism had degenerated into the reductive practice of [[identifying ]] [[Oedipal ]] scenarios within [[texts ]] and spotting [[phallic ]] [[symbolism]]. Lacan's conception of the [[unconscious ]] as [[structured ]] like a [[language ]] (see Chapter 4) and the [[relationship ]] between the [[symbolic ]] [[order ]] and the [[subject ]] (see Chapter 2) opened up a [[whole ]] new way of [[understanding ]] the play of unconscious [[desire ]] in the [[text]]. The [[object ]] of psychoanalytic criticism was no longer to hunt for phallic [[symbols ]] or to explain [[Hamlet]]'s [[hesitation ]] to revenge his [[father]]'s [[death ]] by his [[repressed ]] [[sexual ]] desire for his [[mother ]] (see [[Jones ]] 1949) but to [[analyse ]] the way unconscious desires [[manifest ]] themselves in the text, through language. The focus of [[Lacanian ]] criticism, therefore, is not upon the unconscious of the [[character ]] or the [[author ]] but upon the text itself and the relationship between text and reader.

Psychoanalytically based approaches to literature and the [[other ]] [[arts ]] take a wide variety of forms.[[Freud]]'s paper on [[family ]] romance has been used to formulate a typological study of the novel, whilst his essay on the [[uncanny ]] has inspired a more thematic approach.All are grounded or based upon Freud's descriptions of the workings of the unconscious and they usually [[claim ]] to uncover or [[work ]] with [[material ]] that is not consciously [[present ]] in the [[mind ]] of the author or artis tin question.It would be erroneous, however, to [[speak ]] of the psychoanalysis of authors; psychoanalytic criticism is an application of Freudian theory and not an equivalent to a [[talking cure]] involving a direct [[encounter ]] between [[analyst]] and [[analysand]].It cannot, by definition, have nay therapeutic [[goal ]] or [[dimension]].

Freud's writings and references to literature, usually in the [[form ]] of the [[German ]] classical [[tradition]], and he believe stha tthe sources of literary [[creativity ]] and psychoanalysis are similar.

Literary models play an important [[role ]] int he [[development ]] of psychoanalysis; the theory of the [[Oedipus ]] [[complex ]] origiantes in Freud's [[reading ]] of [[Sophocles ]] and Greek mythology and his contention that ''[[Oedipus Rex]]'' encapsulates a [[universal ]] [[experience ]] or [[memory]].Yet Freud is less interested in [[aesthetics ]] as such than in the [[psychology ]] and [[psychopathology ]] of creativity; as he [[notes]], psychoanalysis therefore tends to move from the [[analysis ]] of works of art to the analysis of their creators.

Freud devotes a [[number ]] of papers to aesthetic and literary topics.The important are the study of Dostoyevsky, the essays on [[Leonardo ]] [[da Vinci ]] and [[Michelangelo]], and the shorter an dmore general paper on creative [[writing]].In these papers, creative [[activity ]] is usually described as the [[adult ]] [[wish]]-fulfilment and a pleasurable exploration of [[imaginary ]] identifications iwth heroes and heroines.Freud's investigations into creativity make frequent reference to his [[concept ]] of [[sublimation]]: Leonardo's [[scientific ]] curiosity, for example, is [[analyzed ]] as a sublimated expression of his chilhood curiosity [[about ]] [[sexuality]], whislt the famous smile of the Mona Lisa is traced back to a [[childhood ]] [[fantasy ]] of suckling and [[passive ]] [[oral ]] intercourse.

Like Freud before him, Lacan makes frequent use of literary and [[cultural ]] allusions, often for illustrative or pedagogic purposes.His style is heavily influenced by his youthful [[association ]] with [[surrealism]], but hsi use of literature can be surprisingly conventional and even utilitarian, as when he describes ''Hamlet'' as illustrating a decadent form of the [[Oedipus complex]]<ref>1958-9</ref> or when he reads [[Poe]]'s '[[Purloined Letter]]' as an allegory of the workings of the [[signifier]].<ref>1955b</ref>

Post-[[Lacanian psychoanalysis ]] has developed into a highly literate, even literary style of reading and writing, perhaps because so many of those who have turned to Lacan have, especially otuside [[France]], backgrounds in the humanities and literary studies.As Lacanian psychoanalysis fuses with Derridean [[deconstruction]] and [[hermeneutics]], the traditional [[divorce ]] between 'theory' and '[[fiction]]' become blurred.