'A Long-Legged Fly Upon the Stream': Poetry, Memory and the Unconscious. Issue 4 (1st October 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Bayley, Nicholas
• Is Part Of: Changing English. Volume 23:Issue 4(2016)
• Page Start: 387
• Page End: 395
• Publication Date: 2016-10-01
• Subjects: Poetry and memory -- psychoanalysis -- memorisation -- poetry by heart; English literature -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals; English language -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals; 410
• DOI: 10.1080/1358684X.2016.1219225
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1358-684X

Abstract

Abstract: In this paper I introduce some concepts from psychoanalysis, a poem, a clinical vignette and a personal anecdote. I am asking what light the knowledge of unconscious processes can throw on the memorisation of poems and therefore what use to the individual can be derived from learning poems by heart. A version of the paper was first given at the Poetry, Memory and Performance conference at Homerton College, University of Cambridge, in March 2015.