Virginia Woolf and the Lust of Creation: A Psychoanalytic Exploration

by Shirley Panken

"Every secret of a writer's soul, experience of his life, and quality of his mind is written large in his work." -- Virginia Woolf

Panken enables us to read this secret language without doing violence to the artistic integrity of the writing.

Virginia Woolf's continuing need for maternal protection, her physical symptoms, depressive bent, anorexia, and suicidal leanings suggest her vulnerability, inner struggle, and masked rage. This book delves into the substrate of Virginia Woolf's emotional dilemmas as well as the subtexts of her novels and shows the confluence between her life and art. It brings new insights into Woolf's struggle to come to grips with her confused personal and sexual identity, into her artistic conscience, and into the conditions and motivations of her suicide.

336 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1987

Reviews

[BaSila Husnain · Rating 5 out of 5]

ofcourse one of the best non fictions I have read. Understanding Woolf as a complex character and writer through a very critical perspective like psychoanalysis is a great learning and living experience ..loved it ...all