Psychoanaliterature, or, how the American relational move made Are You My Mother? and The Argonauts

This article explores the emergence of a new textual tendency in turn-of-the-millennium United States, where psychoanalytic theory, fiction writing, self-writing, and literary scholarship converge. I call the body of works established at this conjunction 'psychoanaliterature'. My analysis looks at two examples, Alison Bechdel's Are You My Mother? (2012) and Maggie Nelson's The Argonauts (2015). I argue that at the centre of these two works, paradigmatic of psychoanaliterature writ large, there lies an interrelational model of subjectivity, which draws on the psychoanalytic school of Object Relations, Freud's foundational self-analysis project, and on Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick's queer relationality, and is charged with a political valence via its push against the North American ideal of self-sufficiency.

Automated summary

This article explores the emergence of a new textual tendency in turn-of-the-millennium United States, where psychoanalytic theory, fiction writing, self-writing, and literary scholarship converge, forming what the author calls "psychoanaliterature." Illustrated by two examples, the article argues that these works contain an interrelational model of subjectivity, influenced by psychoanalytic theory, Freud's self-analysis, and Sedgwick's queer relationality, and carry political significance by challenging the North American ideal of self-sufficiency.