Midlife Transformation in Literature and Film

In this book Steven F. Walker considers the midlife transition from a Jungian and Eriksonian perspective by providing vivid and powerful literary and cinematic examples that illustrate the psychological theories in a clear and entertaining way.

Steven F. Walker is Professor of Comparative Literature at Rutgers University. He received his Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Harvard University and has published a number of essays using Jungian perspectives in order to interpret literature and film. His publications include Jung and the Jungians on Myth (Routledge, 2002).

Introduction. Jung, Erikson, Midlife Transformation and the Oneiric Text. The Shadow and the Contrasexual Side at Midlife. Oedipus, Mentors and Male Midlife Transformation. Ariadne, Abandonment and Female Midlife Initiation. Homer's Odyssey and Midlife Transformation. Tragedy, Inflation and Midlife Transformation. Modernist Midlife Initiations: Marcel in Proust's Time Regained and Clarissa in Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway. Some Classical Hindu Perspectives on Midlife.