http://blogs.qc.cuny.edu/blogs/dreams/ahussain/ en Copyright 2007 Mon, 23 Apr 2007 19:51:49 +0000 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Anais Nin's A Spy in the House of Love is a novel which employs surrealism, which is defined as "a modern movement in art and literature in which an attempt is made to portray, or interpret the workings of the unconscious mind as manifested in dreams...[usually] characterized by an irrational, fantastic arrangement of material" (Neufeldt 1348). The novel succeeds in doing so by presenting the dream-like/unconscious realm of Sabina, Nin's main female character in the novel. The novel particularly focuses on a shift in identity from the conscious to the unconscious realms of Sabina. In particular, when Sabina is with Alan, her husband, it is as if she is in the conscious realm, but when she is with her many lovers, she has more freedom and autonomy as seen in her unconscious state. Although in Sabina's unconscious state, she is portrayed as passive, her repressed identity is displayed as she has freedoms that men had during the time period in which the novel was written; the early 1960s. Freud, in his The Interpretations of Dreams, would diagnose Sabina as having unconscious sexual desires and repressed wishes. This paper discusses how this is true as seen in A Spy in the House of Love. ]]> http://blogs.qc.cuny.edu/blogs/dreams/ahussain/2007/04/post.html http://blogs.qc.cuny.edu/blogs/dreams/ahussain/2007/04/post.html Mon, 23 Apr 2007 19:51:49 +0000 Sabina has two lives/ two selves which are drawn from her conscious and unconscious states. It is as if her life with Alan is in the conscious world, and her life with Philip along with her many lovers is in a dream-like state. This is displayed when she feels a "piercing joy of her liberation: she was free, free as man was to enjoy without love" when she is with Philip (Nin 49). However, when Sabina is with Alan, she is obedient and longs to make him happy. In addition, when Sabina is with her lovers, she experiences a feeling of "fever" most associated with passion or sex, which is described as being like "moments in a dream" (63). So it can be said that when Sabina is with her lovers, it is as if she is in the dream world of her unconscious state, and in this state, she feels a sense of liberation and freedom to explore her world. On several occassions, the novel mentions that Alan treats Sabina as his daughter, since he is so loving towards her, but he also wants to shelter her from the world. This can also be seen as he becomes somewhat upset whenever she leaves to go on her trips to act in plays. Overall, he wants her to be domesticated. However, he does not know that Sabina actually goes to meet her lovers when she goes on her trips to "act". Indeed, she does play a role when she is with these men; that is the role of a free woman who is without constraint. With Alan, Sabina conforms to the society of her time, since women were expected to be submissive. However, in her unconscious state, she cannot take this sumissiveness anymore, and so she allows her body to explore her unconscious desires as well as her sexuality.]]> http://blogs.qc.cuny.edu/blogs/dreams/ahussain/2007/04/post_1.html http://blogs.qc.cuny.edu/blogs/dreams/ahussain/2007/04/post_1.html Mon, 23 Apr 2007 19:44:37 +0000 Donald, an effeminate young man in the novel tells Sabina "Acting in you is revelation...[which is] what the soul so often cannot say through the body because the body is not subtle enough..." (Nin 103). Here, Donald equates Sabina's acting to dreaming which reveals her true identity. As an actress, Sabina has had quite a few lovers. Each time she is with these men, she becomes as "free" as a man. Since Donald suggests that acting in Sabina is "revelation", he implies that when she is with her husband, she is not her true self. Rather, she is herself in her unconscious state, where her repressed wishes are revealed. As we can see, through the medium of acting, Sabina's unconscious wishes are fulfilled. This correlates to Freudian thoughts on repression since repression involves hiding certain feelings. As mentioned before, it is as if in Sabina's conscious state with her husband, she is trying to hide how she really feels, but when she is with her lovers, she is free to be her true self; that is autonomous. In Sabina's dream world, her repressed desires from the conscious world with her husband are evident. Further, in Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams, he analyzes the dreams of this patients. He discusses the term "wish-fulfillment", which is a way for the unconscious mind to fulfill in a dream or an unconscious state what the conscious waking life has not been able to do. This connects to both repression and sexual repression. Here, Freud suggests that repression is the unconscious' way of hiding impulses, feelings, memories, and thoughts which are disagreeable to society's standards. It is evident that Sabina's unconscious state is most likely controlled by her "Id" sinces she tries to repress this part of her in her conscious state and also because this is thee part of her that wants sexual gratification, and uses little to no morality or rational for the basis of her actions. Her conscious state is definitely ruled by her "Ego", since as mentioned before, she represses her free and sexual self, becoming wholly submissive to society, when she is with her husband. ]]> http://blogs.qc.cuny.edu/blogs/dreams/ahussain/2007/04/freudian_themes.html http://blogs.qc.cuny.edu/blogs/dreams/ahussain/2007/04/freudian_themes.html Mon, 23 Apr 2007 19:42:49 +0000 In essence, Anais Nin's A Spy in the House of Love explores the mind of Sabina, who is submissive when she is in the conscious realm, and autonomous in the unconscious one. Freud's work serves as a critical vocabulary which aids in the analysis of Nin's work. The role of women in much of Nin's work is in many ways a portrayal of women in the late 1950s to early 1960s. Women during this time period were supposed to be 'good' housewives and be 'submissive'. On the contrary, women have come quite far from this notion in 2007, as they are sometimes thought of as 'aggressive' and 'independent'. ]]> http://blogs.qc.cuny.edu/blogs/dreams/ahussain/2007/04/conclusion.html http://blogs.qc.cuny.edu/blogs/dreams/ahussain/2007/04/conclusion.html Mon, 23 Apr 2007 19:38:42 +0000 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Spy_in_the_House_of_Love_ http://www.amazon.com/Spy-House-Love-Anais-Nin/dp/0671871390 http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ana%C3%AFs_Nin http://www.iep.utm.edu/f/freud.htm]]> http://blogs.qc.cuny.edu/blogs/dreams/ahussain/2007/04/links.html http://blogs.qc.cuny.edu/blogs/dreams/ahussain/2007/04/links.html Mon, 23 Apr 2007 19:35:42 +0000 Freud, Sigmund. The Interpretation of Dreams. New York: Oxford University Press Inc.,1999. Nin, Anaïs. A Spy in the House of Love. Denver: The Swallow Press, Inc., 1959. Spencer, Sharon. Collage of Dreams. Chicago: The Swallow Press, Inc., 1977. Tookey, Helen. Anaïs Nin, Fictionality and Femininity: Playing a Thousand Roles. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 2003. ]]> http://blogs.qc.cuny.edu/blogs/dreams/ahussain/2007/04/suggested_readings.html http://blogs.qc.cuny.edu/blogs/dreams/ahussain/2007/04/suggested_readings.html Mon, 23 Apr 2007 19:30:02 +0000 Aneesa Hussain is currently a graduating senior from Queens College. She is an English major and Women's Studies minor. She plans on attending graduate school sometime in the near future. Some of her interests include reading and writing, and some of her main research interests are in feminist, minority, and world literatures. ]]> http://blogs.qc.cuny.edu/blogs/dreams/ahussain/2007/04/my_name_is_aneesa_hussain.html http://blogs.qc.cuny.edu/blogs/dreams/ahussain/2007/04/my_name_is_aneesa_hussain.html Mon, 23 Apr 2007 19:28:02 +0000