War lust and literature: Between polemonological and psychoanalytic criticism

Beginning with Freud, psychoanalysis and literature have maintained a close, albeit at times confusing, relationship. The preceding century witnessed unspeakable horrors, both in the intensity and magnitude of armed conflicts, likewise producing numerous works of war literature based on experiences in combat and the trauma suffered. Psychoanalysis responded, in turn, to the exigencies of moving beyond the consulting room in order to address mass psychosis and the dangerous corollaries of warmongering, particularly in the postwar era of nuclear rapprochement. War has a fundamentally psychological dimension, and literary criticism must take into consideration the psychic factors which actuate the push toward war within the individual and society. Imprinted with memory, war literature thus emerges as a primary resource for exposing the motivations and visualizations of strategists, politicians, soldiers, and civilians who have rallied round and responded to the call to battle. The following essay examines the phenomenon of war lust in literature through a psychoanalytic lens, tracing the significant theoretical contributions of Freud, Fornari, Fromm, Hillman, and Jacoby, thereby offering a hermeneutics of the destructive attitudes that constitute casus belli.