Dr Nicholas Ray
- Position: Associate Professor
- Areas of expertise: Psychoanalytic theory; intersections between psychoanalysis and cultural production (literature, cinema, television); human/animal relations in psychoanalytic thought; theories of anxiety; horror.
- Email: N.J.Ray@leeds.ac.uk
- Location: G9.08 House 9, Cavendish Road
- Website: Academia.edu | ORCID
Profile
I obtained my PhD from the University of Warwick in 2003. I taught at Warwick for two years before taking up a lectureship at Leeds in 2005.
Responsibilities
- School Ethics Lead
Research interests
My research is mainly focused on psychoanalytic theory and intersections between psychoanalysis and the cultural field. My first book Tragedy and Otherness (2009) examined the close historical and theoretical connections between Freud's interpretative appeal to the tragic drama of Sophocles and Shakespeare and his professed abandonment of the early theory of traumatic ‘seduction’. I have subsequently published numerous articles and shorter texts engaging psychoanalysis critically in relation to literature, cinema, and television.
Another key focus in my work on psychoanalysis has been to interrogate its conceptualisations of nonhuman animals and of the human/animal relation. My articles on this theme, which are primarily but not exclusively centred on Freud’s oeuvre, have appeared in the journals Humanimalia; The Journal for Critical Animal Studies; Animot: L’altra filosofia; and Sitegeist.
I have a longstanding interest in the work of French psychoanalyst Jean Laplanche and have written on a number of themes in his work (e.g. interpretation, temporality, masochism, animality). A new article on Laplanche’s theory of anxiety is currently in progress. With John Fletcher I co-edited Seductions and Enigmas: Laplanche, Theory, Culture (2014), a book examining the implications of Laplanche’s thought for reading and interpretation. It contains essays by both scholars and clinicians, including Laplanche, Jacques André, and Judith Butler. I am also one of the English translators of Laplanche’s final book, Freud and the Sexual (2011).
I’m currently working on a monograph, provisionally titled Psychoanalysis and the Subject of Anxiety, which traces a critical genealogy of psychoanalytic reflection on anxiety, beginning with Freud and terminating with Laplanche.
In the last few years I have developed a new interest in horror. I have increasingly made horror fiction and film a focus of my teaching (esp. my MA option ‘Reading (with) Psychoanalysis’). I have also recently published an article on television adaptations of M.R. James (‘Who is this Who is Coming?’ (2021)) and a book chapter that reads H.P. Lovecraft’s early short story ‘The Beast in the Cave’ (‘The Creature was a Man!: Freud, Psychoanalysis & Animals’ (2023)).
Publications
Books
- Fletcher, J.; Ray, N. eds. (2014). Seductions and Enigmas: Laplanche, Theory, Culture, Lawrence and Wishart.
- Ray, N., ed. (2012). Interrogating The Shield, Syracuse University Press.
- Fletcher, J; House, J; Ray, N., trans. (2011). Freud and the Sexual: Essays 2000–2006, by Jean Laplanche, International Psychoanalytic Books.
- Ray, N. (2009). Tragedy and Otherness: Sophocles, Shakespeare, Psychoanalysis, Peter Lang.
Journal articles
- Ray, N. (2021). ‘Who is this who is coming? From Neurosis to Neurodegeneration in Television Adaptations of M. R. James's “Oh, Whistle and I'll Come to You, My Lad”, Journal of Popular Television, 3.9, 355–376.
- Ray, N. (2017). 'Infiel fidelidad: Sobre «Interpretar [con] Freud» y «Exigency and Going Astray» de Laplanche', Spanish translation by Deborah Golergant. Revista: Après-coup, nùmero 3, June 2017, Epistemología del psicoanálisis.
- Ray, N. (2016). 'Veritcale / Animale: Differenza di specie, teoria freudiana e il caso dell"uomo dei lupi"', Italian translation by Alessandra Colla, Animot. L'altra filosofia, 6, Psicoanimot.
- Ray, N. (2015). 'Jean Laplanche’s Masochism', Psychoanalytic Review, 102, 5, 719–753.
- Ray, N. (2014). 'Interrogating the Human/Animal Relation in Freud's Civilization and its Discontents', Humanimalia, 6.1: 10–40.
- Ray, N. (2012). 'Seduction, Receptivity and the "Feminine" in Peter Greenaway's The Pillow Book', International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 93, 3: 517–538. (Swedish translation: 'Förförelse, mottaglighet och det "feminina"’, trans. Jim Jakobsen, Divan: Tidskrift för psykoanalys och kultur, 3/4, no. 50, 13–33. German translation by Karsten Münch, in Internationale Psychoanalyse, vol. 8, July 2013 ).
- Ray, N. (2012). 'Psychoanalysis and ‘The Animal’: A Reading of the Metapsychology of Jean Laplanche', Journal for Critical Animal Studies, 10, 1: 40–66. (Partial Spanish translation by Deborah Golergant in Alter: Revista de psicoanálisis, 7, June 2012).
- Ray, N. (2011). 'Translator's Preface' to The Laplanche Dossier, Sitegeist: A Journal of Psychoanalysis & Philosophy, 5: 7–12.
- Ray, N. (2010). 'Anthropo-Decentring: "Human" and "Animal" in the Work of Jean Laplanche', Sitegeist: A Journal of Psychoanalysis & Philosophy, 4: 21–46.
- Ray, N. (2006). 'Translator's Introduction', Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society, 2, 11: 164–70.
- Ray, N. (2003). 'Hamlet and Hamlet', Imaginaires, 9: 21–35.
Book chapters
- Fletcher, J. and Ray, N. (2024) ‘Temporalité’ in Vocabulaire de Laplanche, ed. Hélène Tessier, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 393-405.
- Ray, N. (2022) ‘”The creature was a MAN! Psychoanalysis, Freud, and Animals’, in The Bloomsbury Handbook to Psychoanalysis & Literature, ed. Jeremy Tambling, London: Bloomsbury, 409-420.
- Fletcher, J. and Ray, N. (2014). 'Seductions and Enigmas: Laplanche, Reading, Theory' in Fletcher and Ray eds. Seductions and Enigmas, Lawrence & Wishart, 14–52.
- Ray, N. (2014). 'Seduction, Receptivity and the "Feminine" in Peter Greenaway's The Pillow Book', in Fletcher and Ray eds. Seductions and Enigmas, Lawrence & Wishart, 296–325.
- Ray, N. (2013). 'Realities, Fictions and the Abandonment of Seduction: Rethinking Otherness in the Psychoanalytic Approach to Tragedy', in Psychoanalysis in Context, ed. Alvin Henry, Cambridge Scholars Press, 73–87.
- Ray, N. (2012). 'Exception and Complicity in The Shield', in Interrogating The Shield, ed. Nicholas Ray, Syracuse University Press, 166–185.
- Ray, N. (2012). 'Trees Falling', in Interrogating The Shield, ed. Nicholas Ray, Syracuse University Press, 1–10.
- Ray, N. (2007). '"Twas Mine, 'twas Helen's": Rings of Desire in All's Well that Ends Well', in New Critical Essays on All's Well that Ends Well, ed. Gary Waller, Routledge, 183–193.
Other publications
- Ray, N. (2020) Review of Massimo Fusillo, The Fetish: Literature, Cinema, Visual Art, in Comparative Critical Studies, 17, 1, 157–60.
- Ray, N. (2017). 'Psychoanalysis (2016)'. Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory, 25, 1, 296–315
- Ray, N. (2016). 'Psychoanalysis (2015)'. Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory, 24, 1, 294–316.
- Ray, N. (2015). 'Psychoanalysis (2014)', Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory, 23, 1, 373–393.
- Ray, N. trans (2015). ‘Interview with Jean Laplanche’, Psychoanalytic Review, 102, 5, 709–718.
- Ray, N. trans. (2014). 'Primal Femininity', by Jacques André, in Ray and Fletcher eds. Seductions and Enigmas, Lawrence & Wishart, 107–117.
- Ray, N. trans. (2014). 'The Little Death of Sardanapalus: Femininity and Passivity in the Primal Scene', by Jacques André, in Ray and Fletcher eds. Seductions and Enigmas, Lawrence & Wishart, 266–295.
- Ray, N. trans. (2014). 'From Mastery to Vampirism: The Ides of March', By Éric Toubiana, in Ray and Fletcher eds. Seductions and Enigmas, Lawrence & Wishart, 176–208.
- Ray, N. trans. (2013). 'On the Psychoanalysis of Babies', by Jean Laplanche, The Higher Education Research Network in Psychoanalysis (THERIP).
- Ray, N. (2012). 'Forming new knots: Jean Laplanche 1924-2012', Radical Philosophy, July/Aug, 174: 53–56. (Reprinted for The Higher Education Research and Information Network in Psychoanalysis (THERIP).(Spanish translation, 'Formando nuevos nudos', trans. Deborah Golergant, Alter: Revista de psicoanálisis, 7, June 2012).
- Fletcher, J; Ray, N. (2012). 'Jean Laplanche Bibliography', The Higher Education Research and Information Network in Psychoanalysis (THERIP)
- House, J; Ray, N., trans. (2011). The Laplanche Dossier, Sitegeist: A Journal of Psychoanalysis & Philosophy, 5: 7–53.
- Ray, N. (2008). 'Studies on Hysteria: Freud and Elektra', programme for Opera North's Elektra, Arts Council England.
- Ladmiral, V; Ray, N., trans. (2006). 'Interpreting (with) Freud', by Jean Laplanche, Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society, 2, 11: 171–84. Reprinted in Ray and Fletcher eds. Seductions and Enigmas, Lawrence & Wishart, 55–70.
- Ladmiral, V; Ray, N., trans. (2006). 'Exigency and Going Astray', by Jean Laplanche, Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society, 2, 11: 185–9. Reprinted in Ray and Fletcher eds. Seductions and Enigmas, Lawrence & Wishart, 71–76.
- Ray, N. (2002). Review of Philip Armstrong, Shakespeare in Psychoanalysis, Textual Practice, 16, 1: 115–23.
- Ray, N. (various dates: 2008–2012). 'Incorporation', 'General Theory of Seduction', 'Jean Laplanche', 'Trauer und Melancholie', in The Literary Enyclopedia, ed. Robert Clark et al.
Qualifications
- PhD English Literature
- MA English (Critical Theory)
- BA English and American Literature
Student education
Research groups and institutes
- Critical Life Research Group