5.2 Lacanian Psychoanalysis and Language

Lacanian psychoanalysis builds on Freud's work, focusing on language's role in shaping our unconscious. It introduces three orders: symbolic (language and social structures), imaginary (self-perception), and real (beyond representation).

For literary analysis, Lacan's ideas help explore how language shapes characters and narratives. By examining signifiers, desire, and the interplay of the three orders, we can uncover deeper meanings in texts and understand how language influences our reality.

Lacanian Psychoanalysis: Key Concepts and Orders

Key concepts of Lacanian psychoanalysis

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• The symbolic order
  • Encompasses language, signifiers, and social structures that govern the subject's entry into society
  • Shapes the unconscious and the subject's desire through linguistic and cultural norms (laws, customs)
  • Introduces the concept of the Other, the locus of language and the law that the subject must submit to
• The imaginary order
  • Involves images, identifications, and ego formation that contribute to the subject's sense of self
  • Characterized by the mirror stage, where the infant identifies with their image and develops a sense of unity (6-18 months)
  • Generates illusions and misrecognitions that shape the subject's perception of reality and relationships (idealizations, rivalries)
• The real order
  • Exists beyond language and representation, resisting symbolization and remaining inaccessible to the subject
  • Encompasses traumatic encounters and unsymbolizable experiences that disrupt the symbolic and imaginary orders (birth, death)
  • Manifests as gaps, inconsistencies, and ruptures in the subject's reality, revealing the limits of language and meaning

Language, Signifiers, and Literary Analysis

Language and signifiers in Lacanian theory

• Language structures the unconscious, with unconscious desires and conflicts expressed through linguistic mechanisms (metaphor, metonymy)
• The signifier represents the acoustic or written image of a word, while the signified represents the concept or meaning associated with the signifier
• The relationship between signifier and signified is arbitrary and unstable, leading to the sliding of meaning under the signifier (puns, double entendres)
• The subject's desire is caught in the endless chain of signifiers, perpetually seeking to fill the lack introduced by language (objet petit a)
• Implications for literary analysis involve examining texts as networks of signifiers and exploring the unconscious of the text through linguistic analysis (repetitions, omissions)

Application of Lacanian concepts to literature

1. Identify the symbolic, imaginary, and real dimensions in the text
   • Examine how language and social structures shape characters and narrative (names, titles, social roles)
   • Analyze the role of images, identifications, and misrecognitions in character development (mirrors, doubles, ideals)
   • Explore moments of traumatic encounter or disruption that reveal the real (violence, loss, impossibilities)
2. Investigate the play of signifiers and the sliding of meaning
   • Trace the chain of signifiers and their associations throughout the text (keywords, motifs)
   • Consider how the instability of language contributes to the text's ambiguity and openness to interpretation (irony, paradox)
3. Examine the subject's desire and its relation to the Other
   • Analyze how characters' desires are shaped by their relation to the symbolic order (authority figures, social expectations)
   • Explore the role of the Other in the subject's constitution and actions (language, law, unconscious)

Freudian vs Lacanian literary criticism

• Similarities
  • Both emphasize the role of the unconscious in shaping human behavior and artistic creation
  • Both explore the relationship between the individual and society through psychoanalytic concepts
  • Both use psychoanalytic theories to interpret literary texts and uncover hidden meanings
• Differences
  • Freudian approach
    • Focuses on the individual psyche and its development through stages (oral, anal, phallic)
    • Emphasizes the role of repressed desires, childhood experiences, and the Oedipus complex in shaping behavior (id, ego, superego)
    • Interprets literary texts as expressions of the author's unconscious conflicts and desires (wish fulfillment, symbolism)
  • Lacanian approach
    • Focuses on the role of language and the symbolic order in shaping the subject and their desire
    • Emphasizes the subject's entry into language, the sliding of the signified, and the impossibility of fulfilling desire (lack, jouissance)
    • Analyzes literary texts as structured by linguistic mechanisms and the interplay of signifiers (metaphor, metonymy)
    • Places greater emphasis on the structure of language and its effects on the subject and the text (the Other, the unconscious)