A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Group

Topic: Lacanian Analysis of "A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man"?

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spn2008

Can "A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man" be given a Lacanian psychoanlytical interpretation?

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In order to answer this question, we first need to explain what a Lacanian psychoanalytical interpretation is. Jacques Lacan was a French psychoanalyst who followed concepts set out by Freud. Lacan's methods were interdisciplinary, including linguistics, mathematics, and philosophy.

Lacan devised what he called the three psychoanalytic orders: the real, the symbolic, and the imaginary. According to the University of Chicago's online text "Theories of Media" (cited below):

In the Lacanian arena, the symbolic-real-imaginary forms a trio of intrapsychic realms which comprise the various levels of psychic phenomena. They serve to situate subjectivity within a system of perception and a dialogue with the external world.

So if you consider Joyce's text to be his exploration of what is real, what is symbolic, and what is imaginary in language and writing, then, yes, you can apply a Lacanian interpretation to it. For instance, Stephen is constantly aware of words as not simply a means of communication but as things. When he thinks back to his first communion, he contemplates the word "wine."

The word was beautiful: wine. It made you think of dark purple because the grapes were dark purple that grew in Greece outside houses like white temples.

The real is the wine. The imaginary is the image of the grapes growing in Greece. The symbolic? I'll let you decide that one.

 

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