라캉의 욕망이론으로 읽는 케이트 쇼팽의 『각성』

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze Kate Chopin’s The Awakening from the perspective of Jacques Lacan’s theory of desire. In The Awakening, the main character Edna Pontellier's attempt to pursue individual autonomy against the patriarchal ideology of the 19th century reveals the aspect of the Lacanian subject of desire to explore the origin of the being beyond the position of the subject defined by the patriarchal symbolic order. The trigger that sparked Edna's desire for the freedom of the being was a brief love affair with a young man she met at the resort, but her desire is ultimately directed to finding her own position in the universe as an autonomous individual not belonging to anyone. According to Lacan, the subject in the symbolic order is an empty one with a lack or void inside it as ‘objet a’ considered the real subject. This ‘objet a’ acts as the object-cause of desire that causes the subject to continuously desire something through the metonymic chain of desires projected onto objects in the real world. In the process of exploring her own position in the universe, Edna tries to go beyond the laws and prohibitions of the symbolic order as a subject of desire, experiencing ‘Death drive’ accompanied by Jouissance, which inevitably leads to her destruction and actual death. The essential thing Edna feels she can never give up until the very last moment is her desire to approach her own being. In this sense, Edna, who seeks to pursue her own desires to the end against all social punishments and prohibitions, can be said to be an example of the Lacanian ‘ethical subject’ who tries to go where the subject used to be.