A Lacanian Reading Of The Ancestor Game In The Mirror

The thesis analyses The Ancestor Game by Alex Miller from the perspective of Jacques Lacan’s Mirror Theory in an attempt to pin down the somehow intertwined but isolated relation between "ego" and "subject" of three protagonists.Lacan’s Mirror Theory has long been applied in literature interpreting since it serves to inform readers what were hidden purposefully by the author in the first place.The novel centers around the sense of loss in identity and impaired adulthood due to certain trauma in childhood,providing a panoramic view of how an array of characters lose themselves in the false mirror,image and how they partly regain the identity later in their life..The thesis aims to analyze the life trajectories of three characters.Lang Tzu.Steven and Spiess in particular and intends to locate the "ego" of the protagonists,which are oftentimes mistaken for "subject".By expounding the characters ’dilemma with an equal force,the thesis expects to better restore the writer’s intention,illustrating how volatile and vulnerable "ego"can be when transitioning from the Imaginary order to the Symbolic order.Also,main characters’ exile is closely related to their encounter in early life and it is the fusion and confusion of language that result in wanderers.The alienation,on the other hand,derives from the abyss between "subject" and "ideal ego." To establish an independent "ego",one is destined to commit patricide in a figurative sense,which is closely related to the image of mirror.Lacan’s Mirror Theory,comprising Mirror Stage and Three orders,serves to explain the origin of three main characters’ labyrinthine and false mirror images that prevent their"subject" from reaching "ego".