Trials In Three Orders-an Erikson-Lacanian Development Of Identity In When We Were Orphans

Since its publication, identity problems drawn from When We Were Orphanswritten by Kazuo Ishiguro have been discussed to a crescendo. Existing studies athome are mainly relying on background at that time so as to shed much light on theidentity of the character from post-colonial perspectives.Works of Ishiguro putparticular emphasis on individual common attributes, hence this thesis attempts todevelop subjective identity of the protagonist individually and culturally. In the lightof the Lacanian Three Orders theory, the establishment of identity can be consideredsomething which parallels with the development of the unconscious subject throughtracing the protagonist’s progressing course of identity statuses.In the first chapter, by combining the Lacanian subject theory and Erikson’sidentity statuses, Protagonist Banks’s dual identity crises can be elaborated on withthe misrepresentations of his unconscious subject in the Lacanian Imaginary order.Chapter two deals with the subject’s identity moratorium in the Symbolic order.Influenced by others in the Symbolic, the subject goes through a gradual explorationindividually and culturally which signifies the Symbolic, an outer materialization ofidolum in the Imaginary order, serves as a platform for the subject’s moratorium ofboth individual ego-identity and cultural group-identity. Chapter three depicts the subject’stranscending beyond the Real order so as to obtain identity achievement. Being considered asan impediment in the pursuit of identity achievement, the Real order has beentranscended instead of blindly being rested upon by the protagonist Banks forachieving his individual ego-identity and cultural group-identity.I hold the view that to strike a balance between Lacanian three orders andErikson’s identity statuses in analyzing the protagonist’s subject is bound to work outsome universal laws about development of the subject. Their combination has createda “Third Space” that leads a positive way for the unconscious subject.