A Study Of The Construction Of Subjectivity In Wise Children From Lacanian Theory Of Subject

Angela Carter(1940-1992)is one of the most ingenious writers in contemporary English literature.Her works had attracted many readers and critics from the worldwide for the uniqueness.Wise Children is the story of a pair of dancing twins,the Chance sisters,Dora and Nora Chance.Dora narrates the story of Chance sisters and the Hazard family in the way of memoirs.As the illegitimate children of the Hazard family,Chance sisters spend all their lives to construct their subjectivity and pursue their various identities.At the end of the story,Chance sisters finally can identify with their father publicly.This thesis’ s analysis is based on Angela Carter’s Wise Children and important theories of Lacanian psychoanalysis.This thesis intends to analyze Chance sisters’ subjective construction from the perspective of Lacanian theories of subject.The thesis uses Lacanian theories of three orders: the Imaginary,the Symbolic and the Real as the frame to construct the main body.Different contents and features of these three orders are adopted to analyze the different characteristics of Chance sisters’ subjective construction during their different stages of life.In the Imaginary order,Chance sisters build their ideal ego during their childhood and adolescence through their primary identification with the specular images.But according to the Lacanian theories of the mirror stage and the Imaginary order,their alleged subjectivity at this stage are only the illusions of themselves.Their identities as daughters and showgirls are both the results of identification with the others.In the Symbolic order,Chance sisters enter into the world of the Other where society and culture dominate their subjective construction.The world of the Other has its own rules and cannot be changed by the individual.To enter the Symbolic order successfully,Chance sisters have to identify with the Other.This secondary identification leads to the alienation of the subject.At last,this thesis analyzes the impossibility of Chance sisters’ subjective construction from the perspectives of Real order and the notion of desire.The concept of desire is the core idea of Lacanian psychoanalysis theories.The Real order is traumatic in nature so there will always be the lack.The final truth of subjective construction is the lack will always exist.Human desire cannot be satisfied because the left-overs of the desire will always operate and lead the subject into the working of another desire ceaselessly.So Chance sisters’ desire can never be satisfied and their subjective construction is impossible to realize.Firstly,this thesis aims to disclose the fantasy of subjective construction of human beings.Secondly,the author hopes this thesis can provide some points of view toward the analysis of Angela Carter and Wise Children.