This study attempts to interpret Virginia Woolf¡¦s works by appropriating Jacques Lacan¡¦s theoretical concepts, especially the concept of ¡§psychic structure.¡¨ I argue that Virginia Woolf¡¦s psychic structure belongs to the category of hysteria and her psychic structure is revealed in both the form and content of her writing: her writing exemplifies ¡§the hysteric¡¦s discourse,¡¨ one of the four discourses conceptualized by Lacan. I want to further argue that, in her works, the hysterical Woolf can transform herself into the analyst, transforming the hysteric¡¦s discourse into the analyst¡¦s discourse.
The thesis is structured in four parts. In the introduction, I will introduce the author Virginia Woolf, Jacques Lacan, review relevant criticisms, construct the theoretical framework, and present the thesis structure as well as my arguments. In the first chapter I examine Woolf¡¦s essay A Room of One¡¦s Own, arguing that, in this text, Woolf hysterically questions women¡¦s lacks in the phallic symbolic order and experiments with her writing to subvert the hierarchal patriarchal society that oppresses women. Woolf, moreover, turns herself from being a hysteric into an analyst, adopting the analyst¡¦s discourse to guide women to explore their desire repressed by the patriarchal society. In the second chapter I examine Woolf¡¦s novel To the Lighthouse, arguing that when writing the novel, Woolf unconsciously betrays her desire to withdraw from the Symbolic and regress into the maternal Imaginary order. Although, on the one hand, Woolf attempts to re-evoke the lost Imaginary mother-child dyad¡¦s unity, on the other hand she unconsciously acknowledges that she cannot paper over the lack and void of being, and this recognition greatly traumatizes Woolf. To understand the fundamental cause of her trauma, Woolf splits herself into both a hysterical analysand and an analyst, adopting the analyst¡¦s discourse to question and explore her repressed desire for the maternal Imaginary order.
In the concluding chapter I restate the thesis statement and summarize the analyses of the two previous chapters.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NSYSU/oai:NSYSU:etd-0703112-115444 |
| Date | 03 July 2012 |
| Creators | Hsiang, Kuang-yu |
| Contributors | Jade Tsui-yu Lee, Yuan-jung Cheng, Fu-jen Chen |
| Publisher | NSYSU |
| Source Sets | NSYSU Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Archive |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lib.nsysu.edu.tw/ETD-db/ETD-search/view_etd?URN=etd-0703112-115444 |
| Rights | unrestricted, Copyright information available at source archive |
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