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Fragmentation of the self : Lacanian perspectives on Jean Rhys's longer fiction

Jean Rhys's primary concern in her fiction is the fragmentation of the self. Her Caribbean/postcolonial experience, her gender positioning and her encounter with modernism contribute to her experience of fragmentation. Lacanian theory provides a plausible framework to understand the idea of fragmentation in Rhys's fiction. Through the use of the mirror image across her longer fiction, Rhys presents her heroines' fragmented subjectivity. She further elaborates it through her heroines' engagement with language and its impact on their subject position. Rhys's engagement with the mirror image and the role of language in creating an individual's subject position aligns with the Lacanian theory of subject formation. In Rhys's vision death is the only possible resolution of the fundamental fragmentation of the self.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:606480
Date January 2014
CreatorsAwan, Zulfqar Hyder
PublisherUniversity of Aberdeen
Source SetsEthos UK
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation
Sourcehttp://digitool.abdn.ac.uk:80/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=211202

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