The Shattering Symmetries between the Imaginary and the Symbolic in Carter’s The Magic Toyshop

Nurten BİRLİK

Makale detayları

The Shattering Symmetries between the Imaginary and the Symbolic in Carter’s The Magic Toyshop

Yazarlar:

Nurten BİRLİK

Yayıncı:

Istanbul University

Ana Başlıklar:

Edebiyat

Dergi:

Litera: Journal of Language, Literature and Culture Studies 2021 Vol.31 Issue 1, pp.1-17

Belge Tipi:

Makale

Yayın Tarihi:

6/2021

Belge Dili:

İngilizce

Document ID (Org No.):

2000516200

Sıklık:

Aylık

eISSN:

2602-2117

Özet:

 

The Magic Toyshop tells the story of three siblings (Melanie, Jonathan and Victoria) and  what  they  go  through  in  Uncle  Philip’s  house,  where  they  find  themselves  in  a  totally  different  psychic  space  which  is  characterised  by  the  resonances  of  the  imaginary  and  in  which  images  function  differently.  Among  these  images,  animal  imagery is central to Melanie’s depiction of both the inhabitants of the house and the house itself. Through its emphasis on the images, along with the hard facts of life, the novel gives expression to the psychodynamics and the evolution (or lack of it) of the characters, and offers a context which attracts attention to the difference between  the  symbolic  and  the  imaginary;  also  between  the  symbolic  and  the  social,  in  Lacanian  terms.  Due  to  their  foregrounded  awareness  of  the  imaginary  dimension  of  material  reality  and  Melanie’s  role  in  transposing  Finn  to  a  union  in  which  the  symbolic  codes  prevail,  the  ending  of  the  novel  implies  that  rather  than  the  traditional  hierarchy  of  the  patriarchal  discourse,  there  will  be  another  kind of relationship between Finn and Melanie. This essay aims to bring up a new hermeneutical frame about the novel through the discussion of the significance of their move from the symbolic to the imaginary, how they relate to material reality through  images  in  Philip’s  house,  and  how  Melanie  (with  Finn)  moves  back  to  the  symbolic,  against  the  background  of  Lacanian  ideas  about  the  three  registers,  the  logic of the signifiers, the imaginary father and ‘object little a’.

Makale detayları

The Shattering Symmetries between the Imaginary and the Symbolic in Carter’s The Magic Toyshop

Yazarlar: Nurten BİRLİK

Yayıncı: Istanbul University

Ana Başlıklar: Edebiyat

Dergi: Litera: Journal of Language, Literature and Culture Studies 2021 Vol.31 Issue 1, pp.1-17

Belge Tipi: Makale

Yayın Tarihi: 6/2021

Belge Dili: İngilizce

Document ID (Org No.): 2000516200

Sıklık: Aylık

eISSN: 2602-2117

Sayı

Yazarlar:

Nurten BİRLİK

Yayıncı:

Istanbul University

Ana Başlıklar:

Edebiyat

Dergi:

Litera: Journal of Language, Literature and Culture Studies 2021 Vol.31 Issue 1, pp.1-17

Belge Tipi:

Makale

Yayın Tarihi:

6/2021

Belge Dili:

İngilizce

Document ID (Org No.):

2000516200

Sıklık:

Aylık

eISSN:

2602-2117