Email this article 
Hide
Show all
Lacanian Psychoanalytical Theories in Marsha Norman’s ‘Night, Mother
Abstract
Marsha Norman’s ‘Night, Mother (1983), is a great American play with psychological basis and it is considered as a feminist play. The present paper investigates it in the light of Jacques Lacan’s psychoanalytical theories which serve as a methodology in psychoanalytic criticism. Lacan knows the human psyche formed by the three interacting ‘orders’ of the Imaginary, Symbolic, and Real. He argues that the roles of ‘father’, ‘mother’, ‘Object petit a’, ‘Jouissance’, ‘the Name-of-the-Father’, ‘Big Other’ and ‘others’ are also significant in affecting one’s psyche. The characters of ‘Night, Mother are Lacanian ‘subjects’ whose lives have been embodiments of Lacan’s psychoanalytical theories, especially Jessie whose disorders, behaviors, reactions to the ‘others’, frustration, committing suicide, and death indicate that many familial, social and mental issues have affected her psyche, and they are crystalized by psychoanalytical theories of Lacan in this paper.
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Browder, S. (1989). “‘I Thought You Were Mine’: Marsha Norman’s ‘Night, Mother”. Mother Puzzles: Daughters and Mothers in Contemporary American Literature. Ed. Mickey Pearlman. New York: Greenwood Press.
Brustein, R. (1996). “Don’t Read This Review! ‘Night, Mother by Marsha Norman”. Marsha Norman: A Casebook. Ed. Linda Ginter Brown. New York and London: Garland Publishing Inc.
Drew, A. M. (1996). “And the Time for it Was Gone Jessie’s Triumph in ‘Night, Mother”. Marsha Norman: A Casebook. Ed. Linda Ginter Brown. New York and London: Garland Publishing Inc.
Eagleton, T. (1996). Literary Theory an Introduction. 2nd ed. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
Evans, D. (2006). An Introductory Dictionary of Lacanian Psychoanalysis. London and New York: Routledge.
Fink, B. (1995). The Lacanian Subject: Between Language and Jouissance. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Ginter Brown, L. (1996). “A Place at the Table”. Marsha Norman: A Casebook. Ed. Linda Ginter Brown. New York and London: Garland Publishing Inc.
Grantley, D. (1995). “Marsha Norman”. American Drama. Ed. Clive Bloom. Houndmills: The Editorial Board, Lumiere (Co-operative) Press.
Hart, L. (1987). “Doing Time: Hunger for Power in Marsha Norman’s Plays.” Southern Quarterly 25: 67-79.
Homer, S. (2005). Routledge Critical Thinkers: Essential Guides for Literary Studies: Jacques Lacan. London: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.
Kundert-Gibbs, J. (1996). “Revolving It All: Mother-Daughter Pairs in Marsha Norman’s ‘Night, Mother and Samuel Beckett’s Footfalls”. Marsha Norman: A Casebook. Ed. Linda Ginter Brown. New York and London: Garland Publishing Inc.
Lacan, J. M. E. (1977). Écrits: A selection. Trans. Alan Sheridan. London: Tavistock Publications Limited.
---. (1994). Le Séminaire, Livre IV: La Relation d’object. (1956-57). Ed. Jacques-Alain Miller. Paris: Seuil.
---. (1960-61). The Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book VIII: Transference. Trans. Cormac Gallaghe. New York: Seuil.
---. (1969-70). The Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book XVII: Psychoanalysis upside down/The reverse side of psychoanalysis . Trans. Cormac Gallagher (1998). New York: Seuil.
Miller, J. (1986). Toward a new psychology of women. 2nd ed. Boston: Beacon Press.
Morrow, L. (1988). “Orality and Identity in ‘night, Mother and Crimes of the Heart.” Studies in American Drama, 1945-Present 3: 23-39.
Norman, M. (1983). ‘Night, Mother. New York: Hill and Wang.
Porter, L. (1989). “Women Re-Conceived: Changing Perceptions of Women in Contemporary American Drama.” Proceedings: Conference of College Teachers of English of Texas. Lubbock: U of Texas P.
Reuning, S. (2002 ). “Depression—The Undiagnosed Disability in Marsha Norman’s ‘Night, Mother”. Peering Behind the Curtain: Disability, Illness, and the Extraordinary Body. Ed. Kimball King, and Tom Fahy. London: Routledge.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.4n.3p.138
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
2012-2023 (CC-BY) Australian International Academic Centre PTY.LTD.
International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature
To make sure that you can receive messages from us, please add the journal emails into your e-mail 'safe list'. If you do not receive e-mail in your 'inbox', check your 'bulk mail' or 'junk mail' folders.