Daniel Defoe

ISBN-13: 9783848480494 / Angielski / Miękka / 2012 / 188 str.

Leyli Jamali

Opis

The reevaluation of canonical texts by applying poststructural theories has made the rewriting of any period possible through rewriting the subjectivity of its authors. As emblems of conflicting discourses of conscious and unconscious drives, literary texts can reveal the decentred nature of writing subjects selfhood. Using Lacanian and Kristevan insights on subjectivity construction this book analyzes Daniel Defoes novels to rewrites the subjectivity of an 18th c. spokesman of patriarchal ideologies as a degendered androgyn. Focusing on the inconsistency in Defoes voice in his novels the book traces his reversed psychological journey from masculinity in the Lacanian Symbolic, featured in his early novels, towards the realm of feminine in the Lacanian Imaginary and Kristevan Semiotic in his later pieces and eventually to the androgynous state of the Real in his last work. Defoes entire novelistic output is grouped chronologically into three categories to correspond Lacans tripartite model to present a unified picture of Defoes gradual quest towards the deconstruction of subjectification and his deterioration of gender boundaries by rewriting his Self while writing his texts.

O autorze

Leyli Jamali is an Assistant Professor of English Literature at the Department of English Literature and Translation Studies, Tabriz Branch Islamic Azad University Tabriz, Iran since 1995.She completed her PhD at Ankara University Turkey in 2006.She gives courses on literature, directs and conducts research projects and publishes in various fields.