Desire as Slip-up in the Short Story "Peaches" by John McGahern
Lacan sees desire as constituting the fundamental dialectics and formation of the unconscious. This idea is developed in a reading of John McGahern's'Peaches'. This short-story explores desire as slip-up in all the ambiguous meaning of this expression. Firstly, it is in terms of the s...
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| הוצא לאור ב: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/jsse, |
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| מחבר ראשי: | |
| פורמט: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| שפה: | Anglais |
| יצא לאור: |
Journal of the Short Story in English
2008
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| גישה מקוונת: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
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openedition-oai:revues.org:jsse_261 |
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openedition |
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openedition-oai:revues.org:jsse_261 en https://journals.openedition.org/jsse/261 2008-07-24T17:27:48Z info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess article info:eu-repo/semantics/article urn:handle:20.500.13089/hb0r https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Desire as Slip-up in the Short Story "Peaches" by John McGahern Journal of the Short Story in English Presses universitaires de Rennes info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/1969-6108 info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/0294-0442 URI:https://journals.openedition.org/jsse Sohier, Jacques Lacan sees desire as constituting the fundamental dialectics and formation of the unconscious. This idea is developed in a reading of John McGahern's'Peaches'. This short-story explores desire as slip-up in all the ambiguous meaning of this expression. Firstly, it is in terms of the self and the other that the dimension of desire is analysed. The relationship between the man and the woman is presented as not simply scenes from conjugal life but as showing the man's false serenity behind which lurks an anxiety of death. Then, aphanisis or the disappearance of the man's desire is shown and reinterpreted in terms of Lacan's conception of aphanisis as the fading of the subject. This aphanisis is then seen in relation with castration. As contradictions are at work in the characters' speeches, the political aspect of the story is taken into account to show desire as being skewed differently in each character as desire seeks different routes to recognition and freedom. Lastly, Deleuze and Guattari's iconoclastic view of desire is constrated with that of Lacan to explain further John McGahern's complex structuring of desire. Lacan décrit le désir comme constitutif du sujet et dialectique fondamentale à l'oeuvre dans l'inconscient. Cette conception guide l'analyse de la nouvelle 'Peaches' de John McGahern. La nouvelle problématise le désir comme bavure dans toute l'ambiguïté de cette expression. Dans un premier temps, la relation entre le moi et l'autre est commentée pour montrer que la relation entre l'homme et la femme ne constitue pas uniquement des scènes de la vie conjugale, mais trahit l'inauthentique sérénité de l'homme qui dissimule une angoisse de la mort. Ensuite, le concept d'aphanisis est utilisé selon la conception lacanienne qui fait de l'aphanisis une disparition du sujet reliée à la castration. La contradiction qui marque le discours des personnages nous conduit à aborder l'aspect politique de la nouvelle. Le désir fait subir une torsion à l'être et révèle un désir qui emprunte des chemins différents selon les personnages pour atteindre la reconnaissance et la liberté. Enfin, la conception iconoclaste de Deleuze et Guattari est confrontée à la conception lacanienne du désir pour élaborer davantage encore la "dansité" (Lacan) de l'écriture du désir de McGahern. |
| collection |
OpenEdition Journal |
| language |
Anglais |
| format |
Article ou chapitre numérique |
| building |
0/Bibliothèque numérique/ 1/Bibliothèque numérique/OpenEdition Journals/ |
| description |
Lacan sees desire as constituting the fundamental dialectics and formation of the unconscious. This idea is developed in a reading of John McGahern's'Peaches'. This short-story explores desire as slip-up in all the ambiguous meaning of this expression. Firstly, it is in terms of the self and the other that the dimension of desire is analysed. The relationship between the man and the woman is presented as not simply scenes from conjugal life but as showing the man's false serenity behind which lurks an anxiety of death. Then, aphanisis or the disappearance of the man's desire is shown and reinterpreted in terms of Lacan's conception of aphanisis as the fading of the subject. This aphanisis is then seen in relation with castration. As contradictions are at work in the characters' speeches, the political aspect of the story is taken into account to show desire as being skewed differently in each character as desire seeks different routes to recognition and freedom. Lastly, Deleuze and Guattari's iconoclastic view of desire is constrated with that of Lacan to explain further John McGahern's complex structuring of desire. |
| author |
Sohier, Jacques |
| spellingShingle |
Sohier, Jacques Desire as Slip-up in the Short Story "Peaches" by John McGahern |
| author_facet |
Sohier, Jacques |
| author_sort |
Sohier, Jacques |
| title |
Desire as Slip-up in the Short Story "Peaches" by John McGahern |
| title_short |
Desire as Slip-up in the Short Story "Peaches" by John McGahern |
| title_full |
Desire as Slip-up in the Short Story "Peaches" by John McGahern |
| title_fullStr |
Desire as Slip-up in the Short Story "Peaches" by John McGahern |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Desire as Slip-up in the Short Story "Peaches" by John McGahern |
| title_sort |
desire as slip-up in the short story "peaches" by john mcgahern |
| publisher |
Journal of the Short Story in English |
| publishDate |
2008 |
| container_title |
URI:https://journals.openedition.org/jsse |
| url |
https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://journals.openedition.org/jsse/261 |
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1877294656354516992 |