"At Home in My Father's World": A Lacanian Psychoanalysis and Feminist Criticism on Scout Finch’s Identity and the Pursuit of the Symbolic Order
2024 (English)Independent thesis Basic level (degree of Bachelor), 10 credits / 15 HE credits
Student thesis
Abstract [en]
This paper takes a psychoanalytic approach to analyse the protagonist Scout Finch’s identity formation and her rebellion against social expectations of femininity. Her aggressiveness plays a central role in her character development, reflecting Maycomb’s societal struggle in dealing with discontent in its social, political, and economic situations. Understanding the dynamics behind her aggression and life choices is examined through Lacanian concepts of lack and desire in the context of the Imaginary and Symbolic Order. Her desires are substantiated explicitly and implicitly through her pursuit of emulating the father figure—the Symbolic Order, and the aggressiveness in her behaviour stems from the premature severance from the Imaginary Order, which parallels the defeat that Maycomb experienced in the American Civil War. As a result, Scout Finch’s identity is heavily influenced by the values and ideologies of the father figure, as well as the social conventions dictated by her society.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2024. , p. 35
Keywords [en]
Aggressiveness, desire, Imaginary Order, Symbolic Order, masculinity, femininity, racial prejudice, social hierarchy
National Category
Humanities and the Arts
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hig:diva-44449OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hig-44449DiVA, id: diva2:1866405
Subject / course
English
Educational program
no programme (freestanding course)
Supervisors
Examiners
2024-06-102024-06-072025-10-02Bibliographically approved