A Lacanian Study Of Missing Mom

Joyce Carol Oates (1938- ) is named as"woman Faulkner"and one of the representatives of naturalists. She nearly explores all levels of American society in half a century and wins the title of"psychological realist"because of her employment of various modernist writing skills especially the psycho-description. Lacan is the most prominent and most controversial psycho-analyst. Reading Oates's new novel Missing Mom in the light of Lacan's psycho-analysis could give Oates a much more sophisticated readership in terms of psychology than ever before.The thesis is divided into three chapters: studying themes, symbols and writing techniques by means of the theory of Lacan. There are three sections in the first chapter, the nihility of the subject, violence in the society and solution to violence—to create a community. In the Mirror stage, the subject mistakes the other as himself due to Méconnaissance. Therefore, the subject is doomed to be alienated. In the novel, everyone except for Mom, particularly the daughters live in the gaze of others and they are the representatives of alienated subject sank in nihility. In the symbolic stage, the subject lives in symbolic relations constructed by diverse symbols. People are driven by desires. Violence results from desiring nothing but desiring itself. There is an alternative that is the transference of the desire. As a result, to construct a sincere and fulfilled relationship between people becomes possible. In the second chapter, the functions and implications of symbols and images are studied in three registers: imaginary, symbolic and realistic. In the imaginary, all kinds of deceptive images are analyzed."Feather"is apparently vulnerable and stupid, but it is the sage of life, while those decent people are tortured underneath their gorgeous appearance. The gifts in the symbolic, weave a net of relationship among people, which stand for virtues and traits of people. In the realistic, from garden to attic is a process to discover Mom and heroine herself. In the third chapter, modernist writing skills are analyzed with the theory of unconsciousness. The overlapping and separation of time and space exaggerates the conflict between two generations, at the same time overshadows the identification later. At last, the analysis of stream-of-consciousness, including free association, interior dialogue and grotesque description represent the characteristics of people's unconscious.The themes, content and writing characteristics of the novel can be appreciated better with Lacan's psycho-analysis. Furthermore, it is more convenient to catch the glimpse of the author's psychological motivation and creative strategy.