Identity Seeking Behind Desire: A Lacanian Interpretation Of Goodbye,Columbus

As one of the most eminent writers of America,Philip Roth has received numerous awards and reputation in the field of literature.Roth has released more than thirty works during his writing career,most of which are intimately related to the lives of the American Jews.With the sharp insight into the conflict between Jewish traditional principle and American modern culture confronted by the American Jewish group,Roth makes efforts to unfold for readers a complicated predicament of the American Jews in such a circumstance.His first collection Goodbye,Columbus and other five stories has evoked strong repercussion since it was published in 1959.The object of this thesis is one of the stories taken from the collection,which is the novella with the same title as the collection—Goodbye,Columbus.It mainly tells a summer romance between Neil Klugman and Brenda Patimkin.However,the extra meaning hidden in the superficial love story is profound—Neil Klugman,as the main character of the story,has sunk into a dilemma to develop an ideal identity amid paradoxical choices in his inner world and the complicated social environments.By applying Lacanian psychoanalysis to the work,this thesis proves that Neil’s pursuit for identity is aroused by his psychological motivations—desire,and is restricted by the external influences—Name of the Father.Therefore,identity seeking is a dynamic process in which the internal and external factors both function.The thesis is divided into five parts:The first part is the introduction,which mainly gives the basic information about the author and his works,the survey of Goodbye,Columbus and literature review relevant to this novella.The structure and significance of this thesis are also presented in this chapter.The second part focuses on the analysis of Neil’s desire with the aid of Lacan’s theory of desire.In Goodbye,Columbus,the signifier which implies Neil’s unconscious desire slips from Brenda Patimkin’s breasts to the fruits in the Patimkins’ refrigerator,and finally to the little colored boy.Therefore,Neil’s desire can be demonstrated as quest for love,longing for wealth and search for identity.The third part aims at the process of Neil’s identity seeking under the guidance of Lacan’s theory of mirror stage.By regarding Brenda as his ideal ego,Neil tries to identify with her by rebelling against Jewish tradition and assimilating into American culture.However,when he finds that Brenda is not what he imagines as she cares more about material enjoyment,Neil finally decides to return to Newark which is not a simple transgression but a beginning of new life.In Chapter Four,the external influences on Neil’s final choice are analyzed from the perspective of the social status,the ethnicity and the religion by reference to a key Lacanian term—Name of the Father.The last chapter points out that through a series of analyses,the thesis illustrates that Neil’s identity seeking is a dynamic process in which both the psychological motivations and external influences are significant.Through the analysis on Neil’s identity seeking,the thesis brings some enlightenments to the American Jewish group struggling in the conflict between American modern culture and Jewish traditional principles.Although one cannot escape the external influence,he also has the opportunity to explore the possibility of his identity.