Their Eyes Were Watching God
15 October 2012
A Prospectus: Reading Hurtson’s Their Eyes Were Watching God from a Psychoanalytical Perspective Psychoanalytic theory has shown that infants start identifying themselves and recognize that they are individuals, separate from their mothers, at six months of age. At that age, the individuals’ own identity starts to form as they relate their reflection in the mirror to their own self. This is when texts such as Their Eyes Were Watching God become relevant. The protagonist, Janie Crawford, struggles to construct her own identity and experiences a severe sense of loss in her childhood. Meanwhile, Janie recognizes her African American identity through her projection in the picture in respect to Lacan’s Mirror Stage. The projection of Janie’s identity in the picture as a child not only makes her realize her black origin, but also identify her sexuality as she can only, initially, identify her dress and her hair. This delayed self-recognition disrupts Janie emotionally and explains her inability to maintain a successful marriage throughout the novel. Freud’s psychoanalysis suggests that any disruption in one of the stages of development will negatively result in failure in one or more of the individual’s aspect of life (Bertens 158), which is evident in the novel. Even though Janie goes through the stages of development depicted in both Lacan and Freud’s theories, Janie starts going through these stages later in her childhood, at six years old. According to Lacan’s Mirror Stage (2010), in the first six months, the infant does not distinguish his own self from that of his parents or even the world around him. However, they can only identify that the images in the mirror, or any other projection, like the picture in Janie’s case, when they are about eighteen months old. This delay in Janie’s development is related to the social and familial issues that Janie has experienced in her childhood. The first encounter of the infant with the self in
A Prospectus: Reading Hurtson’s Their Eyes Were Watching God from a Psychoanalytical Perspective Psychoanalytic theory has shown that infants start identifying themselves and recognize that they are individuals, separate from their mothers, at six months of age. At that age, the individuals’ own identity starts to form as they relate their reflection in the mirror to their own self. This is when texts such as Their Eyes Were Watching God become relevant. The protagonist, Janie Crawford, struggles to construct her own identity and experiences a severe sense of loss in her childhood. Meanwhile, Janie recognizes her African American identity through her projection in the picture in respect to Lacan’s Mirror Stage. The projection of Janie’s identity in the picture as a child not only makes her realize her black origin, but also identify her sexuality as she can only, initially, identify her dress and her hair. This delayed self-recognition disrupts Janie emotionally and explains her inability to maintain a successful marriage throughout the novel. Freud’s psychoanalysis suggests that any disruption in one of the stages of development will negatively result in failure in one or more of the individual’s aspect of life (Bertens 158), which is evident in the novel. Even though Janie goes through the stages of development depicted in both Lacan and Freud’s theories, Janie starts going through these stages later in her childhood, at six years old. According to Lacan’s Mirror Stage (2010), in the first six months, the infant does not distinguish his own self from that of his parents or even the world around him. However, they can only identify that the images in the mirror, or any other projection, like the picture in Janie’s case, when they are about eighteen months old. This delay in Janie’s development is related to the social and familial issues that Janie has experienced in her childhood. The first encounter of the infant with the self in
Bibliography: Ashmawi, Yvonne M. "Janie 's Tea Cake: Sinner, Saint, or Merely Mortal?" Explicator. 67.3 (2009): 203-206. Web. 30 Sep. 2012. Awkward, Michael. New Essays on Their Eyes Were Watching God. 1. 1. New York: Campridge UP, 1990. Bealer, Tracy L Bertens, Hans. Literary Theory: The Basics. London and New York: Taylor & Francis, 2008. Burrows, Stuart. “You Heard Her, You Ain 't Blind": Seeing What 's Said in Their Eyes Were Watching God.” Novel: A Forum on Fiction. 34.3 (2001): 434-4. Web. 30 Sep. 2012. Clarke, Deborah. “The Porch Couldn’t Talk for Looking: Voice and Vision in Their Eyes Were Watching God.” African American Review. 35.4 (2001): 599-614. Web. 02 Oct. 2012. Dilbeck, Keiko Garcia, John L. "Freud 's Psychosexual Stage Conception: A Developmental Metaphor For Counselors." Journal Of Counseling & Development 73.5 (1995): 498-502. Academic Search Premier. Web. 12 Oct. 2012. Haurykiewicz, Julie A. "From Mules to Muliebrity: Speech and Silence in Their Eyes Were Watching God." 29.2 (1997): 45-61. Web. 30 Sep. 2012. Hinnov, Emily M. “Modernist visions of "self" within community in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their eyes were watching God. Selinsgrove, NY: Susquehanna UP, 2009. Print. Ikard, David. "Ruthless Individuality And The Other(ed) Black Women In Zora Neale Hurtson 's Their Eyes Were Watching God." CLA Journal. 53.1 (2009): 1-22. Web. 30 Sep. 2012. Kaplan, Carla. "The Erotics of Talk: `That oldest human longing ' in Their Eyes Were Watching God." American Literature. 67.1 (1995): 115-143. Web. 30 Sep. 2012. Lacan, Jacques. “The Mirror Stage as Formative of the Function of the I as Revealed in Psychoanalytic Experience. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Ed. Peter Simon. NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 2010. 1163-1169. Print. Lancaster, Iris M Marquis, Margaret. " ‘When de Notion Strikes Me’: Body Image, Food, and Desire in Their Eyes Were Watching God." Southern Literary Journal. 35.2 (2003): 79-88. Web. 30 Sep. 2012. Matos Ayala, Jennifer. A Feeling Or Something More: Love as a Liberating Force in Their Eyes Were Watching God, Sula and The Women of Brewster Place. U of Puerto Rico, 2011. Mayaguez, Puerto Rico: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses. Web. 1 Oct. 2012. McNulty, Tracy. "Demanding The Impossible: Desire And Social Change." Differences: A Journal Of Feminist Cultural Studies 20.1 (2009): 1-39. Academic Search Premier. Web. 10 Oct. 2012. Meisenhelder, Susan. Hitting a straight lick with a crooked stick : race and gender in the work of Zora Neale Hurston. Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama P, 1999. Print. Minnick, Lisa C. "Community in Conflict: Saying and Doing in Their Eyes Were Watching God." Dialect and Dichotomy: Literary Representations of African American Speech. Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama P, 2004. Print. Pipes, Candice Linette. It 's Time to Tell: Abuse, Resistance and Recovery in Black Women 's Literature. The Ohio State U, 2010. Ohio: ProQuest Dissertations & These. Web. 1 Oct. 2012. Plant, Deborah G. "The Inside Light" : New Critical Essays on Zora Neale Hurston.” Santa Barbara: Praeger, 2010. Print. Racine, Maria J. "Voice And Interiority In Zora Neale Hurston 's Their Eyes Were Watching God." African American Review. 28.2 (1994): 283. Academic Search Premier. Web. 1 Oct. 2012. Ramsey, WilliamM. "The Compelling Ambivalence of Zora Neale Hurston 's Their Eyes Were Watching God." Southern Literary Journal. 27.1 (1994): 36-51. Web. 30 Sep. 2012. Sullivan, Margaret Judith. “Profane and Sacred Imagery in Hurston 's Janie of Their Eyes Were Watching God and Marshall 's Avey of Praisesong for the Widow". Ethnic News Watch. Web. 1 Oct. 2012. Vasseleu, Cathryn. "The Face Before The Mirror-Stage." Hypatia 6.3 (1991): 140-155. Academic Search Premier. Web. 16 Oct. 2012.