Lacan Theories

Jacques Lacan (1901-1981) is one of the most influential thinkers in the field of psychoanalysis. He uses the notions developed by Ferdinand de Saussure in the field of linguistics and structuralism and theories of Sigmund Freud in the field of psychoanalysis to explain human psyche. His theories can be extended to the field of literary criticism, in an attempt to reveal the mental aspect of the writer and reader in the literature. In this paper, I will reintroduce some of the key concepts of Lacan and explain how they are used in analyzing a literary work. My goal would be to apply these concepts in the criticism of a short story by Hafiz Khaiavi, named “break your fast with a cherry”. Using Lacan theories, I try to show that this story follow the concept of lack/desire and that there is a certain ‘objet petit a’ in the story, complying with Lacan’s ideas. For doing so, I will pay attention to certain characteristics of the story and some symbolisms that in the light of Lacan’s ideas, seem revealing about the psyche of human being. My ultimate goal is to show that this short story portray the never-ending pursuit of something that every human being feels its lack and spends his life time following certain things in its place.

Lacan’s Theory Central to Lacan’s ideas, is the saying that human subconscious has a structure like language (Bressler 133); it means that human subconscious works upon a series of signifiers and signifieds, using symbols in an arbitrary manner to convey the meaning (Abrams 293). Getting equipped for using such a system needs entrance to the symbolic order, but the price is a remaining sense of lack for the unity with the world around. This lack haunts human beings all their life and motivates them to pursue different things in its place, although it can never be fulfilled (Sullivan 69; Tyson 34). An interesting concept in Lacan’s ideas, is ‘objet petit a’; after the lost union with the world around, we will seek