Soundscapes of subjectivity, desire and violence : a Lacanian reading of Jennifer Egan's Black Box

Vol.49,No.1(2023)

Ivana Krsmanović

https://doi.org/10.5817/BSE2023-1-8

Stable URL (handle):
http://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/digilib.78903

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Abstract
The article investigates the roles of and relations between violence and desire in Jennifer Egan's flash fiction "Black Box" (2012), with special attention to aspects of voice/sound, as theorized in Lacanian psychoanalysis. Read as an allegory of the processes within our psychological development, "Black Box" thematizes the problem of attaining subjectivity in its social context. The protagonist transitions from the pre-verbal narcissistic domain of the Imaginary, in which the subject-to-be emerges as both unified and alienated, to the predefined realm of the Symbolic, – a realm of culture, law and language. A strong analogy between the Lacanian theory of voice and the treatment of voice and sound in the story is exemplified in different narrative elements – characterization of the protagonists, narrative voices, and theme. Finally, the analysis shows that violence is inherent in both Self and the Other, as an essential attribute of identity formation.

Keywords:
voice; sound; desire; violence; Jennifer Egan

Pages:
147–162
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