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Corporate Etiquette - A Study Guide

Introduction

Welcome to an essential guide to Corporate Etiquette. As you prepare to transition from academia to the professional world, understanding the unspoken rules of business conduct is paramount. Corporate Etiquette is the cornerstone of building successful professional relationships, enhancing your personal brand, and creating a positive professional image. It is not about stifling your personality but about demonstrating respect, competence, and cultural awareness in a formal setting. This newsletter will demystify the key areas of professional etiquette, providing you with the practical knowledge to navigate any business situation with confidence and poise.

1. The Foundation: First Impressions and Professional Introductions

The initial moments of any professional interaction are critical. They set the tone for the relationship and form a lasting opinion.

Crafting a Powerful First Impression:

Your first impression is formed within seconds and is often based on non-verbal cues. This encompasses your professional appearance, body language, and demeanour. A firm handshake, maintained eye contact, and a genuine smile project confidence and approachability. Remember, you rarely get a second chance to make a first impression, so ensure yours is positive, polished, and professional.

Professional Attire and Grooming:

Business professional attire is a non-negotiable element of corporate etiquette. The key is to be slightly overdressed rather than underdressed. Opt for well-fitted, clean, and ironed clothing. For most industries, this means suits, formal trousers or skirts, and conservative shirts or blouses. Pay equal attention to grooming: ensure clean, trimmed nails, subtle makeup (for those who wear it), and neat, professional hairstyles. Avoid heavy jewellery, visible tattoos in conservative environments, and strong perfumes or colognes.

The Art of the Introduction:

When introducing yourself, always stand up, state your first and last name clearly, and offer a firm handshake with your right hand. A good handshake involves a firm but not crushing grip, approximately two to three pumps, and direct eye contact. If you are introducing someone else, introduce the less senior person to the more senior person (e.g., "Professor Jones, I'd like to introduce my fellow student, Sam Smith"). Using formal titles (Mr., Mrs., Ms., Dr.) until invited to use first names is a sign of respect.

2.  Professional Communication: Verbal and Digital

Effective communication is the lifeblood of business. Mastering its various forms is essential for professional success.

Business Meeting Etiquette:

Meetings are where decisions are made and ideas are exchanged. To be seen as a valuable participant, be punctual—arriving five minutes early is ideal. Come prepared, having reviewed the agenda and with any necessary materials. During the meeting, active listening is crucial; avoid interrupting others and contribute constructively to the discussion. Ensure your mobile phone is on silent and out of sight to avoid distractions. Finally, always thank the meeting organiser for their time.

 

Telephone Etiquette:

Professional phone etiquette remains a vital skill. When making a call, identify yourself and your company or institution immediately and state the purpose of your call. Be mindful of time zones and avoid calling outside standard business hours unless expressly permitted. Speak clearly and at a moderate pace, using a polite and respectful tone. When answering a call, offer a standard greeting like "Good morning, [Your Name] speaking." Never eat or drink while on a call.

 

Email Etiquette (Netiquette):

Professional email communication is a primary channel in the modern workplace. Your email subject line should be clear, concise, and accurately reflect the email's content. Use a formal email address (typically a variation of your name). Open with a proper salutation (e.g., "Dear Mr. Patel,") and maintain a polite and professional tone throughout. Proofread meticulously to avoid spelling and grammatical errors, which can appear careless. Avoid using slang, emojis, or unnecessary abbreviations (LOL, FYI). Ensure you respond to emails promptly, ideally within 24 hours. Always include a professional email signature with your full name, title, and contact information.

3.  The Professional Environment: Conduct and Collaboration

Your behaviour within the office or at corporate events defines your workplace professionalism and ability to be a team player.

Respect for Shared Spaces:

Maintain a clean and organised workspace. Be mindful of noise levels in open-plan offices—use headphones for music and keep personal calls brief and quiet. Always clean up after yourself in shared areas like kitchens and meeting rooms. This demonstrates respect for your colleagues and your environment.

 

Collaboration and Interpersonal Skills:

 

Successful collaboration is built on respectful communication and emotional intelligence. Be open to feedback, give credit where it is due, and avoid office gossip. Manage your time effectively to meet deadlines and not let down your team. Cultivate a positive attitude and be willing to help colleagues, fostering a cooperative and supportive work environment.

4. Business Dining Etiquette

Business lunch etiquette is often where important relationships are solidified. Navigating a meal professionally can significantly enhance your standing.

Before the Meal:

Your host will guide the proceedings. Wait to be told where to sit. Place your phone on silent and keep it in your pocket or bag—it should not be on the table. Once seated, place your napkin on your lap. Allow your host to order first and follow their lead on whether to order an appetiser or alcohol. It is often safest to avoid alcohol during a business meal.

 

During the Meal:

Use the "outside-in" rule for cutlery: use utensils on the outside first and work your way in with each course. Keep your elbows off the table and sit up straight. Take small bites, chew with your mouth closed, and never speak with food in your mouth. If you need to leave the table, excuse yourself and place your napkin on your chair, not the table.

 

Handling the Bill:

The person who extended the invitation is typically expected to pay. If you are the host, discreetly handle the bill. If you are the guest, always offer to pay your share or thank your host sincerely. Do not argue over the bill; a simple and genuine "Thank you for lunch, I really enjoyed it" is perfectly adequate.

5. Digital Decorum: Netiquette and Virtual Meetings

With the rise of remote work, virtual meeting etiquette has become a critical component of professional conduct.

Mastering the Video Call:

Treat a video call with the same seriousness as an in-person meeting. Test your technology—camera, microphone, and internet connection—in advance. Choose a professional, clutter-free background and ensure you are well-lit from the front. Dress professionally from head to toe. Maintain eye contact by looking at your camera lens when speaking, and avoid the distraction of looking at your own video. Mute your microphone when you are not speaking to eliminate background noise.

 

Professionalism on Digital Platforms:

Whether on LinkedIn, professional messaging apps like Slack or Teams, maintain a formal tone. Use proper grammar and punctuation, and be mindful of your audience before posting or sharing content. Digital professionalism extends to all online interactions related to your career.

Conclusion: Etiquette as a Career Catalyst

Understanding and implementing corporate etiquette is not about memorising a list of arbitrary rules. It is about cultivating a mindset of respect, awareness, and consideration for others in a professional context. These soft skills are highly valued by employers and are often the differentiator between a competent candidate and an exceptional one. By mastering these principles, you are not just learning how to behave; you are building a strong, reputable personal brand that will open doors, foster trust, and pave the way for a long and successful career. Make etiquette an integral part of your professional toolkit.

Errol John - Moon on a Rainbow Shawl

 

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Errol John - Moon on a Rainbow Shawl

Introduction:

In this edition we turn our gaze to a pivotal figure in postcolonial drama, the Trinidadian playwright and actor Errol John, and his seminal work, Moon on a Rainbow Shawl. First staged in London in 1957, this play shattered barriers, becoming one of the first plays from the Caribbean to achieve major international acclaim. It offers a raw, vibrant, and deeply moving portrait of life in a Port of Spain slum in the aftermath of the Second World War, exploring universal themes of dreams, disillusionment, and the human spirit's resilience.

This newsletter Errol John - Moon on a Rainbow Shawl will serve as a comprehensive guide, breaking down the play's plot, themes, and characters, while also introducing and explaining key literary and technical terms you will encounter in your studies. Whether you're an undergraduate just beginning to explore Caribbean literature or a postgraduate conducting deeper research, this resource is designed for you.

Errol John as a Dramatist

Errol John (1924-1988) was a multi-talented artist: an actor, journalist, and playwright.

• His background as an actor (he performed Shakespearean roles and in films like The African Queen) deeply informed his writing. He had an innate understanding of stagecraft, dialogue, and character motivation.
• Moon on a Rainbow Shawl was his breakthrough, winning the Observer playwriting competition in 1957. While he wrote other screenplays and plays, this remains his defining work.
• His work is celebrated for giving a authentic voice to the Caribbean experience on the international stage, paving the way for future generations of playwrights like Mustapha Matura and Derek Walcott.

Summary of Moon on a Rainbow Shawl

Set over three days in the cramped, dilapidated "Old Mack's Yard" in Port of Spain, Trinidad, the play is a poignant tragicomedy (a play that blends tragic and comic elements to reflect the complexity of life).

• Act I: We are introduced to the yard's residents as a hot evening falls. The central character, Ephraim, a young trolleybus driver, dreams of escaping his impoverished life for a new start in Liverpool, England. We meet the struggling Adams family: Sophia, her drunkard husband Charlie (a former cricket star), their bright daughter Esther (who has won a scholarship), and their newborn baby. Ephraim's girlfriend, Rosa, who works in Old Mack's café, is being pursued by her wealthy, older employer. The act establishes a simmering tension between dreams and the harsh reality of the yard.
• Act II: Tensions escalate. Rosa discovers Charlie has stolen money from Old Mack's café to fund his drinking. She confides in Ephraim, who reacts with anger, not at the crime, but at her for telling the police. In a crucial scene, Ephraim reveals his plan to leave for England the next day and coldly abandons Rosa, even after she reveals she is pregnant with his child.
• Act III: The consequences of everyone's actions come to a head. Charlie is arrested for the theft. Ephraim, despite offers of help to bail Charlie out, remains resolute in his escape. In a final, heartbreaking confrontation, he reveals his profound selfishness to Sophia, declaring the fate of his unborn child makes "no damn difference" to him. He departs in a taxi, leaving a devastated Rosa to seemingly accept the advances of Old Mack for the sake of her child. The play ends not with despair, but with a glimmer of hope as Esther returns, calling for her mother.

Critical Appreciation & The Play's Significance

Moon on a Rainbow Shawl is rightly considered a canonical work (a text of established importance and authority within a literary tradition) of Black and postcolonial theatre.

• Pioneering Realism: John brought a new, unflinching realism to the British stage. He depicted the lives of working-class Caribbean people with authenticity and dignity, moving away from stereotypical portrayals. The play’s setting is not just a backdrop but a character in itself—the claustrophobic yard symbolises the entrapment felt by its inhabitants.
• Linguistic Authenticity: The use of Trinidadian Creole (an English-based creole language with its own grammatical structures and vocabulary) was revolutionary. It authenticates the characters' voices and roots the play firmly in its cultural context. For example, lines like "Thief from thief, child, does make Jehovah laugh" are rich with local flavour and philosophical weight.
• Enduring Relevance: Its themes—economic migration, systemic poverty, gender inequality, and the corrosive nature of broken dreams—are as relevant today as they were in the 1950s. It speaks powerfully to the postcolonial condition and the diasporic experience.

Major Themes 

• The Dream of Escape vs. The Reality of Home: This is the central conflict. Ephraim believes England is a "green land of hope and glory," a place where he can reinvent himself. His desire to escape is contrasted with the resilience of Sophia and Rosa, who choose to stay and face their struggles, representing a different kind of strength.
• Gender and Power: The play presents a stark contrast between its male and female characters. The men (Ephraim, Charlie, Old Mack, Prince) are largely flawed, weak, or exploitative. The women (Sophia, Rosa, Esther), however, are portrayed as strong, pragmatic, and morally centred, often bearing the emotional and economic burdens created by the men.
• Poverty and Social Inequality: The yard is a microcosm of a stratified society. Old Mack's wealth and power over his tenants and employees highlight the class divisions. The characters' actions, particularly Charlie's theft, are directly motivated by the desperate circumstances poverty creates.
• The Post-War Postcolonial Condition: The play is set just after WWII, a time of great change. The departure of American troops from Trinidad caused an economic slump. This historical context is crucial; the characters' sense of instability and lack of opportunity is directly linked to the island's position within global politics and the fading British Empire.

Character Sketches

• Ephraim: The protagonist (the central character driving the action) but decidedly not a hero. He is hardworking and perceptive but ultimately selfish, cynical, and sexist. His dream of escape corrupts his morality, leading him to abandon all responsibility. He represents the destructive potential of ambition untethered from community.
• Sophia Adams: The emotional anchor of the play. She is weary but fiercely spirited, a woman worn down by poverty and a disappointing husband but who never loses her fighting spirit or her deep love for her children. She is the play's moral compass.
• Rosa: A tragic figure who represents lost innocence. Orphaned and raised by nuns, she is loving and trusting. Her love for Ephraim and subsequent pregnancy lead to her ultimate disillusionment. Her likely decision to stay with Old Mack at the end shows her pragmatism but also her tragic corruption for survival's sake.
• Esther Adams: A symbol (a person, object, or event that represents a larger idea) of hope for the future. Her intelligence and scholarship represent the potential for a new generation to break the cycle of poverty through education, not escape.
• Charlie Adams: A pathetic (in the literary sense, meaning evoking pity and sadness) figure. A former cricket star broken by institutional racism and his own addiction, he embodies the waste of potential and the devastating impact of colonialism on the individual.

Literary Techniques & Technical Terms (Explained)

John employs several sophisticated techniques to bring his world to life:

1. Symbolism: Objects or elements that carry a deeper meaning.

·   The Rainbow Shawl: Represents Rosa's beauty, dreams, and innocence. It is the colourful, beautiful thing upon which her hopes are literally laid to rest.

·   The Moon: A traditional symbol of dreams and romance, but here it is "on a rainbow shawl"—something beautiful but ultimately out of reach, just like Ephraim's dreams of England.

·  Snow/Ice: Ephraim's repeated desire for snow symbolises his desire for a completely different, pure, foreign environment, contrasting with the oppressive heat of Trinidad.

2. Soundscape: John meticulously uses sound to create atmosphere and meaning, a technique sometimes linked to the acoustic concepts in psychoanalytic theory.

·   Diegetic Sound: Sounds that originate from within the world of the play, like the calypso music, children's rhymes, the baby crying, and the taxi horn. These sounds create immense verisimilitude (the appearance of being true or real).

·    The Calypso "Brown Skin Gal": This song is used with devastating irony. As Ephraim abandons Rosa, the lyrics "Brown skin gal stay home and mind baby... if I don’t come back, throw ‘way the damn baby" directly mock her situation, highlighting her powerlessness.

3. Setting as a Character: The yard is not passive. Its cramped, dilapidated nature creates a claustrophobic mood and directly influences the characters' actions and conflicts, pushing them into each other's paths and arguments.

4. Tragicomedy: The play blends humour (often from Prince and Mavis's relationship) with profound tragedy (Rosa's abandonment, Charlie's arrest). This mix reflects the complex texture of real life, where joy and sorrow often coexist.

Key Points

1. Postcolonial Literature: Literature from countries that were once colonies, often dealing with themes of identity, power, and resistance. This play is a key text in this field.
2. Caribbean Theatre: The dramatic tradition of the Caribbean, known for its vibrant storytelling, use of Creole, and engagement with social and political history.
3. Diaspora: The dispersion of any people from their original homeland. The play explores the motivations for and consequences of joining the diaspora.
4. Marxist Critique: An analysis focusing on class conflict, economic determinism, and the exploitation of the working class (the proletariat) by the property-owning class (the bourgeoisie, e.g., Old Mack).
5. Feminist Critique: An analysis that examines how the play portrays gender relations. It highlights the patriarchal structure of the society and the resilience of the female characters.
6. Psychoanalytic Theory (Lacanian Concepts): While not explicitly mentioned in the text, a sophisticated analysis could use Jacques Lacan's ideas.

• The Symbolic Order: The world of language, law, and social structures. Ephraim believes England represents a better Symbolic Order where he can succeed.
• The Real: A traumatic, overwhelming reality that cannot be easily symbolised or understood. The harsh poverty and lack of opportunity in the yard could be seen as the terrifying "Real" the characters are trying to navigate.
• Desire: Lacan argues desire is always for something we lack. Ephraim's desire for England is a classic example—it is based on an imagined lack in his current life and an imagined fulfilment elsewhere.

Famous Excerpt

A powerful moment that encapsulates Ephraim's character and the play's central conflict comes from his final confrontation with Sophia:

Sophia: (Pleading with him not to leave Rosa pregnant) "What about the child?"

Ephraim: "The baby born! It live! It dead! It make no damn difference to me!"

This brutal line reveals the full extent of his selfishness and the tragic cost of his dream.

Conclusion

Moon on a Rainbow Shawl is more than a historical artefact; it is a living, breathing piece of drama that continues to resonate. Errol John’s masterful blend of gritty realism, poetic symbolism, and authentic dialogue creates a powerful and enduring critique of social inequality and a moving testament to the human spirit. It is an essential text for anyone seeking to understand the roots and themes of postcolonial and Caribbean literature.

 

Psychoanalytical Criticism- Julia Kristeva

 

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Psychoanalytical Criticism- Julia Kristeva

Welcome to the New edition of Psychoanalytical Criticism. As we navigate the complex landscapes of modern literary theory, certain figures stand as towering beacons, challenging how we think about language, identity, and the very fabric of our being. Following our deep dive into the foundational works of Freud, Jung, and Lacan, it feels only fitting to turn our attention to a revolutionary thinker who built upon, and radically departed from, their ideas: Julia Kristeva.

This newsletter Psychoanalytical Criticism- Julia Kristeva will serve as your primer to Kristeva’s world, where psychoanalysis, linguistics, and feminism collide. We’ll be untangling her complex ideas about how literature interacts with discourses of insanity, and how the act of writing is fundamentally tied to the formation—and sometimes the fragmentation—of our identity.

Introduction

Julia Kristeva is a Bulgarian-French philosopher, literary critic, psychoanalyst, and novelist. She moved to Paris in the 1960s and quickly became a central figure in the influential Tel Quel group of intellectuals. Drawing from (and debating with) giants like Lacan, Foucault, and Derrida, Kristeva’s work is a unique synthesis of linguistics, psychoanalysis, and political theory.

Her central project explores the interconnection between language and the speaking subject—that is, how we, as individuals, come to be through language. She is particularly fascinated by the margins of identity: the points where the self threatens to dissolve into madness, ecstasy, or poetic revolution.

Key Concepts:

To understand Kristeva’s contribution to discourses on insanity and literature, we must first get to grips with her unique vocabulary.

1. The Semiotic and The Symbolic

This is perhaps Kristeva’s most crucial contribution, a direct development from Lacan’s ideas.

• The Symbolic Order: Borrowed from Lacan, this is the realm of language, law, order, and social structure. It is the world of grammar, syntax, and shared meaning—the ‘dictionary definition’ of things. To enter the Symbolic is to accept societal rules (especially the Law of the Father) and to communicate in a way that others can understand. It’s the domain of conscious, rational thought.
• The Semiotic Chora: This is Kristeva’s groundbreaking concept. The Semiotic (from the Greek semeion, meaning ‘sign’) is a pre-linguistic, primal realm of experience. It is associated with the maternal body and the pre-Oedipal phase (before the child enters the language-based Symbolic order). It’s not language itself, but the rhythms, tones, pulses, and drives that underlie it. Think of the babbling of a baby, the cadence of poetry, or the raw, uncontrolled sounds of anguish or joy. It is the raw energy of communication before it is shaped into logical sense.

Why it matters for madness and literature: Kristeva argues that a healthy subject exists in a constant, dynamic dance between the Semiotic and the Symbolic. The Semiotic drives constantly disrupt and challenge the rigid order of the Symbolic, infusing language with desire, rhythm, and emotion. Literature, especially poetry, is a controlled space where this disruption can happen safely. Madness, in Kristevan terms, can be seen as a catastrophic collapse of this balance—where the powerful, chaotic forces of the Semiotic overwhelm the structuring capacity of the Symbolic, threatening the individual’s sense of a coherent self.

2. Abjection

A concept that has become incredibly influential in gender studies and theories of horror.

• What it is: Abjection is the violent, visceral reaction of horror and revulsion we feel towards something that profoundly disturbs our sense of identity, system, and order. It is not about something being evil or dirty in a simple sense, but about something that blurs the lines between self and other, subject and object, life and death.
• Common examples: A corpse (it shows us our own materiality and death), bodily fluids like blood or pus (they remind us that the body’s boundaries are permeable), spoiled food (something that was once nourishing becomes revolting). The abject is what we must jettison or ‘ab-ject’ from ourselves to maintain a clean and proper self.

Why it matters for madness and literature: The process of abjection is fundamental to forming an identity. By rejecting what is ‘not us’, we define what ‘us’ is. Kristeva links this powerfully to the maternal body—the original source of nourishment and comfort that must be rejected for the child to become a separate individual. Literature, particularly Gothic and horror genres, is a stage for exploring the abject. Think of Frankenstein’s monster (a blurred line between life and death) or the pervasive bodily horror in much modern writing. Furthermore, societal discourses often label madness as ‘abject’—something to be hidden away because it disturbs our rational, symbolic order.

3. Intertextuality

A term Kristeva coined that is now a cornerstone of literary studies.

• What it is: Kristeva argued that “any text is constructed as a mosaic of quotations; any text is the absorption and transformation of another.” This means that no text exists in a vacuum. Every novel, poem, or play is in dialogue with every text that came before it. It absorbs, references, contradicts, and reworks them.

Why it matters for madness and literature: If identity is formed in language, and language is inherently intertextual, then our very selfhood is a mosaic of the voices, stories, and discourses we have absorbed. This challenges the romantic idea of the ‘lone genius’ author or the completely autonomous self. When a character’s identity fractures into madness (e.g., in works like The Yellow Wallpaper or Hamlet), we can often read this as a failure to successfully manage the multitude of conflicting internalised ‘texts’ and voices—be they social expectations, familial demands, or traumatic memories.

4. The Subject-in-Process / On Trial

Kristeva directly challenges the idea of a fixed, unchanging, unified identity.

• What it is: For Kristeva, the subject is never a finished product. We are perpetually ‘in-process/on trial’ (sujet en procès—a brilliant pun meaning both ‘in process’ and ‘on trial’). Our identity is constantly being formed, challenged, and re-formed through the never-ending tension between the Semiotic (drives, desires) and the Symbolic (law, language).

Why it matters for madness and literature: This view makes madness not a static state but a potential within all subjectivity. The ‘trial’ of being a self can sometimes break down. Literature is the ultimate record of this trial. The stream-of-consciousness novel (e.g., Virginia Woolf), which captures the pre-Symbolic flow of thought, is a perfect example of writing that explores the ‘subject-in-process’. It shows the self not as a solid thing, but as a continuous, and often precarious, event.

Literature, Madness, and Identity Formation

So, how do these complex ideas help us examine the relationship between writing and identity, particularly through the lens of madness?

1. Writing as a Cathartic Rehearsal of Selfhood: The act of writing is a symbolic practice (it uses language) but it is fuelled by semiotic drives (emotion, rhythm, unconscious desire). In putting words to experience, an author—and by extension, a reader—is actively engaged in the process of forging an identity. For characters on the brink of madness, writing can be a desperate attempt to impose Symbolic order on Semiotic chaos. Think of the narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper whose journal is her only outlet as her sense of self unravels under the weight of patriarchal medical discourse.

2. Social and Medical Discourses as Symbolic Law: The ways a society defines ‘sanity’ and ‘insanity’ are powerful Symbolic forces. These definitions are not neutral; they are historically constructed and often serve to police boundaries (e.g., the Victorian-era medicalisation of female ‘hysteria’, which pathologised women’s discontent). Literature frequently exposes the violence of these discourses by giving voice to the ‘abject’ figures they exclude.

3. Gender and Madness: Kristeva’s work is deeply feminist. The association of the Semiotic with the maternal and the pre-Oedipal creates a powerful link between femininity and that which threatens the patriarchal Symbolic order. Historically, therefore, women’s speech and expression have more easily been labelled ‘irrational’ or ‘hysterical’—a way of policing the Semiotic disruption they represent. Literature by female authors often explores this tension directly, wrestling with the need to speak within the Symbolic order while also expressing semiotic drives that order devalues.

4. Modernism and the Fractured Self: Kristeva’s theory is a superb key for understanding Modernist and Postmodernist literature. These movements, with their fragmented narratives, stream-of-consciousness techniques, and rejection of linear plots, formally replicate the breakdown of a unified self. They allow the Semiotic to erupt into the Symbolic structure of the novel itself, mirroring the modern experience of alienation and psychological fragmentation.

Conclusion:

In an age where we are constantly curating our identities online, where discourses of mental health are both more prevalent and more contested, and where the boundaries of the self feel perpetually under threat, Kristeva’s work is not just academic—it is profoundly urgent.

She teaches us that the self is not a fortress to be defended, but a continuous, often messy, negotiation. She shows us that literature is not an escape from this reality but its most powerful rehearsal room. And she insists that what society calls ‘madness’ is often just the visible, terrifying, and ultimately human struggle of the ‘subject-on-trial’, a struggle that art has always sought to document and understand.

Julia Kristeva's Key Works 

1. Revolution in Poetic Language (1974): The essential text. This is where she first fully elaborates her seminal concepts of the Semiotic and the Symbolic and their dynamic interaction in avant-garde poetic language.
2. Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection (1980): A more focused and gripping read. She develops her theory of abjection through analyses of biblical law, Céline's literature, and art. Excellent for understanding the horror of blurred boundaries.
3. Black Sun: Depression and Melancholia (1987): Explores depression not as a lack of meaning but as an unnameable grief, linking it to artistic creation. Analyzes works by Holbein, Dostoevsky, and Marguerite Duras.
4. Tales of Love (1983): Examines the history of "love" as a discourse and its role in the construction of the subject. Complements her work on identity formation.

Psychoanalytical Criticism- Jacques Lacan

 

Jacques Lacan

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Psychoanalytical Criticism- Jacques Lacan

Following our research on Freudian basics, we now turn to a thinker who at the same time revolutionized and shocked the world of psychoanalysis: the French master, Jacques Lacan (1901-1981). Where Freud delved into the hidden chambers of the mind, Lacan insisted that the key to these chambers was not buried deep within, but was in fact all around us—woven into the web of language itself.

This Newsletter Psychoanalytical Criticism- Jacques Lacan delves into Lacan’s complex and inspiringly disruptive ideas. We will unpack his central claim—that the unconscious is structured like a language—and explore its deep implications for literature, identity, and the very notion of selfhood. Our investigation will focus on the intricate interplay between writing and the formation of identity, scrutinising how social, medical, and historical constructions of insanity are not just reflected in, but are produced by, the language we use to describe ourselves and our world.

Introduction:

To understand Lacan is to understand a fundamental shift. While Freud used language as a tool to access the unconscious (through free association, dream interpretation), Lacan argued that language is the very structure of the unconscious itself. For Lacan, we do not use language; we inhabit it. Our desires, our fears, and our very sense of self are constituted within its networks and constraints.

This perspective makes Lacanian theory exceptionally powerful for literary studies. If the unconscious and literature both operate under the same linguistic rules, then a literary text becomes a privileged object for analysis—not as a symptom of an author’s neurosis, but as a direct manifestation of the unconscious processes of language.

Key Concepts: A Lexicon for the Modern Analyst

Navigating Lacan requires a new vocabulary. Here are the essential terms, decoded.

• The Unconscious is Structured Like a Language

Ø  This is Lacan’s most famous and foundational axiom. He rejected the idea of the unconscious as a seething, chaotic cauldron of primal urges. Instead, he proposed it is orderly, logical, and follows the rules of linguistic systems. We can analyse dreams, slips of the tongue, and literary texts using the same tools we use to analyse poetry or prose—specifically, the mechanisms of metaphor and metonymy.

• Signifier and Signified

Ø  Lacan draws from linguist Ferdinand de Saussure. A signifier is the sound-image or written word (e.g., the letters T-R-E-E). The signified is the mental concept it evokes (the idea of a tall, woody plant). For Saussure, the two were inseparable. Lacan, however, radically pried them apart. He argued the relationship between signifier and signified is never stable or guaranteed. The signified is perpetually slipping under the chain of signifiers. We never finally grasp meaning; we endlessly move from one signifier to another in a never-ending quest for a fullness of meaning that is always deferred.

• The Mirror Stage

Ø This is Lacan's theory of how the ego is formed. Between 6-18 months, an infant recognises its own reflection in a mirror (or similar reflective surface, like the affirming gaze of a parent). This image is a misrecognition (méconnaissance)—it provides an illusion of coherence, mastery, and totality that the infant, who still experiences its body as uncoordinated and fragmented, does not truly feel. This idealised, external image becomes the core of the ego, which Lacan therefore saw as fundamentally built on a fantasy. The ego is not the seat of autonomy but a constructed entity, born from identification with an external image.

• The Three Orders: The Real, The Imaginary, The Symbolic

Ø  Lacan described human experience as structured by three intertwined registers:

§  The Real: Not everyday reality, but that which is beyond language, unrepresentable, and impossible to articulate. It is the traumatic, pre-linguistic stuff of experience, always outside symbolisation. We encounter it in moments of shock, trauma, or overwhelming jouissance.

§  The Imaginary: The realm of images, identification, and illusion. It is dominated by dyadic relationships (like mother-child) and is the seat of the ego. It is the order of misrecognition and deception, where the self feels whole and unified. It is associated with the maternal.

§  The Symbolic Order: The most crucial order for Lacan. This is the realm of language, law, culture, and social structures. It is the "big Other" that governs our lives with its rules, prohibitions, and norms. Entering the Symbolic Order through language is what socialises us but also introduces lack and separation from the immediate, dyadic world of the Imaginary. It is associated with the Name-of-the-Father, the symbolic law that breaks the primordial bond with the mother.

• Desire and Lack

Ø For Lacan, desire is not a biological drive towards a specific object (like hunger). It is a constant state of lack (manque). We are born into lack upon entering the Symbolic Order, which separates us from the (imagined) plenitude of the maternal body. We then spend our lives seeking objects (objets petit a) that we believe will fill this void. But these objects always fail. Desire is always the desire for something else, and it is this endless movement of desire, not its satisfaction, that defines the human condition. Literature is a profound record of this endless pursuit.

• Jouissance

Ø A term notoriously difficult to translate, often rendered as "enjoyment" but meaning something far more intense and paradoxical. It is a form of extreme pleasure that is so intense it tips over into pain. It is the forbidden enjoyment that exists beyond the pleasure principle, linked to the Real. Society, through the Symbolic Order, limits jouissance for its own stability. The pursuit of jouissance is often associated with self-destructive behaviour and forms of "madness" that defy social logic.

Writing the Fractured Self: Literature and Identity Formation

For Lacan, there is no essential, core self waiting to be expressed. The self is a fiction constructed in the Imaginary and structured by the Symbolic Order of language. Therefore, the act of writing is not an expression of a pre-formed identity but an attempt to constitute one through the signifier.

The author does not master language; language speaks through the author. The text, therefore, is riddled with the traces of the unconscious—not the author’s personal history per se, but the slips, gaps, and contradictions inherent in language itself. A Lacanian critic does not ask, "What does the author mean?" but rather, "How does the text function? Where does meaning break down? What is being repressed by the text’s narrative?"

The Discourse of Insanity: A Linguistic Construction

Lacan’s work forces us to question what we call "madness." If our sanity is predicated on our successful insertion into the Symbolic Order (accepting its laws, its language, its norms), then insanity can be seen as a different relationship to this order.

• Social & Historical Construction: What a society defines as "mad" is what falls outside its dominant symbolic framework. The hysteric’s symptoms, for instance, are a language of the body (corporalised speech) that emerges when direct speech is impossible within the constraints of their social (e.g., patriarchal) Symbolic Order.
• Medical Construction: Lacan was fiercely critical of a medical model that sought to quickly "cure" symptoms without listening to their truth. The symptom is a message from the unconscious; it is a formation of desire. To simply suppress it pharmacologically is to ignore the subject’s truth. The analyst’s role is to help the subject traverse the fantasy structuring their desire, not to impose a normative idea of "health."

Gender, Language, and the Madness of the Feminine

Lacan’s work on gender is among his most controversial and searched-for topics. He stated, "The Woman does not exist" (La femme n'existe pas). This is not a misogynistic dismissal but a radical claim about identity and the Symbolic Order.

He argued that while sexual difference is a fundamental symbolic opposition (having/being the phallus as a signifier of lack), the category "Woman" is not a fixed essence. It is an unattainable ideal, a fantasy constructed within a phallocentric Symbolic Order that defines woman as man’s negative other. Therefore, female identity is even more profoundly constituted by lack and otherness than male identity.

This has dire consequences. If a woman’s desire and jouissance have no adequate representation in the dominant Symbolic Order, her expression may be forced into the realm of the symptom. The "madness" of literary heroines—from Ophelia to Bertha Mason—can be read not as a biological flaw but as the only available language to express a desire that has no other sanctioned means of articulation. Their "hysteria" is a silent protest against a symbolic order that offers them no valid subject position. Writing, therefore, becomes a critical act of forging a new language, of finding a voice from within the gaps of the existing Symbolic Order.

Case Study: Lacan Reads Poe's "The Purloined Letter"

Lacan’s famous seminar on this story is a masterclass in his method. The plot involves a stolen letter whose contents are never revealed, yet it exerts immense power over all who possess it.

• The Letter as Signifier: For Lacan, the letter’s content is irrelevant. What matters is its position within a symbolic circuit. The letter is a pure signifier—its meaning is entirely determined by its place in a triadic structure of looks (the king who doesn’t see, the queen who tries to hide, the minister who sees her hiding).
• The Subject is Determined by the Signifier: Each character who possesses the letter (the Queen, the Minister, Dupin) has their identity and actions dictated by their position relative to this signifier. They do not control the letter; it controls them.
• The Unconscious is the Discourse of the Other: The letter represents the unconscious itself—its content is hidden, but its effects are visible everywhere in the behaviour it generates. We can never "open" the unconscious to see its secrets, just as we never learn the letter’s contents. We can only interpret its effects. This mirrors how we must read a text: not for a hidden meaning, but for how its signifiers structure its narrative and its characters.

Conclusion: 

Lacan provides a sophisticated toolkit for moving beyond simplistic psycho-biographical readings. He teaches us to see the literary text as a dynamic field where the structures of the human psyche—desire, lack, misrecognition, and the relentless pursuit of the unattainable—play out in the medium of language itself.

Further Reading 

• Lacan, J. Écrits (1966) - The key primary text.

• Lacan, J. The Seminar, Book XI: The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis.

• Lacan mirror stage explained

• Lacan real symbolic imaginary

• Lacan desire and lack

• Lacan femme n'existe pas

• Lacan purloined letter summary

• Fink, B. The Lacanian Subject: Between Language and Jouissance (1995) - An excellent guide.

• Evans, D. An Introductory Dictionary of Lacanian Psychoanalysis (1996) - Invaluable.