A Lacanian Nameless Figure in Frances Burney’s Evelina

@article{ART002506516},
author={ 장성진 },
title={A Lacanian Nameless Figure in Frances Burney’s Evelina},
journal={영미문학페미니즘},
issn={1226-9689},
year={2019},
volume={27},
number={2},
pages={121-140},
doi={10.15796/fsel.2019.27.2.005},
url={http://dx.doi.org/10.15796/fsel.2019.27.2.005}

TY - JOUR
AU - 장성진
TI - A Lacanian Nameless Figure in Frances Burney’s Evelina
T2 - 영미문학페미니즘
PY - 2019
VL - 27
IS - 2
PB - 한국영미문학페미니즘학회
SP - 121-140
SN - 1226-9689
AB - The word “peculiar” in Frances Burney’s novel Evelina appears three times in reference to Evelina’s situation and Evelina herself. Evelina is an abandoned and a displaced daughter. She is forbidden to claim herself as the legal daughter of Sir Belmont. Moreover, Evelina is displaced by a woman misunderstood as the biological daughter of Sir Belmont. In this paper, aside from these textual explanations of her peculiar situation, I would like to view her situation through the lens of Lacan’s theory of language; Evelina is neither named nor fathered, if I may borrow Lacan’s theory of language. For Lacan, the subject enters ‘the symbolic’ by accepting the Law of the Father or the Name of the Father represented as language. Therefore, as soon as the subject obeys the Law of the Father, it is named, fathered, and, in turn, regarded as the subject of ‘the symbolic.’ In this respect, Evelina’s namelessness means that she is not appropriately placed as the subject, and, as a result, she is subjected to assault. Thus, Evelina both as a woman and a misplaced subject suffers more bitterly than other female characters in this novel. She has no way to protect herself other than to get married so that she can be a named figure, which eventually fails because she has not been legally proved to be Sir John Belmont’s daughter.
KW - Frances Burney, Evelina, Freud, Lacan, the Name of the Father, nameless, feminine subject, a chain of signifiers
DO - 10.15796/fsel.2019.27.2.005
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.15796/fsel.2019.27.2.005
ER -

장성진 (2019). A Lacanian Nameless Figure in Frances Burney’s Evelina. 영미문학페미니즘, 27( 2), 121- 140.

장성진 . 2019, “A Lacanian Nameless Figure in Frances Burney’s Evelina”, 영미문학페미니즘, vol. 27, no. 2, pp. 121-140. Available from: doi:10.15796/fsel.2019.27.2.005

장성진 “A Lacanian Nameless Figure in Frances Burney’s Evelina” 영미문학페미니즘 27.2 pp. 121-140 (2019): 121.

장성진 . A Lacanian Nameless Figure in Frances Burney’s Evelina 영미문학페미니즘 [Internet]. 2019; 27( 2), : 121-140. Available from: doi:10.15796/fsel.2019.27.2.005

장성진 . “A Lacanian Nameless Figure in Frances Burney’s Evelina” 영미문학페미니즘 27, no.2 (2019): 121-140. doi: 10.15796/fsel.2019.27.2.005

홈 권호 목록 논문 목록 논문 상세

A Lacanian Nameless Figure in Frances Burney’s Evelina

영미문학페미니즘

약어 : FSEL

2019, vol.27, no.2, pp.121 - 140

DOI : 10.15796/fsel.2019.27.2.005

발행기관 : 한국영미문학페미니즘학회

연구분야 : 영어와문학

장성진¹

¹중앙대학교

인용한 논문 수 : - 서지 간략 보기

초록

The word “peculiar” in Frances Burney’s novel Evelina appears three times in reference to Evelina’s situation and Evelina herself. Evelina is an abandoned and a displaced daughter. She is forbidden to claim herself as the legal daughter of Sir Belmont. Moreover, Evelina is displaced by a woman misunderstood as the biological daughter of Sir Belmont. In this paper, aside from these textual explanations of her peculiar situation, I would like to view her situation through the lens of Lacan’s theory of language; Evelina is neither named nor fathered, if I may borrow Lacan’s theory of language. For Lacan, the subject enters ‘the symbolic’ by accepting the Law of the Father or the Name of the Father represented as language. Therefore, as soon as the subject obeys the Law of the Father, it is named, fathered, and, in turn, regarded as the subject of ‘the symbolic.’ In this respect, Evelina’s namelessness means that she is not appropriately placed as the subject, and, as a result, she is subjected to assault. Thus, Evelina both as a woman and a misplaced subject suffers more bitterly than other female characters in this novel. She has no way to protect herself other than to get married so that she can be a named figure, which eventually fails because she has not been legally proved to be Sir John Belmont’s daughter.

키워드

Frances Burney, Evelina, Freud, Lacan, the Name of the Father, nameless, feminine subject, a chain of signifiers

참고문헌(12)

[단행본] Burney, Frances / 1997 / Evelina / Bedford
[학술지] Cope, Virginia H. / 2003 / Evelina’s Peculiar Circumstances and Tender Relations / Eighteenth-Century Fiction 16 : 59 ~ 78
[학술지] Cutting-Gray, Joanne / 1990 / Writing Innocence: Fanny Burney’s Evelina / Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature 9 : 43 ~ 57
[단행본] Freud, Sigmund / 1959 / Beyond the Pleasure Principle / Bantam
[학술지] Jang, Sungjin / 2011 / ‘My Name is Arthur Gordon Pym’: The Fragmented Subject’s Entrance into the Symbolic in The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym Nantucket / The Journal of English Language and Culture 2 (1) : 91 ~ 106
[단행본] Jones, Vivien / 2007 / The Cambridge Companion to Frances Burney / Cambridge UP : 111 ~ 127
[단행본] Lacan, Jacques / 2006 / Écrits / Norton
[학술지] Newton, Judith / 1976 / Evelina’: Or, the History of a Young Lady’s Entrance into the Marriage Market / Modern Language Studies 6 (1) : 48 ~ 56
[단행본] Rogers, Katharine M. / 1990 / Frances Burney: The World of ‘Female Difficulties’ / Harvester Wheatsheaf : 25 ~ 40
[단행본] Spencer, Jane / 2007 / The Cambridge Companion to Frances Burney / Cambridge UP : 21 ~ 31
[학술지] Staves, Susan / 1976 / Evelina; or, Female Difficulties / Modern Philology 73 : 368 ~ 381
[단행본] Thaddeus, Janice Farrar / 2000 / France Burney / St. Martin’s P : 32 ~ 51