A Lacanian Psychoanalytic Reading of Virginia Woolf’s The Waves

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M.A. Thesis in English Literature

 A Lacanian Psychoanalytic Reading of

Virginia Woolf’s The Waves

Abstract

     In her passage from the classical façade of literature to the innermost depths of human mind, Virginia Woolf undertakes the great endeavor not only to further the collapse of a substantial literary foundation, but also to found upon it her original immortal fashion. For that reason, Woolf’s legacy, although having undergone considerable misapprehension, localization, and adaptation, still outshines numerous succeeding modes and matters. Even so, most modern studies on Woolf, ironically, lack a modernistic approach capable of appreciating the more enigmatic yet more philosophically profound nature of her works. That being the case, this study examines Woolf’s innovative “play-poem”, The Waves, drawing on Jacques Lacan’s major psychoanalytical concepts, aiming mainly to fulfill a twofold purpose: First, to cast light into the obscure voids respecting this singular piece of art and second, to unearth its latent universal facet binding it to a whole new area of study. Accordingly, Lacan’s theory of the three orders of psyche acts as a sine qua non for this study granting it not only grounds to root in, but also an end to quest for.