Volume 7, Issue 4 (December 2025)
IEEPJ 2025, 7(4): 1-14 |
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Javanbakht H, Borzabadi Farahani H, Moradi H. (2025). Feeling Trauma within the Interconnected-Tense Context of the Imaginary and the Symbolic in J.D. Salinger’s Franny and Zooey: A Lacanian Discourse Analysis. IEEPJ. 7(4), 1-14.
URL: http://ieepj.hormozgan.ac.ir/article-1-1084-en.html
URL: http://ieepj.hormozgan.ac.ir/article-1-1084-en.html
1- Department of English language and Literature, Ka.C. , Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran
2- Department of English Language and Literature, Ar.C., Islamic Azad University, Arak, Iran ,053225337522@iau.ac.ir
3- Department of English Language and Literature, Ka.C., Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran
2- Department of English Language and Literature, Ar.C., Islamic Azad University, Arak, Iran ,
3- Department of English Language and Literature, Ka.C., Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran
Abstract: (1304 Views)
Objective: This study examines Franny and Zooey through a Lacanian lens to explore how J.D. Salinger’s narrative reflects the fractured nature of modern identity. It investigates the interplay between Lacan’s concepts of the Symbolic, the Imaginary, and the Real, and how these dimensions shape the characters’ psychological and social experiences.
Methods: A qualitative literary analysis was conducted, employing Lacanian psychoanalytic theory as a framework. The study focused on character interactions, dialogue, and narrative structure to identify the tensions between social conventions, personal longing, and the ungraspable elements of reality.
Results: The analysis reveals that the characters are confined by the Symbolic—language, family rules, and social scripts—while simultaneously yearning for the wholeness represented by the Imaginary. Encounters with the Real disrupt their attempts at coherence, manifesting in Franny’s spiritual collapse and Zooey’s ironic interventions. These dynamics illustrate the instability of meaning and the inherent incompleteness of identity. Trauma emerges not as an isolated event but as an enduring feature of selfhood.
Conclusions: Salinger’s narrative emphasizes the ethical significance of living with the fractured self. By portraying the temporary nature of meaning and the relational foundation of identity, the story suggests that embracing incompleteness, rather than resolving it, constitutes a mature and conscious approach to life.
Methods: A qualitative literary analysis was conducted, employing Lacanian psychoanalytic theory as a framework. The study focused on character interactions, dialogue, and narrative structure to identify the tensions between social conventions, personal longing, and the ungraspable elements of reality.
Results: The analysis reveals that the characters are confined by the Symbolic—language, family rules, and social scripts—while simultaneously yearning for the wholeness represented by the Imaginary. Encounters with the Real disrupt their attempts at coherence, manifesting in Franny’s spiritual collapse and Zooey’s ironic interventions. These dynamics illustrate the instability of meaning and the inherent incompleteness of identity. Trauma emerges not as an isolated event but as an enduring feature of selfhood.
Conclusions: Salinger’s narrative emphasizes the ethical significance of living with the fractured self. By portraying the temporary nature of meaning and the relational foundation of identity, the story suggests that embracing incompleteness, rather than resolving it, constitutes a mature and conscious approach to life.
Type of Study: Original |
Subject:
Evolutionary Psychology
Received: 2025/07/5 | Accepted: 2025/09/14 | Published: 2025/12/1
Received: 2025/07/5 | Accepted: 2025/09/14 | Published: 2025/12/1
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