Volume 5, Issue 2 (June 2026)
IJER 2026, 5(2): 0-0 |
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Javanbakht H, Borzabadi Farahani H, Moradi H. (2026). Reconfigurations of Traumatic Subjectivity: Lacanian Distortions of the Imaginary and Symbolic Orders in J.D. Salinger’s Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction. IJER. 5(2),
URL: http://ijer.hormozgan.ac.ir/article-1-530-en.html
URL: http://ijer.hormozgan.ac.ir/article-1-530-en.html
1- Department of English language, Ka.C. , Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran
2- Department of English Language, Ar.C., Islamic Azad University, Arak, Iran ,053225375222@iau.ac.ir
3- Department of English Language, Ka.C., Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran
2- Department of English Language, Ar.C., Islamic Azad University, Arak, Iran ,
3- Department of English Language, Ka.C., Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran
Abstract: (207 Views)
Objective: This paper examines the interrelated themes of trauma, identity, and Lacanian psychoanalysis in J. D. Salinger’s Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction. The study aims to analyze the psychological fragmentation of Buddy and Seymour Glass and to investigate how trauma functions not merely as an individual psychological experience but as a structural force that disrupts subjectivity, identity formation, and the relationship between the self and the social world.
Methods: The study adopts a qualitative, interpretive approach grounded in Lacanian psychoanalytic theory. Key Lacanian concepts—including the Imaginary and Symbolic orders, the Real, and the Death Drive—are employed to analyze Salinger’s narrative techniques and character constructions. Through close textual analysis, the research explores the tension between the protagonists’ inner fantasies and desires and the demands imposed by external social and linguistic structures.
Results: The analysis reveals that both Buddy and Seymour Glass are psychologically fragmented subjects caught between the Imaginary and the Symbolic. Trauma in Salinger’s works operates as a persistent disruptive force that reshapes the characters’ relationship to language, identity, and self-knowledge. The protagonists’ inability to symbolize or articulate their traumatic experiences results in cycles of self-repression, silence, and existential frustration, leaving them trapped in an unresolved confrontation with the Real.
Conclusions: The study concludes that Salinger’s representation of trauma offers critical insight into the limits of personal self-knowledge, the instability of symbolic identity, and the fragility of subjectivity in the modern, increasingly fragmented world. By applying a Lacanian framework, the paper demonstrates how Salinger’s protagonists remain suspended in a state of psychological impasse, underscoring the tenuous nature of individual subjectivity and the enduring impact of unassimilated trauma.
Methods: The study adopts a qualitative, interpretive approach grounded in Lacanian psychoanalytic theory. Key Lacanian concepts—including the Imaginary and Symbolic orders, the Real, and the Death Drive—are employed to analyze Salinger’s narrative techniques and character constructions. Through close textual analysis, the research explores the tension between the protagonists’ inner fantasies and desires and the demands imposed by external social and linguistic structures.
Results: The analysis reveals that both Buddy and Seymour Glass are psychologically fragmented subjects caught between the Imaginary and the Symbolic. Trauma in Salinger’s works operates as a persistent disruptive force that reshapes the characters’ relationship to language, identity, and self-knowledge. The protagonists’ inability to symbolize or articulate their traumatic experiences results in cycles of self-repression, silence, and existential frustration, leaving them trapped in an unresolved confrontation with the Real.
Conclusions: The study concludes that Salinger’s representation of trauma offers critical insight into the limits of personal self-knowledge, the instability of symbolic identity, and the fragility of subjectivity in the modern, increasingly fragmented world. By applying a Lacanian framework, the paper demonstrates how Salinger’s protagonists remain suspended in a state of psychological impasse, underscoring the tenuous nature of individual subjectivity and the enduring impact of unassimilated trauma.
Keywords: Lacanian Psychoanalysis, Traumatic Subjectivity, Imaginary and Symbolic Orders, Existential Fragmentation
Type of Study: Original |
Subject:
Educational Studies
Received: 2025/09/12 | Accepted: 2025/12/21 | Published: 2026/06/1
Received: 2025/09/12 | Accepted: 2025/12/21 | Published: 2026/06/1
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