Ian McEwan’s characters in Žižekian process of subjectivity a study of ian McEwan’s atonement and solar

Abstract

Jacques Lacan’s (1901-1981) theory of subjectivity provides literary criticism with an authentic approach to the analysis of characters. Slavoj Žižek, also, supplies his own reading of the Lacanian theory by adding Hegel to the Lacanian Subject and generates his theory of ‘subject in process.’ Taken from Žižek’s words that “the status of the subject is thoroughly “processual”” (Žižek, 2010, p. 232), we have decided to call the Žižekian theory as processual subjectivity. Considering the psychoanalytic significance of the characters in the novels of the renowned British author Ian McEwan, we will apply the Žižekian theory of processual subjectivity on the main characters of Ian McEwan in two of his novels: Solar and Atonement. It is to be proved that this reading can lead to better appreciation and apprehension of characters’ psyche.