A Lacanian analysis of Layla al-Othman’s short story ‘Men fadlak, tallekni’ (I beg you to divorce me): A literary style that oscillates between semiotic and symbolic orders

Abstract

The objective of this article is to conduct a psychoanalytical literary criticism of Layla Al-Othman's feminist short story titled 'Men Fadlak Tallekni'. The author is commonly regarded as a stout advocate of Women's rights in the Arab World. Her body of work speaks about the persistent struggle of women against men's dominant culture of patriarchy. Therefore, we conduct a critical Lacanian examination of this literary text. Such examination requires a thorough understanding of Lacan's principal theories that appeared in his various seminaries, from Name-of-the-father to object petit a, and from desire to jouissance, with emphasis on the protagonist's pre-linguistic narrative. Her plight is that of being castrated. Her voice emerges from her regressed refuge. Thus, there is a confrontation with two sets of languages: one imposed by Lacan's symbolic order and the other surging from the feminist literature defined by Kristeva's maternal semiotic order. The outcome of our analysis reveals that Al-Othman's protagonist has not resolved the Oedipus complex. She doesn't possess the discourse of paternal language. Rather, she is swaying back and forth between the imaginary and the symbolic.