Lacanian Psychoanalytic Criticism in Harry Potter Essay -- Lacan Child

Lacanian Psychoanalytic Criticism in Harry Potter The inhabitants of a faraway country known for its ivory towers and for its export of literary monographs were forever quarreling over who might best represent them. One day two tiny factions decided to join forces: the adherents of the Princess Childlit and the followers of Prince Psychian, the great-great-grandson of Empress Psyche. Both groups had for a long time felt themselves unduly spurned†¦ by the powerful Board of Canonizers who had ruled Arkedemia for over a century. Might not a wedding between the two claimants strengthen their status?... just as the engagement was about to be announced, the whole affair was abruptly called off. What had happened?†¦Their cohorts had begun to quarrel most bitterly with each other†¦ The wedding did not take place†¦Soon the board of Canonizers issued an edict pronouncing both groups to be out of the system. Hereafter, their passports would be stamped with the word â€Å"marginal† in red gothic print. (Knoepfl macher, 131-132) [1] U.C. Knoepflmacher’s wonderful parody of the current situation of children’s literary criticism and the psychoanalytic approach to literature perfectly sums up what will be the major obstacle of this critical paper. It would seem that modern literary criticism has an unfortunate tendency to overlook children’s literature extensively; to relegate it to a position of only secondary importance in the critic’s glossary of â€Å"good literature.† On top of that, psychoanalytic criticism, as it is applied to children’s literature, seems to have taken on a startlingly simplistic, static approach to the analysis of the text, that does very little justice to the diversity and complexity that the field possesses. (132-133) ... ...nnual of the Modern Language Association Division on Children’s Literature and the Children’s Literature Association.18 (1990): 131-134. Lesnik-Oberstein, Karin. Children’s Literature: Criticism and the Fictional Child. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994. McGillis, Roderick. â€Å"Another Kick at La/can: ‘I Am a Picture.’† Children’s Literature Association Quarterly.20.1 (1995): 42-46. Murfin, Ross, Ed. â€Å"What is Psychoanalytic Criticism?† The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 1999. Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. New York: Scholastic, Inc., 1998. Trites, Roberta Seelinger. â€Å"Psychoanalytic Approaches to Children’s Literature: Landmarks, Signposts, Maps.† Children’s Literature Association Quarterly. 25.2 (2000): 66-67.