‘The Wasteland’ has been psycho-analytically studied to understand the poet’s psyche, the metaphor of images, symbols, etc. for new untouched and unexplored findings in the genre of practical criticism. The poem has been deciphered on the basis of three psychoanalytic models (a) Lacan’s ‘Language and Unconscious’ (b) C.G. Jung’s ‘Collective Unconscious’ and (c) Northrop Frye’s ‘Archetypal Criticism’.
Lacan’s ‘Language and Unconscious’, attempts to read ‘The Wasteland’ in the likeness of three-stage order of childhood formation viz imaginary, symbolic and real. The unveiling of author’s step-by-step sub-conscious unfolds his psyche. C.G. Jung’s ‘Collective Unconscious’ codifies the literary allusions, myths and symbolisms of the poem to form …show more content…
In this order, the poet enters into societal relations metaphorically. These societal relations in the context of the poem were the pack of literary allusions, myths, legends and images which the poet incorporated in his poem. He found that every horror of the contemporary century which he brought about in the poem found a voice as well as bore a relation to many literary texts of past and present both. The poet associates a chain of signifiers in a metonymic displacement. In the poem loss of spirituality is associated with ‘a heap of broken images’, ‘the final stroke of nine’, ‘he who was living is now dead’, and ‘empty chapel’ Similarly, the metonymic displacement of sexual perversion is indicated by ‘the sylvan scene’, ‘the typist girl’ and ‘the lament song of three Thames’ daughters’. As Lacan points that this order was also the stage of identifying ‘absentee’ or a ‘lack’. This identification results in a ‘desire’ to gain or achieve the ‘absentee’ or a ‘lack’. In context of the poem, it could be observed that the poet identified an ‘absentee’ or a ‘lack’ in the contemporary society. It was this lack which was craved by the poet at many places in the poem. It could be understood that the poet craved for higher sensibility in ‘The Wasteland’. The poet’s desire for higher sensibility is reflected by the poet’s allusion to Buddha’s ‘Fire Sermon’, St. Augustine’s ‘Confessions’ and towards the end of the poem, thrice repetition of the sound of thunder ‘Da, Da, Da’ from Brihadrankya
Lacan’s ‘Language and Unconscious’, attempts to read ‘The Wasteland’ in the likeness of three-stage order of childhood formation viz imaginary, symbolic and real. The unveiling of author’s step-by-step sub-conscious unfolds his psyche. C.G. Jung’s ‘Collective Unconscious’ codifies the literary allusions, myths and symbolisms of the poem to form …show more content…
In this order, the poet enters into societal relations metaphorically. These societal relations in the context of the poem were the pack of literary allusions, myths, legends and images which the poet incorporated in his poem. He found that every horror of the contemporary century which he brought about in the poem found a voice as well as bore a relation to many literary texts of past and present both. The poet associates a chain of signifiers in a metonymic displacement. In the poem loss of spirituality is associated with ‘a heap of broken images’, ‘the final stroke of nine’, ‘he who was living is now dead’, and ‘empty chapel’ Similarly, the metonymic displacement of sexual perversion is indicated by ‘the sylvan scene’, ‘the typist girl’ and ‘the lament song of three Thames’ daughters’. As Lacan points that this order was also the stage of identifying ‘absentee’ or a ‘lack’. This identification results in a ‘desire’ to gain or achieve the ‘absentee’ or a ‘lack’. In context of the poem, it could be observed that the poet identified an ‘absentee’ or a ‘lack’ in the contemporary society. It was this lack which was craved by the poet at many places in the poem. It could be understood that the poet craved for higher sensibility in ‘The Wasteland’. The poet’s desire for higher sensibility is reflected by the poet’s allusion to Buddha’s ‘Fire Sermon’, St. Augustine’s ‘Confessions’ and towards the end of the poem, thrice repetition of the sound of thunder ‘Da, Da, Da’ from Brihadrankya