Lacan's three orders in Ursula K. Le Guin's earthsea series

• Main Author: Lim, Vera Jiahua
• Other Authors: School of Humanities and Social Sciences
• Format: Theses and Dissertations
• Language: English
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: DRNTU::Humanities::Literature
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/59527
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This thesis is inspired by a quote from Ursula Le Guin: “A fantasy is a journey. It is a journey into the subconscious mind, just as psychoanalysis is. Like psychoanalysis, it can be dangerous; and it will change you.” The first chapter is on the relationship between fantasy literature and Lacanian psychoanalysis, introducing my focus on Le Guin’s Earthsea series. I have chosen the Earthsea series because every book revises the previous ones, hence allowing for the examination of the changing relationship between Lacan’s three Orders, as illustrated in the second chapter. The Earthsea series appear to advocate a joining of the mutually exclusive Symbolic and the Real Orders, until the last book of the Earthsea series. The final chapter is devoted to the study of the last novel, which collapses all the expectations set out in the previous books, demonstrating why the Symbolic and the Real are irreconcilable.