Silence and the speaking symptom: a Lacanian account of "Black wedding" by LB. Singer

Abstract

Since no psychoanalytic examination of the structures of language and silence in Isaac Bashevis Singer's tales exists, I have tried to provide an adequate framework for such a study. The story was chosen for its textual significance as a record of psychosis, as well as for its formal similarity to more conventional psychoanalytic case-histories. Through a study of Lacan's developmental stages (imaginary, mirror, symbolic) I have attempted to explain the female protagonist's resistance to language and her consequent failure to achieve symbolisation, resulting in psychotic hallucinations. The failure of symbolisation on the part of the subject is explicitly linked to her subservient position in a rigidly patriarchal society.

Opsomming
Aangesien daar geen psigoanalitiese ondersoek van die strukture van taal en stilte in Isaac Bashevis Singer se verhale bestaan nie, het ek probeer om 'n toereikende raamwerk vir so 'n studie te verskaf. Die verhaal is gekies weens die tekstuele belang daarvan as 'n rekord van psigose, asook vir die formele ooreenkoms daarvan met meer konvensionele psigoanalitiese gevallebeskrywings. Deur 'n studie van Lacan se ontwikkelingstadia (imaginer, spieel, simbolies) het ek probeer verduidelik hoe die vroulike protagonis se weerstand teenoor taal, en haar gevolglike mislukking om die simboliese te bereik, psigotiese hallusinasies tot gevolg het. Die subjek se mislukking tot simbolisering is eksplisiet gekoppel aan haar onderdanige posisie in 'n rigiede patriargale samelewing.