• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.53
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• pp.73-102
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• 2018

The purpose of this study was to explain, using Jacques Lacan's theory of desire, how Ellen Olenska functions as the object petit a in her relationship with Newland Archer and to connect the impossibility of Newland and Ellen's love with the impossibility of desire, in Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence. In New York society in the 1870s, the unpleasant truth was avoided, personal opinions were excluded, no room for imagination existed, and other-ness was expelled. In that society, Newland realized that true love and true emotions were lacking in his life. For Newland, Ellen was the gap in New York society and the object that could fill that gap. Ellen functioned as the object petit a. But the romance between Newland and Ellen was forbidden in New York society, where everything was dominated by strict social codes, and especially because Newland was engaged to Ellen's cousin, May Welland. Ellen became inaccessible to Newland and this set Newland's desire for Ellen in motion. He idealized Ellen as the objet petit a, based on the fantasy that she would fill the void in his life. However, at every critical moment, Newland delayed unification with Ellen by resorting to social codes. His actions betrayed that the goal of his desire was not the fulfillment, but the reproduction of desire, with its circular movement. His decision not to see Ellen in Paris again at the end of the novel can be interpreted as Newland's effort to maintain Ellen as the inaccessible object, objet petit a, forever. It is this impossibility of desire that the romance of Newland and Ellen is predicated upon. Another purpose of this study was to expand this impossibility of desire to the relationship between man and woman and to interpret The Age of Innocence as a story showing the characteristics of the relationship between the sexes. The relationship between Newland and Ellen shows that there is no harmonious relationship between the sexes and that woman exists only as a fantasy object, objet petit a for man.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.219-241
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• 2007

This study takes its point of departure from Lacanian psychoanalysis and explores the point that an irremediable gap in the human subject can be illuminated in terms of the Lacanian categories, fantasy, symptom, gaze or voice as cause of desire of the Other. With respect to the category of the symptom, Lacan claims that the Other is always already there in the constitution of the subject, that is, the relation of the subject to the Other that is overwhelming as well as attracting the subject. Chapter II deals with the unthought, excessive ground of the conscious that borders on the subject, as is the case of self-excentric aspect of the man. Indeed, in Lacan's early work, the subject is essentially a relationship to the Other as desire(objet petit a), and there is no such thing as a symptom or fantasy without some subjective involvement. Lacanian unknown real, perpetual excess as the cause of desire animates the subject even as it threatens to blast it apart. The structures that establish the lines of desire in every individual are derived from an ineluctably intersubjective field. The Other is always already there in the constitution of the subject. In the final years of Lacan's teaching we find a kind of universalization of the symptom and almost everything that is becomes in a way symptom. Symptom, embodied in Laura in "Goblin Market," is her only substance, the only positive support of her being. By looking at the Laura's symptom in chapter III we gain an insight into the forbidden domain, into a real space that should be left unseen and unthought. The voice of goblin men therefore functions as a sublime object that is animating as well as dominating element even as it threatens to disintegrate the subject. Objet petit a as a sublime object that must be excluded in reality returns in the real, taking on a certain materiality which has an effect on Laura, that is, animates Laura's desire. Objet petit a is a real object, signifying nothing. In conclusion, the theoretical importance of Lacanian psychoanalysis is the relation between a subject and an Other as Objet petit a.

• Journal of Korea Game Society
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.29-38
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to analyze how auto-combat function in mobile RPG satisfies player's desires. The auto-combat is classified into two types-complete and partial- by timing of activation and degree of control. With elicited aspects of play, players' desires are examined based on Lacan's Desire Theory. A player employing partial auto-combat desires to master higher stages with perfect or flawless control, and one's 'object petit a' is to be the difficulty of the stages. On the other hand, a player applying the complete auto-combat demands to fully comprehend the rules of the game and to attain the rewards of completed stage to build more competent characters. Once a player acquires the desirable object, one recognizes the illusion of one's achievement and seeks for new objects. In this succession, auto-combat function is utilized as an active action of willingness for fulfilling one's desire.

• English & American cultural studies
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.29-57
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• 2013

Patricia Waugh once regarded modernism fiction as 'the struggle for personal autonomy' against the opposition existing social institutions and conventions. Michael Cunningham's characterizations of Virginia Woolf and Septimus in The Hours show the two contrasting reactions to individual alienation and mental dissolution in the modern era. As the personifications of endurance and self-destruction against the mechanical power of contemporary world, Woolf and Septimus consist of just the world of diptych where the woman's role is confined to the angel in the house. By creating Mrs. Brown based upon his own alienated mother image, however, Cunningham succeeds in representing the more dramatically vivid world of triptych where woman can have her own room and self-realization despite still facing the dilemma of the traditional family. Accepting Joycean Bloom's optimistic and relaxing way of life in part, Mrs. Brown connects the labyrinths between the author's (and also Richard's) alienation with the theme of celebration of the life. Clarissa in postmodern New York setting is still a concealed and mystified character. Similar to Mrs. Dalloway, on the one hand Clarissa watches other people's tragedy with compassion. Cunningham's Clarissa, on the other hand, is no longer seeking for either winning or defeat in the spectacular world unlike her predecessors. In many resilient attitudes of everyday life Clarissa is closest to Mrs. Brown whom Virginia Woolf originally hopes to describe. Without any fear or rage toward the society Clarissa witnesses and achieves "the humanity, humour, depth" of female values by successfully turning the trivial life into an epic journey.