A Kristevan Reading of Lucy Maud Montgomery's Emily of New Moon

Subject Areas : Applied Linguistics

Neda Rahimi rad ¹ , Fatemeh Pourjafari ²

1 - Department of English Language and Literature, Kerman Branch, Islamic Azad University, Kerman, Iran
2 - Department of English Language and Literature, Kerman Branch, Islamic Azad University, Kerman, Iran

Received: 2023-05-11 Accepted : 2023-06-20 Published : 2023-09-01

Keywords: semiotic, Identity, the subject in process, Symbolic, Emily of New Moon,

Abstract :

This research aims to explore and examine Julia Kristeva's theory of the semiotic and symbolic dimensions of language on L. M. Montgomery's Emily of New Moon. In this novel Montgomery portrays the life of a young girl, Emily, who is in the middle of fight to gain self-realization. Kristeva suggests that the part of consciousness repressed by the process of the formation of the self through language – the symbolic- retains its own language - the semiotic- which cannot be entirely annihilated by our birth into the symbolic, and instead erupts into our controlled communication as unruly and uncontrolled expression. Emily has talent in writing and owns great imagination, which she uses as rebellion against the hardships of her life and by the interaction between father's realm of language and calmness and unity of mother's territory, her identity is in process. This research interprets Emily's shift from outer objective world to the inner reflective essence as a defense mechanism, through Kristeva's dichotomous concept of language.

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