Gray Kochhar-Lindgren

In _Narcissus Transformed_, Gray Kochhar-Lindgren interprets Narcissus as thematizing the tragic situation of the postmodern subject. After showing the connections between Cartesian philosophy and narcissism, he proceeds to lay out the function of Narcissus as a poetic figure of discourse in the fields of psychoanalysis and modern fiction. He moves beyond the description of narcissism to an interpretation of the conditions necessary for Narcissus, the beautiful boy captivated by his own image, to become a different kind of subject. The topos of narcissism, which is first articulated by Ovid, always includes within itself a mirror, a gap, self-referential desire, and death—all of which culminate in Narcissus's inability to make space for an Other. Kochhar-Lindgren contends that this is the founding topos of modern philosophy, which is then incorporated into and transmuted by the disciplines of psychoanalysis and fiction. With the extensive work of Freud on narcissism, it becomes a central concept for psychoanalysis; and with Lacan's interpretation of the narcissist as phantom, statue, and automaton, narcissism moves into a specifically textual interpretation of subjectivity. Kochhar-Lindgren then provides close readings of fictional texts-—_The Waves_ by Virginia Woolf, _The Ogre _by Michel Tournier, and _Daniel Martin_ by John Fowles—to show more explicitly the textual construction of the narcissistic subject and to suggest ways that Narcissus might be transformed into a subject not held in thrall to the "glassy-eyed stare of Thanatos." He concludes with an enactment, from a Lacanian and fictional perspective, of the beginnings of the undoing of the narcissistic topos of contemporary culture. Narcissus steps from the self-reflective mirror into a theater; he stops longing to be a purely self-reflexive work in order to become part of the play of a text

In this dissertation I explore the textuality of the self through the myth of Narcissus. The goal of my research is to examine how the self is "written" in psychoanalysis and fiction, and to see whether the self might be transformed by re-writing itself in the context of otherness. ;In the introductory chapter, I discuss narcissistic thinking in myth, psychoanalysis, literature, and philosophy, and show why these modes of discourse are active in the construction of a narcissistic culture. I also situate my writing in the space of poetry. ;Chapter Two is an explication of Sigmund Freud's work on the narcissistic subject. I focus on his essay, "On Narcissism," in which he attempts to understand the psychopathology as well as the "normal" course of the development of an object-choice for the cathexis of the libido. ;The third chapter interprets Jacques Lacan's understanding of the construction of subjectivity and its relationship to both writing and narcissism. As one aspect of this interpretation, I elaborate upon Lacan's images of the narcissist as phantom, statue, and automaton. ;In Chapter Four, I shift from psychoanalysis to the novel, and analyze the issue of personal identity and nothingness in Virginia Woolf's The Waves. Bernard, who wants to narrate his life as a story, serves as the interpretive pivot. But since he is constituted by language, his effort is bound to fail. ;Michel Tournier's The Ogre is the second novel that I analyze for the insight it affords into the narcissism. Abel Tiffauges, the protagonist, pathologically aggrandizes his individual experience and is therefore destroyed by the apocalyptic semiotic in which he becomes engulfed. ;In Chapter Six, I discuss John Fowles's Daniel Martin, in which the protagonist writes his own "authentic" history as a novel. As Daniel Martin constructs his new identity out of the ruins of his old, I suggest that art is narcissism that overcomes itself and opens up new structural possibilities. ;In the conclusion, I rehearse my previous arguments and return to the problem of Cartesianism. Finally, I contend that if he is to change, Narcissus must accept the otherness of a "third term" that links the subject and the object in an active generation of meaning