Desire to Transcend the Symbolic in W.H. Auden’s “In Praise of Limestone”
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47067/jlcc.v4i3.113Keywords:
Desire, Imaginary, Lack, Language, Real, Symbolic, UnconsciousAbstract
H. Auden’s “In Praise of Limestone” presents a beautiful landscape which is enshrouded in heavenly luster,but thisparadisiacal bliss does not last longer, and it vanishes quickly. The loss of paradise is symbolic of what Lacan calls ‘the real’ due to our entry into the symbolic world.In this poem, the narrator being spell bound in the symbolic, loses its contact with the real for which he toils to return. In the material/symbolic world humans mourn throughout their lives because they feel alienated from the real. This paper is an attempt to analyze this poem from Lacanian perspective of desire as to how human beings feelalienated in the world of symbols and expresses their desire to return to the real stage.
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