The Repetition of the Childish Demand by a Desire to the Other’s Agalma: A Lacanian ‎Analysis of The Teacher of the Ants and Little Elephant, Where did You Sleep?‎

Tayefi, Shirzad; Shalchian Nazer, Tohid

doi:10.22099/jcls.2024.48750.2015

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

¹ Associate Professor of Persian Language and Literature, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran

² Ph.D. Candidate of Persian Language and Literature, Allameh Tabatabaʼi University, Tehran, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22099/jcls.2024.48750.2015

Abstract

The psychological roots of most of human actions have been explained by the science of psychoanalysis. By reinterpreting Freud’s views, Jacques Lacan made a great revolution in psychoanalysis and presented a new linguistic reading of such concepts as demand, desire, child and the post-childhood period. The psychoanalytical ideas of Jacques Lacan can be used as methods or perspectives for analyzing works of children’s literature. In this research, we have tried to explain the repetition of children’s desire in the symbolic or the adaptation of secondary identity in Mohammad Sohrabi's The Teacher of the Ants and Mitra Masiha’s Little Elephant, Where did You Sleep? The findings of the research show that characters such as the honey bee, the duckling, and in one occasion the crow, felt a sense of integrity and wholeness due to seeing an imaginary image of the integrated ego in a mirror held by other or mother in front of them. The childish demand was stable for the person until he/she had not faced the lack in him/herself and had not recognized the ego as a castrated identity. Also, when a person identifies the ego as a castrated entity, he/she enters into the adaptation of the secondary identity or the domain of the symbolic of the Other’s desire in order to be able to recover his/her ideal ego as a childish demand. At this stage, the person follows the implications of the symbolic order with the hope of regaining the previous childish demand; however, he/she fails every time due to the representation of the sign of anxiety.

Keywords

Main Subjects

children's Literature Studies

References

Ahmad Soltani, M. (2013). The influence of inter-cultural relations on literary elements, aesthetics and form of children's and adolescent literature. Research Journal of Children and Adolescent Literature, 38, 60-64. [in Persian]

Arji, A. (2015). Collection of articles of the first biennial conference of children's literature and childhood studies "Yesterday's Literature, Today's Child". by effort Hossein Sheikh Rezaei, Tehran: Book House Institute. [in Persian]

Ason, P. L. (2019). Lacan. (M. Khazaei and M. Nizamizadeh, Trans.). Tehran: Sales. [in Persian]

Ayman (Ahi), L. et al. (1973). A survey in children's literature. Tehran: Children's Book Council. [in Persian]

Bahrami Komeyl, N. (2004). Theorizing for Childhood (Sociology of Childhood). Children's and Adolescent Literature Research Journal, 41, 82-91. [in Persian]

Boothby, R. (2021). Death and desire: psychoanalytic theory in Lacan's return to Freud. Tehran: Bidgol. [in Persian]

Cloreau, J. P. (2018). Lacan's vocabulary. (K. Mullally, Trans.). Tehran: Ney. [in Persian]

Derrida, J. & Lacan, J. (2015). On the head of Moriah mountain: Literature on the head, an introduction to the names of the father. (M. Jafari Sabet, Trans.). Tehran: Chatrang. [in Persian]

Fink, B. (2017). Lacanian subject: Between language and jouissance. (M. A. Jafari, Trans.). Tehran: Ghooghnoos. [in Persian]

Ghasemizadeh, S. A. et al. (2021). The three-stage process of narration in children's and teenagers' literature (based on the theory of Maria Nikolaeva). Children's literature studies, 1(23), 141-166. [in Persian]

Granby, O. (2019). Children's literature. (A. Khoshsafa, Trans.). Tehran: Hekmat Kalameh. [in Persian]

Hasanzadeh, A. et al. (2015). Children and the fairy tale world. Tehran: Research Institute of Anthropology: Afkar. [in Persian]

Hunt, P. (2021). Criticism, theory and children's literature. (S. Rizvani & A. Izadpanah, Trans.). Tehran: Madreseh. [in Persian]

Khomohammadi Khairabadi, S. (2013). In the realm of children's literature and poetry. In The collection of articles: Children's and Adolescent Literature Conference. By Mohammad Hossein Ghoreyshi, Birjand University. [in Persian]

Lacan, J. (2018). My teachings. (E. Kianikhah, Trans.). Tehran: the author's profession. [in Persian]

Leclerc, S. (2021). A child is killed: On early narcissism and the death drive. (A. Hasanzadeh, Trans.). Tehran: Lega. [in Persian]

Levine, S. Z. (2015). Lacan in another frame. (M. Malek, Trans.). Tehran: Shawand. [in Persian]

Maktabifard, L. & Mansourian, Y. (2011). Genealogy of children's literature research from a methodological point of view. Children's literature studies, 3(1), 137-152. [in Persian]

Malekzadeh, A. (2021). Children and youth press dictionary. Tehran: Ofogh Malek. [in Persian]

Masiha, M. (2015). Little elephant, where did you sleep? Tehran: Center for Intellectual Development of Children and Adolescent. [in Persian]

Moghaddam, A. (1954). Poems of teenagers and children in ten centuries (from fifty ancient and contemporary poets). Mashhad: Ferdowsi University.

Mohammadi, M. H. (1999). Fantasy in children's literature. Tehran: Roozegar. [in Persian]

Moshiri, M. (1993). Dictionary of French verbs (alphabetic-analogous). Tehran: Soroush.

Movallali, K. (2018). An introduction to Lacan's psychoanalysis: Logic and topology. Tehran: Danje. [in Persian]

Nosratnejad, V. (2018). Who am I, what do you want?: Psychosis from the perspective of Jacques Lacan. Tehran: Sib Sorkh. [in Persian]

Partov, R. (2015). Child and story. (A. Farhadi Topkanlu, Trans.). Qom: Amooalavi. [in Persian]

Seyedabadi, A. A. (2015). Child's body and finality of children's literature. Children's and Adolescent Literature Research Journal, 44, 31-36. [in Persian]

Sheikh al-Islami, H. (2006). A child in the mirror (a morphological look at the relationship between children's literature and the dominant values of life). Children's and Adolescent Literature Research Journal, 45 & 46, 48-58. [in Persian]

Sohrabi, M. (2014). Teacher of Ants. Tehran: Sooreyeh Mehr. [in Persian]

Tayefi, S. (2023). From lack to surplus in words: Lacanian reading of the tales of palace of the sad birds and the previous stroke. Research Journal of Kurdish Literature, 9(1), 1-16. [in Persian]

Vaghfipour, S. (2018). The idea of psychoanalysis: An introduction to psychological structures (psychosis, deviance, psychosis). Tehran: Sib Sorkh. [in Persian]

Žižek, S. (2006). Welcome to the desert of the real. (F. Mohammadi, Trans.). Tehran: Hezareh Sevvom. [in Persian]

Journal of Children's Literature Studies

The Repetition of the Childish Demand by a Desire to the Other’s Agalma: A Lacanian ‎Analysis of The Teacher of the Ants and Little Elephant, Where did You Sleep?‎

References

References

Volume 15, Issue 2 - Serial Number 30
March 2025
Pages 161-178

The Repetition of the Childish Demand by a Desire to the Other’s Agalma: A Lacanian ‎Analysis of The Teacher of the Ants and Little Elephant, Where did You Sleep?‎

References

References

Volume 15, Issue 2 - Serial Number 30March 2025Pages 161-178

Volume 15, Issue 2 - Serial Number 30
March 2025
Pages 161-178