The theories of Jacques Lacan give explanation and intention to the narrator's actions throughout the novel "Surfacing". Although Margaret Atwood may not have had any knowledge of the French psychoanalyst's philosophies, I feel that both were making inferences on behavior and psychology and that the two undeniably synchronize with each other. I will first identify the complex philosophies of Jacques Lacan and then demonstrate how the narrator falls outside of Lacan's view of society and how this leads to her demand for retreat from that society in order to become 'whole'.

Jacques Lacan was a French psychoanalyst that derived many of his theories from Sigmund Freud. His views of the conscious and unconscious being split and a phallocentric order as the center of society evolved from Freud's. Lacan views our development in life as three stages or phases that one must enter into in order to become a part of society. The goal of these phases is the stabilization of signifiers. 'Signifiers', the elements of memory that make up the unconscious are floating around the unconscious. These 'signifiers' are held together by the phallocentric order which is real

ntric order' is distorted. This is a brief explanation. First, Lacan's formation of 'self' and 'Other' must be understood in great detail.

this 'as though he's commenting on the weather.' This shows David's lack of conviction when he says this. Talking about the weather is notorious for being the worst kind of 'small talk', that subject to which people turn when they cannot find anything to say. It is something people say just so that they are speaking. By associating David's slur, a supposed symbol of patriotism, with comments on the weather, its dry empty opposite, she successfully reduces it to something that is just said but not really meant. Another example of this, is that found on page one hundred and thirteen, where David has another encounter with a group of Americans.

We know from the first example that this type of attack is something David just does and doesn't really feel. What's more in this example is that the Americans he is attempting to insult don't hear him, they misinterpret his actions and think he is greeting them. This then builds on the first example by showing that David, apart from not having any conviction in his 'hatred' of the Americans is in tacit partnership with them. These two instances show that David merely says thing in order to mask his true self; to fool the others, for he is in fact that which he so regularly and unconvincingly give vocal protest to. What is interesting is that immediately before his yelling 'Pigs! Pigs!' at the Americans, Anna his wife has accused him of hating women. It is thus possible to read his attack on the Americans as an attempt to convince her and the others otherwise by projecting it onto the Americans, his usual scapegoat.

The center has a lot of names in Lacanian theory. It's the Other; it's also called the PHALLUS. The Other (capital O) is a structural position in the Symbolic order. It is the place that everyone is trying to get to, to merge with, in order to get rid of the separation between "self" and "other." "The Law-of-the-Father, or Name-of-the-Father, is another term for the Other, for the center of the system, the thing that governs the whole structure--its shape and how all the elements in the system can move and form relationships. This center is also called the PHALLUS, to underline even more the patriarchal nature of the Symbolic order. The Phallus, as center, limits the play of elements, and gives stability to the whole structure. The Phallus anchors the chains of signifiers which, in the unconscious, are just floating and unfixed, always sliding and shifting. The Phallus stops play, so that signifiers can have some stable meaning. It is because the Phallus is the center of the !

The word 'shoot' relates to both guns and cameras, which reinforces Anna as prey destined to become a trophy; destined to be strung up in celluloid 'like a lynch victim.' She like the dead bird is of no use to the men that are 'shooting' her, other than as a trophy, as something which proves their power. She is an outsider that cannot be 'tamed, cooked or trained to talk', the only thing she is thus good for is a trophy proving the potency of the men.

The next minute he had scrambled up and was capering on the point, shaking his clenched fist and yelling "Pigs! Pigs!" as loud as he could. It was some Americans, going past on their way to the village, their boat sloshing up and down in the waves, spray pluming, flags cocked fore and aft. They couldn't hear him because of the wind and the motor, they thought he was greeting, they waved and smiled.

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rance into the Imaginary by becoming just like her mother. It will be my point to demonstrate later that the narrator falls outside the phallocentric order formed by her entry into the third phase, the SYMBOLIC.

ized in the stages of development. This may be confusing, but related to the narrator it becomes clearer. The narrato

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Approximate Word count = 3295
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page double spaced)