Research Article
The Symbiosis of the Internal and the External and the Temporalisation of Social Space in Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Abstract
When the Albatross falls from the Mariner’s neck into the sea, it metamorphoses into a symptom and the Mariner can cope with the demands of the social space only if he can tell his narrative to others. His narrative, which is fictionalization of his own unorganised psychodynamics, creates an interface between his subjective space and the social space of the wider world. His narrative functions for him as a sinthome, a self-narrative through which he creates a sense of self-continuity between the internal and the external. This is also an acting out of the Lacanian idea of the Moebius strip, which turns the Euclidean representation of space inside out, and which temporalizes space. His tale lacks unity in the traditional sense, but it has (psychological) coherence as his narrative as a sinthome provides him with a semantic ground on which he can meaningfully bring together all the fragmentary elements at the threshold of the imaginary and the symbolic. In this essay, I aim to give a Lacanian hearing to the interface between the subjective and the social, and discuss different forms of space along this interface created by/within the narrative(s) in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner using Lacanian ideas of symptom, sinthome, jouissance and the Moebius strip as my conceptual backcloth.
References
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Year 2025,
Volume: 35 Issue: 1, 17 - 36, 19.06.2025
Abstract
References
- Arrigo, B. A. (2004). The inside out of the dangerous mentally ill topological applications to law and social justice. google scholar
- Birlik, N. (2010). Samuel Taylor Coleridge’in ‘Yaşlı Gemici’ şiirinde semptom olarak Albatros. Littera, 26(1), 81-94. google scholar
- Birlik, N. (2011). Samuel Taylor Coleridge’in söyleşi ve yüksek imgelem şiirleri. Ürün. google scholar
- Birlik, N. (2018). Hermeneutics of lack of Lack and the dyad of the (m)Other and the Shared Other, in Zemeckis’s Beowulf. Neophilologus, 102(2), 241-256. google scholar
- Bostetter, E. E. (1961). The nightmare world of The Ancient Mariner. Studies in Romanticism, 1(2), 241-254. google scholar
- Brice, B. (2007). Coleridge and scepticism. Oxford University Press.Brivic, S. (2008). Joyce through Lacan and Zizek. Palgrave Macmillan. google scholar
- Coleridge, S. T. (1893). In E. H. Coleridge (Ed.), Anima Poetae. William Heinemann. google scholar
- Coleridge, S. T. (1971). In G. Watson (Ed.), Biographia Literaria. Everyman’s Library. google scholar
- Coleridge, S. T. (2004). The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. In N. Halmi, P. Manguson &R. Modiano (Eds.), A Norton critical edition: Coleridge’s poetry and prose (pp. 58-99). W.W. Norton. google scholar
- Cooke, K. (1979). Coleridge. Routledge & Kegan Paul. google scholar
- Dyck, S. (1973). Perspective in “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.” Studies in English literature, 1500-1900, 13(4), 591-604. google scholar
- Evans, D. (2006). Dictionary of Lacanian psychoanalysis. Routledge. google scholar
- Ferguson, G. (1999). Coleridge and the deluded reader: “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.” In Paul H. Fry (Ed.), The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (pp. 113-130). Bedford/ St. Martin’s. google scholar
- Fulford, T. (2008). Poetry, peripheries and empire. In J. Chandler & M. N. McLane (Eds.), British Romantic poetry (pp. 178-194). Cambridge University Press. google scholar
- Harari, R. (1995). How James Joyce made his name: A reading of the final Lacan. Other. google scholar
- Haven, R. (1969). Patterns of consciousness. University of Massachusetts Press. google scholar
- Holmes, R. (1982). Coleridge. Oxford University Press. google scholar
- Hook, D. (2008). Absolute other: Lacan’s ‘big Other’ as adjunct to critical social psychological analysis? Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2(1), 51-73. google scholar
- James, W. (1965). The stream of consciousness. In R. Ellmann & C. Feidelson, Jr. (Eds.), The modern tradition: Backgrounds of modern literature (pp. 715-723). Oxford University Press. google scholar
- Keane, P. J. (1994). Coleridge’s submerged politics: The Ancient Mariner and Robinson Crusoe. University of Missouri Press. google scholar
- Kitson, P. J. (1989). Coleridge, the French Revolution, and ‘The Ancient Mariner’: Collective guilt and individual salvation. Yearbook of English Studies, 19, 197-207. google scholar
- Knight, W. (1941). The Starlit Dome studies in the poetry of vision. Routledge. google scholar
- Lacan, J. (1992). The Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book VII: The ethics of psychoanalysis 1959-1960 (J.-A. Miller, Ed.; D. google scholar
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- Lacan, J. (1998). The Seminar of Jacques Lacan Encore, Book XX: On feminine sexuality, the limits of love and knowledge, 1972-1973. (J.-A. Miller, Ed.; B. Fink, Trans.). W.W. Norton. google scholar
- Lacan, J. (2006). Ecrits (1st complete edition in English) (B. Fink, Trans.). W.W. Norton.Mayberry, T. (1992). Coleridge and Wordsworth in the West Country. Alan Sutton. google scholar
- Mays, J. C. C. (2013). Coleridge’s experimental poetics. Palgrave Macmillan. google scholar
- McGann, J. (1981). The meaning of TheAncientMariner. CriticalInquiry, 8, 35-67. google scholar
- Mellard, J. M. (1991). Using Lacan, reading fiction. University of Illinois Press. google scholar
- Miall, D. S. (1984). Guilt and Destiny: The Predicament of the Ancient Mariner. Studies in English Literature, 15001900. 24, 633-653. google scholar
- Modiano, R. (1977). Words and ‘languageless’ meanings: Limits of expression in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Modern Language Quarterly, 38, 40-61. google scholar
- Perkins, M. A. (2002). Religious thinker. In Lucy Newlyn (Ed.), The Cambridge companion to Coleridge (pp. 188199). Cambridge University Press. google scholar
- Ragland-Sullivan, E. (1987). Jacques Lacan and the philosophy of psychoanalysis. University of Illinois Press. google scholar
- Reid, N. (2006). Coleridge, form and symbol. Ashgate P. google scholar
- Richards, I. A. (1960). Coleridge on the Imagination. (2nd ed.). Routledge and Kegan and Paul. google scholar
- Richards-Fisher, L. (2002). Where there’s a rime, is there a reason? Defining the personae in Coleridge’s ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.’ Coleridge Bulletin, 20, 63-68. google scholar
- Simpson, D. (1999). How Marxism reads ‘the Rime of the Ancient Mariner.’ In Paul H. Fry (Ed.), The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (pp. 148-167). Bedford/St. Martin’s. google scholar
- Stokes, C. (2011). Coleridge, language and the sublime: From transcendence to finitude. Palgrave Macmillan. google scholar
- Swanepoel, A. C. (2010). Coleridge’s transcendental imagination: The seascape beyond the senses in ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.’ Journal of Literary Studies, 26(1),191-214. google scholar
- Ward, D. (2013). Coleridge and the nature of imagination. Evolution, engagement with the world and poetry. Palgrave Macmillan. google scholar
- Warren, R. P. (1989). A poem of pure imagination: An experiment in reading. New and selected essays (pp. 335-423).Random. google scholar
- Watkins, D. (1988). History as demon in Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Papers on Language and Literature, 24, 23-33. google scholar
- Webster, S. E. (2010). Body and soul in Coleridge’s Notebooks, (1827-1834) ‘What is Life?’ Palgrave Macmillan. google scholar
- Williams, A. (1999). An I for an eye: ‘Spectral persecution’ in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. In Paul H. Fry (Ed.), The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (pp. 238-261). Bedford/St. Martin’s. google scholar
- Wilson, S. (2015). Stop making sense. Karnac. google scholar
There are 45 citations in total.
Details
| Primary Language | English |
|---|---|
| Subjects | World Languages, Literature and Culture (Other) |
| Journal Section | Research Articles |
| Authors | |
| Publication Date | June 19, 2025 |
| Submission Date | November 4, 2024 |
| Acceptance Date | May 25, 2025 |
| Published in Issue | Year 2025 Volume: 35 Issue: 1 |
