Lacanian Transference in A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini and The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
Abstract
This article explores the intersection of Lacanian psychoanalysis and subaltern theory in Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns and Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things, focusing on the female protagonists Mariam and Rahel. It examines how each woman internalizes the figure of the Other which is mediated through their respective mothers, Nana and Ammu, within both familial and socio-political contexts. The transmission of subaltern identity and maternal trauma positions Mariam and Rahel as silenced, marginalized subjects shaped by patriarchal and colonial power structures. Nana and Ammu, cast out and silenced for their transgressive relationships with Jalil and Velutha, respectively, become emblematic of the abject maternal Other. Their social exclusion prefigures the daughters’ own descent into silence and passivity. Drawing on the Lacanian concept of desire and the mechanism of transference, this article argues that Mariam and Rahel inherit not only their mothers' pain but also the social conditions that render them voiceless. Nana and Ammu’s marginalization, resulting from their socially transgressive relationships with Jalil and Velutha, becomes a formative force in shaping their daughters’ inward, subdued identities. The emotional and social consequences of these maternal experiences are transmitted to Mariam and Rahel, who come to embody the silence, shame, and dispossession inherited through maternal bonds. Transference, in both novels, emerges as a process through which the structures of domination reproduce themselves within the psyche, binding the personal to the political. Therefore, the fusion of Lacanian and subaltern perspectives provides a critical framework for analyzing how desire, power, and colonial legacies shape feminine subjectivity in postcolonial contexts.
References
- Agustina, H. N., Budiman, M., & DSR Publishers / The University of Jordan. (2024). Focalization of Afghan women’s repression and resistance in A Thousand Splendid Suns and My Forbidden Face. Dirasat: Human and Social Sciences, 51(3), 234–241. https://doi.org/10.35516/hum.v51i3.2
- Asif, M. (2024). Unveiling the veil: An examination of gender oppression in Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns. Journal of International Communication, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/13216597.2024.2362704
- Bailly, L. (2023). Lacan: A beginner’s guide. Oneworld Publications.
- Ballestrin, L. (2022). Postcolonial and decolonial subaltern feminisms. Postcolonial Studies, 25(1), 108–127.
- Burman, E. (2016). Fanon’s Lacan and the traumatogenic child: Psychoanalytic reflections on the dynamics of colonialism and racism. Theory, Culture & Society, 33(4), 77–101.
- Cheng, A. A. (2001). The melancholy of race: Psychoanalysis, assimilation and hidden grief. Oxford University Press.
- Fiaz, A. (2023). Prospects of studying the marginalized communities of Pakistan in subaltern studies framework. Pakistan Vision, 24(2), 104–121.
- Fielder, T. (2022). Psychoanalysis and antiracism in mid-20th-century America: An alternative angle of vision. History of the Human Sciences, 35(3–4), 193–217.
- Fink, B. (2016). Lacan on love: An exploration of Lacan’s Seminar VIII, Transference. Polity Press.
- Fitzpatrick, C. (2009). New Orientalism in popular fiction and memoir: An illustration of type. Journal of Multicultural Discourses, 4(3), 243–256. https://doi.org/10.1080/17447140902972305
- Freed, J. L. (2011). The ethics of identification: The global circulation of traumatic narrative in Silko’s Ceremony and Roy’s The God of Small Things. Comparative Literature Studies, 48(2), 219–240. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/complitstudies.48.2.0219
- Heat, J., & Zahedi, A. (Eds.). (2011). The land of the unconquerable: The lives of contemporary Afghan women. University of California Press.
- Hook, D. (2008). Postcolonial psychoanalysis. Theory & Psychology, 18(2), 269–283.
- Hosseini, K. (2008). A thousand splendid suns. Bloomsbury.
- Kapoor, M., & IUP. (2021). The God of Small Things versus The Devil of Big Things: Narrative technique and Arundhati Roy. The IUP Journal of English Studies, 16(2), 46–48.
- Lacan, J. (1938). Family complexes in the formation of the individual (C. Gallagher, Trans.). Unpublished manuscript, St. Vincent's Hospital, Dublin.
- Lacan, J. (2006). Écrits: The first complete edition in English. W. W. Norton & Company.
- Lam, M. (2009). The politics of fiction: A response to new Orientalism in type. Journal of Multicultural Discourses, 4(3), 257–262. https://doi.org/10.1080/17447140903198496
- Nasio, J.-D. (1998). Five lessons on the psychoanalytic theory of Jacques Lacan. State University of New York Press.
- Peters, M., & Apple, S. (1996). Positioning theory: Discourse, the subject and the problem of desire. The International Journal of Anthropology, 40, 120–141.
- Rostami-Povey, E. (2007). Afghan women: Identity and invasion. Zed Books.
- Roy, A. (2002). The God of Small Things. Penguin Books India.
- Roy, O., & Banerjee, J. (2022). Khaled Hosseini’s And the Mountains Echoed: An exposé of the hegemonic gender-power relations in the legitimized social structure of hierarchy. The IUP Journal of English Studies, 17(4), 14–29.
- Shing Yi, N. (2003). Peripheral beings and loss in Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things. Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, 2(4). http://www.qlrs.com/essay.asp?id=329
- Spivak, G. C. (1988). Can the subaltern speak? In C. Nelson & L. Grossberg (Eds.), Marxism and the interpretation of culture. https://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~sj6/Spivak%20CanTheSubalternSpeak.pdf
- Tickell, A. (2007). Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things: A Routledge study guide. Taylor & Francis Group. Vanheule, S., Hook, D., & Neill, C. (2019). Reading Lacan’s Écrits: From “Signification of the Phallus” to “Metaphor of the Subject”. Routledge.
- Von Der Lippe, B. (2011). The white woman’s burden: “Feminist” war rhetoric and the phenomenon of co-optation. NORA - Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research, 20(1), 19–36. https://doi.org/10.1080/08038740.2011.618811
Details
| Primary Language | English |
|---|---|
| Subjects | British and Irish Language, Literature and Culture |
| Journal Section | Articles |
| Authors | |
| Publication Date | June 30, 2025 |
| Submission Date | June 12, 2025 |
| Acceptance Date | June 30, 2025 |
| Published in Issue | Year 2025 Volume: 7 Issue: 1 |
