The Byronic Sense of Self Beyond the Mirror: A Lacanian Reading of Manfred: A Dramatic Poem

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Karabulut T.

7th International Congress of Social Sciences, İzmir, Turkey, 24 - 25 December 2022, pp.279, (Summary Text)

  • Publication Type: Conference Paper / Summary Text
  • City: İzmir
  • Country: Turkey
  • Page Numbers: pp.279
  • Open Archive Collection: AVESIS Open Access Collection
  • Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

Manfred: A Dramatic Poem is a closet drama composed in the form of a lyrical play in 1816-1817 by Lord Byron, who contributed to the rise of the Byronic hero in English literature. The play was intended to be read aloud rather than being performed on the stage. It embodies a wayward Byronic hero, Manfred, living in solitude in a Gothic castle. Manfred feels remorseful over an untold sin from the past and seeks eternal oblivion. Rejecting supernatural and religious comfort, he goes through a solitary self-destruction upon sensing his mirror image. Even though his sin is not exactly clarified, many critics have interpreted the text from biographical accounts by tracing the poet’s incestuous affiliation with his half-sister, Augusta Leigh. However, my focus has been on treating the protagonist as a fictive persona rather than an actual figure, which saves the text from authorial presence and paves the way for creative interpretations by the modern reader. Through the lens of Lacanian theories, this paper aims to explore the function of the mirror image in the process of Manfred’s sense of self, and investigates the critical mirror through which he finds himself reflected in Astarte. It is through this focalization that this paper also shows Manfred’s corporeal and spiritual evolution from supernatural to natural, challenging the Romantic tradition.