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Between reality and desire: truth and significance in Robert Lowell's "Skunk Hour"

Authors

  • Amalia Rodríguez Monroy Universitat Pompeu Fabra

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.26754/ojs_tropelias/tropelias.19955-65585

Keywords:

Robert Lowell, truth

Abstract

From a Lacanian perspective, this paper elaborates on truth as distinct from a traditional conception of the rational and as separated from the conscious intention of the author. Discourse is seen as a symbolic process in which the subject builds the figures of his unconscious desire. Nietzsche already noted the illusory nature of truth and its dependence on the metaphoric character of all forms of language as inherited beliefs whose fictive -discursive- construction we tend to forget. Our analysis of Rober Lowell's autobiographical "Skunk Hour" (Life Studies, 1957), will serve to illustrate meaning as originating in a series of textual relations; meaning as based on the capacity of tropes to displace and hide, while showing, at the same time, the fragility of our imaginary link to reality.

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Published

2021-06-18 — Updated on 2021-06-27

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How to Cite

Rodríguez Monroy, A. (2021). Between reality and desire: truth and significance in Robert Lowell’s "Skunk Hour". Tropelías: Review of Literary Theory and Comparative Literature, (5-6), 337–348. https://doi.org/10.26754/ojs_tropelias/tropelias.19955-65585 (Original work published June 18, 2021)

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Papers