Original scientific paper
Electra's Complex or the Heroine Anna in the Jaws of Socialization of Love
Merima Omeragić
; Center for Interdisciplinary Studies "prof. dr Zdravko Grebo" , University of Sarajevo
Abstract
The topic of the essay is the interpretation of the interdependent relationship between a father and a daughter and its consequences on the emotional life of the grown daughter (woman) in the novel The Daughter of the East (2012) by the Spanish author Clara Usón. A methodological framework was created which includes different theories of textual analysis intersecting with the feminist unlocking of the social context giving rise to familiar relations, as well as dynamic, individual choices of the heroine Ana. Taking into consideration that the focus is placed on the patriarchal character of a nuclear family, the article will first consider the literary means of construction of a dependent relationship and an unhealthy love between a daughter and a father. Their relationship is integral for the conception of the novel because it obstructs the heroine’s independence, blocks the creation of antipatriarchal views on love, initiates wrong choices, romanticizes male-female relationships and, finally, undermines the heroine’s capacity of finding and maintaining a healthy relationship. The feminist intervention in the classical psychoanalytical term Electra’s complex uncovers a powerful role of the father and the status of the girl (woman) in a familial or social hierarchy. Based on her relationship with her father, Ana, as a grown woman, forms ideas about love and emotional and erotic relationships with men. Imbued with the vital emotion of the love between a parent and offspring, the understanding of the relationship complicates the interpretation through the prism of the role of the eternal girl who seeks a multifacetedly problematic ideal of love. The role of the heroine, coded by the novel, is revealed in the aspects of general submission and the aim to satisfy her father’s demands, as well as a secret destructive testing of an erotic encounter with an inadequate partner.
Keywords
Clara Usón; The Daughter of the East; patriarchy; nuclear family; Electra's complex; a dependent relationship father – daughter; the eternal girl; romantic love; psychoanalytical feminism; cultural politics of emotion; , theory of love;
Hrčak ID:
312627
URI
Publication date:
29.12.2023.
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