Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Research in Psychology
Year: 2024
DOI:
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A Lacanian Metaphorical Reading of John Milton’s Unconsciousness in Peter Ackroyd’s Milton in America
Ding-Hui Wang, Dr. Halimah Mohamed Ali
ABSTRACT:
The historical biographical novel Milton in America by British biographer and novelist Peter Ackroyd imagined the fugitive life of John Milton. Ackroyd constructed a quite different John Milton by settling the time background in early 1660 when John Milton the poet had to hide away from the revenge of the Restoration government. What kind of John Milton is created by Peter Ackroyd? What will John Milton confront in his adventure? The research now conducts a textual analysis of the novel Milton in America to describe the fictional Milton’s profile. Ackroyd’s John Milton becomes the elected Master of the new land, revealing a postmodernist understanding of the culture during Cromwell England. Is there any metaphorical indication of the British political, religious, and colonial situation on the main character, John Milton? Jacques Lacan (1977) explained the “identification” process of the Freudian ego forming between one’s perceived visual appearance and his emotional experience in the “mirror stage” as “alienation.” John Milton is constructed to suffer similar processes and move to an alienated ego/“I” in the novel. The underlying reason is thought-provoking. Therefore, by the Mirror Stage theory from structuralism psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, we will analyze John Milton’s unconsciousness when Drowning, Dreamy, and Drunk in the novel to conclude the keynote of Milton’s personality and the metaphorical meaning of Milton’s illusion.
keywords: John Milton, Unconsciousness, Jacques Lacan, Metaphor, Peter Ackroyd, Milton in America