Abstract

The mirror constitutes a significant image that recurs multiple times in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, and it is mainly associated with Mick Kelly and Biff Brannon, who are reckoned in the novel grotesques in terms of sexuality. This article does not consider the mirror as something merely reflecting the subject in front of it, but as a media that occasions self-examination and self-reconstitution of the subject. It superimposes Michel Foucault’s concept of heterotopias onto McCullers’s depiction of the two characters’ construction and reconstruction of subjectivity as well as their search for identification. Nonetheless, the so-called identification with the mirror image, paralleled by what Lacan observes in the mirror stage, is but a misidentification, for the mirror is in essence a heterotopia of illusion.

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call

Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.