THE PHENOMENON OF POWER: IRVINE WELSH FILTH

Abstract

The “Word” is central to the “unconscious” of the individual. The "unconscious" is not a chaos of words, but a system, like the structure of language. The unconscious of Irwin Welsh's characters in the novel Filth reveals “lack” and “desire” in statements and reflections. The purpose of the research is to reveal the mechanisms of “lack” and “desire” in order to analyze the subconscious of the hero I. Welsh and the subconscious in general. In philology 2 half of 20-th century a new toolkit appeared for the analysis of texts: “desire” and “lack” in the characters of the characters of artistic works. I focus on the “desire” and “lack” of the hero Robertson I. Welsh, which are “keys” for understanding the psyche of a man and a woman at the turn of the 20-th-21-st centuries. An important dominant is “power”. “Power” is surrounded by “lack” and “desire” in the human mind. The thirst for “power” becomes a motive for actions and movement of the hero's life strategy. In the “desire” and “lack” of power, I find destructive consequences for the psyche of a person, who goes to his goal and violates humane values, morality, imposes his will on others, and above all, puts his own “ego” first. The hero's rejection of humane guidelines eventually destroys his success, his goal, his family, the hero himself. I. Welsh depicts the collapse of a person who is able to put his goal – “position” as the highest value - and refused decency, friendship, love. The phenomenon of power is the core around which the development of the plot of the novel Filth by Irvine Welsh is wrapped. The idea of the novel is the destruction and self-destruction of the hero, who strives with all his might to gain power. Harmful human vices of the 20-th-21-st centuries reveal post-colonial problems: national conflict in the collective subconscious Scotland / England. The writer debunks social institutions at the level of violation of the law, emphasizes that the thirst for “power” destroys a person, warns about the destruction of the environment in a situation, when a person is given “power” for which he is not ready