Exploring Repressed Desires and Their Effects on the Emergence of Varied Kinds of Violence in Selected Novels of Stephen King[پايان نامه لاتين]

Mohsen Amely

This study offers a psychoanalytic reading of Stephen King s Misery and The Dark Half on the basis of Slavoj Zizek s notions of violence and its hidden dimensions. In this research, the matter of confronting violence directly and detesting all kinds of aggression in the activities of individuals as well as sympathizing with victims have been scrutinized. There are miscellaneous critical approaches with regard to what psyche is. It is significantly worth applying to the works of Stephen King who has gained much success as a Gothic author and who concentrates on unconscious gothic elements and psychotic (psychopath) characters. It can be argued that these two novels reveal the notion of violence which is the result of dualism and failure in achieving intrinsic desires as stated in Slavoj Zizek s conceptions (subjective and objective violence as well as its subcategories: symbolic violence and systematic violence). In view of the fact that Stephen King is regarded as a Gothic novelist, this study will concentrate on the leading characters psyches in two of his most exciting novels to determine if the author s beliefs are along with the definition of psyche and violence as suggested by Zizek. In fact, this study is concerned to understand how much psyche and the unconscious are effective in the exposure of violence, trepidation, affliction, torment and madness of the leading characters in Stephen King s Misery and The Dark Half. As a philosopher as well as a theorist, Zizek emphasizes on the concept of violence and its impacts on changing the mood of the protagonists and on doing frenetic actions. Consequently, it is to be studied that unfulfilled intrinsic and intellectual desires in the real world and in fact, the uncertainties of mental demands and the unfulfillment of these desires can cause violence in the society.