Identity(s): between skins and flakes

Abstract

We discuss in this article the questions concerning the topic of identity, drawing upon the literary discourse and basing our reflections on two psychoanalysts, Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan, and on the philosophical thought of Hannah Arendt. Following a narrative trail more than a poetry one, we highlight the manifestations of self and other in the complex double instance, on this intricate search for identity. The text has three parts that integrate and determine the construction of thought: the introduction, that presents the topic and its thread inside of what we mean by the fun and tense relationship between the self and the other in the process of simulation and literary representation; then, we show how this problem becomes poetry image in literature through some cases. Among them is a fragment of Dom Casmurro, a poem untitled by Fernando Pessoa and a passage from The prisoner, by Marcel Proust. To Mediate this part, a passage from The human condition, by Hanna Arendt, is discussed. Finally, after drawing distinctions between the treatment of the subject in different genres, we move forward to the final remarks by indicating certain points that we were able to draw from the theme as an extract of what literature can build and express from the ambiguous nature of literary language.