| Abstract [eng] |
The present MA paper analyses Jolita Skablauskaitė’s novels "Brudenis" (2006) and "Sado sindromas" (2010). The primary concern of this study is to examine the recent works of Skablauskaitė concentrating on still unexplored expression of eros from the male perspective. The objectives of the analysis are as follows: to discuss the projections of eros, the relationship between eros and cultural prohibitions, the protagonists’ reaction towards the death of their lovers, the relationship between the eros drive and the psyche – consciousness and subconsciousness, id and superego, as well as the relationship between the eros drive and the thanatos drive. Based on the conceptions of eros presented in Algis Mickūnas’ "Summa Erotica", Michel Foucault’s "The History of Sexuality" and Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis, eros is understood as the love for life and the other, as well as sublimated love for art and knowledge. The analysis reveals the peculiarities of the pictures of Brudenis and Albanas – the protagonists of the novels, finding themselves under the influence of the eros drive. The attention is also paid to the relationship between the identity of the aforementioned protagonists and the social norms. "Brudenis" stresses the importance of the pagan identity, thus the projections of eros, unconstrained by social taboos, develops a narcissistic nature. "Sado sindromas" deals with the conflict between the pagan and the Christian identities – following taboos and suppressing desires become the reason for a split personality. The choice of the objects of eros is determined by the Oedipus complex. In the case of Albanas, a forbidden desire for his mother is replaced by women-substitutes. All of the substitutes are united by the same fate – death. This choice corresponds to Freud’s idea of the compulsion to repeat. Although the lover of Brudenis also dies, he manages to overcome his grief and to return to the physical reality, to sublimate the projectless eros. Albanas’ melancholy, on the other hand, turns into hallucinations marked by his childhood memories, certain traits of the objects of eros, the desires of the eros drives, the sense of guilt invoked by the superego, and the need for punishment. The hallucinations are closely related to the pure drives of eros and thanatos, unrestrained neither from the inside, nor from the outside. The name of the novel ("Sado sindromas") refers to the drive of thanatos, sadism and the works of Marquis de Sade. The aforementioned hallucinations reflect Sade’s ideas of the free drive of eros and the breaking of the social prohibitions. Thanatos, the drive of death, aggression and destruction, becomes one of the components of its opposite – the drive of eros. Since the extent of the present MA paper is limited, the topic of art as the sublimation of eros is not analysed in full, neither are the topics of transgression and sacrality. Not much attention is paid to thanatos, thus a more in-depth analysis would most probably reveal the uniqueness of Skablauskaitė’s works. The analysis of the eros and the thanatos drives may prove the hypothesis that under the influence of the unrestrained drives the recent novels of Skablauskaitė became darker and more fragmented. |
