Taming Female Unruliness as Lacanian Castration: Rethinking the Taming Plot in The Taming of the Shrew

儲湘君(Hsiang-Chun Chu)

《小說與戲劇》 20卷1期 (2010/04) Pp. 25-48

並列摘要

This study reconsiders the taming plot in William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew from a Lacanian perspective. To provide an alternative reading to the gender issues of male supremacy and female submission, this paper argues the taming of Katherina corresponds to the Lacanian concept of castration, a symbolic process that brings about the formation of subjectivity from an imaginary identification to a symbolic identification.
Petruchio is the agent that initiates the process of castration on Katherina, even though he also destabilizes the rules established by the Name-of-the-Father represented by male superiors such as Baptista, regarding courtship and marriage. Petruchio forces Katherina to abandon her shrewish self through a series of strategies, such as verbal abuses, imposition of a marriage contract, deprivations of bridal feast, food and sleep. Shifts from dramatization to narration in representations of the bridegroom’s arrival, the wedding ceremony, and the first homecoming trip indicate the priority of verbalization over visualization, or the symbolic over the imaginary. The eccentricities in these ritualistic events aim at
dragging Katherina away from her former identity trapped in the imaginary order. In the sun-moon scene, Petruchio initiates Katherina into the symbolic order, enabling her to recognize the rule of the Other.
Katherina's final speech on female obedience is an affirmation of her assimilation into the symbolic order. By giving up identification with the imaginary shrewish unruliness, Katherina has completed the process of castration with recognition of her lack. Katherina remains Katherina in a deeper sense. Accepting her position in relation to the Other, Katherina can be shrewish in a socially sanctioned way.

並列關鍵字

William Shakespeare ； The Taming of the Shrew ； Jacques Lacan ； castration

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