War as “Point de Capiton” in the Inscription of the Subject in the Symbolic in David Malouf’s Fly Away Peter

Abstract

It is illuminating to examine how the Australian novelist, David Malouf delineates rare facets of the psychological life of his protagonists in his fictional oeuvre. He situates his central characters in historically dense and psychologically disrupting ambience provided by the socio-cultural contexts of Australia. Having been dislocated by a traumatic childhood and marginalised by the social order, Malouf’s central characters are marked by an overwhelming desire to be recognised by the Other. What serve as signposts in their path of desire for recognition are the significant features of Australian culture and history. They evolve into dominant signifiers for the Australian subjects and intervene decisively in their lives. Malouf examines how war emerges as a “point de capiton” that temporarily arrests the meaning of a host of floating signifiers in defining “Australian-ness” or “identity as an Australian” in his seminal work, Fly Away Peter. This paper attempts to chart how war quilts the self-conception of the protagonist in the Symbolic Order.