A lacanian reading of Jeanette Winterson's Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit and Zadie Smith's White Teeth

This study aims to examine two contemporary British novels, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson and White Teeth by Zadie Smith from the perspective of Lacanian psychoanalysis. The self-discovery processes of the female characters in both novels render it possible to carry out this study in the light of Lacan's psychoanalytic criticism. In this respect, Jeanette, the protagonist, from Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit and Irie, one of the major characters, from White Teeth are to be analysed within the framework of Lacan's key concepts: the Mirror Stage, unconscious desire, the theory of sexuation, and his three Orders called the Imaginary, the Symbolic, and the Real. Within their Lacanian journeys of self-discovery, both Jeanette and Irie undergo similar conflicts and challenges in the course of their identity formation. Living through complex familial relationships and romantic entanglements, both female characters struggle to achieve their desired identities in spite of the constraints imposed by their respective symbolic discourses. While Jeanette explores her sexual identity as a lesbian woman despite her strictly religious environment, Irie discovers her racial identity as a mixed-race woman in a multicultural environment predominantly shaped by white British culture. Hence, for this study, these two young women's individual experiences as Lacanian subjects in different symbolic discourses are considered distinctive examples to reveal the Lacanian psychological identity construction process.