David St. John :: essays research papers fc

The Work of David St. John David St. John writes of love in a pessimistic way in his collection of poems, The Red Leaves of Night. His writings suggest love is unattainable and his relationships with people (especially with females) are portrayed as negative. St. John creates a fallen man in his text, especially when his poems focus on his dilemmas with women. Psychoanalysis plays a large role in the writings of St. John being that he shows the effects of his downfall and the negativity the downfall incorporates. Lacanian psychoanalysis suggests our language is structured like our subconscious and full of desires. Lacanian analysis also shows that the  ¡Ã‚ §signs ¡Ã‚ ¨ in language are split between the signifier and the signified and the barrier between the two lead to unfulfilled desires. St. John ¡Ã‚ ¦s poetry is swarming with lines alluding to unfulfilled desires or a longing for things that simply cannot be obtained. St. John establishes the breaking of a psyche and through Lacanian analysis we can s ee that the desires expressed in his poetry will never be met. Through Lacanian analysis, we are able to see that St. John is seeking more, and wanting more substance out of relationships and his life that cannot be obtained. St. John is longing for a sense completeness yet his completion is something that can never happen. Lacan shows the human psyche in three parts, similar to that of Sigmund Freud. Lacan calls the three parts  ¡Ã‚ §Orders ¡Ã‚ ¨ and they consist of the Imaginary, the Symbolic, and the Real. The Imaginary is  ¡Ã‚ §the part of the psyche that contains our wishes, fantasies, and, most importantly, images ¡Ã‚ ¨ (Bressler 156). Lacan ¡Ã‚ ¦s major focus is in his theory that our psyche is lack and fragmentation.  ¡Ã‚ §We have longings for love, for physical pleasure ¡Kbut nothing can fulfill our desire to return to the Imaginary Order and be at one with our mother ¡Ã‚ ¨ (Bressler 158). Many of the poems in The Red Leaves of Night withhold the sense that St. John is yearning for something and is never complete. For example, in his poem  ¡Ã‚ §The Unsayable, the Unknowable & You ¡Ã‚ ¨ St. John presents a situation where he is completely captivated by a woman and lusts for more activity with her.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚    ¡Ã‚ §My prize: A night alone (again) with you,tracing/This brocade of sweat along your amber shoulder./Let ¡Ã‚ ¦s weave together the dawn ¡Ã‚ ¦s superior light-/A script of bodies, inscribed by the summer ¡Ã‚ ¦s night ¡Ã‚ ¨ (St.