objet petit a as the subject’s complement in doris lessing’s the fifth child: a lacanian approach

Using jacques lacan’s theory of subjectivity provides a ground for a different understanding of doris lessing’s the fifth child. lacan states that all human beings are born with a feeling of incompleteness and a fundamental lack. in order to explain the subject’s desire to fulfill the inherent lack, he employs the concept of objet petit a, as the subject complement. in addition, lacan postulates the concepts of imaginary order and the mirror phase, presenting subjectivity as a reflective image, and symbolic order and the other theorizing subjectivity as an entity that directs itself through language. accordingly, the fundamental concepts of the other and objet petit a seem helpful in a lacanian reading of lessing’s novel where the exploration of subjectivity has a lot to offer. the significance of this study is to substantiate how the lacanian subject and objet petit a are connected and in what manner lessing uses them in her novel in order to discuss the dilemma of subjectivity in different characters. central to the analysis in this article is the probing into a collapse in the formation of subjectivity in lessing’s novel in which objet petit a has a pivotal role, resulting in a new vision.