There's No Such Thing as a Cat Person: A Lacanian Approach to Literary Criticism in Light of #MeToo

Authors

Luke M. Johnson, University of WollongongFollow

RIS ID

146700

Publication Details

Johnson, L. "There's No Such Thing as a Cat Person: A Lacanian Approach to Literary Criticism in Light of #MeToo." Symploke 28 .1-2 (2020): 241-256.

Abstract

In December of 2017, Kristen Roupenian's short story, "Cat Person" achieved something short stories rarely achieve: in the words of commentator Paul Donoughue (2017), it captured the zeitgeist and went "truly viral". Underlying the story's reception is the particular socio-historical moment we currently find ourselves in: the #MeToo moment. Drawing from Lacan's claim of there being "no such thing as a sexual relationship", this article considers the ways in which psychoanalysis might be employed to make sense of the "toxic" relationship that is at the heart of both the story and the historical moment more generally.