Linguistic features revealing self recognition in John Fowles' the magus

Abstract

This study deals with John Fowles' The Magus and investigates self-recognition process of the central character. The study reveals the linguistic features of this process with reference to both qualitative and quantitative datum. The findings are examined together since a mixed methodology has been employed. The narrative has been divided into three parts and each part is analysed by using Jacques Lacan's terminologies, such as the imaginary order, the mirror stage and the symbolic order. The content analysis of the narrative text is consolidated by corpus analysis including keywords and collocational analysis. The correlation between self-recognition process and quantitative findings is debated from a Lacanian point of view and the relationship between qualitative and quantitative findings is discussed regarding the related literature. The study has shown the relationship between the discourse used in the narrative text and the linguistic preferences of the author in the representation of the central character's self-recognition process.