The Divided Self in Brown, Poe and Melville

Many critics have identified a sense of anxiety within the literary works of the Early National period. By using a hybrid of William James and Jaques Lacan’s approaches to the “Divided Self,” we see that this anxiety can be found internally, as key characters from Brown, Poe, and Melville display symptoms of a “Divided Self.” Ultimately, all of the “Divided Selves” present in these key texts resolve into pseudo, if not actual, suicidal subjects. By applying James and Lacan’s schemas to these texts, we gain a new appreciation for their psychological complexity and sophistication.