Unveiling L'objet petit a in Anaïs Nin’s “The Veiled Woman”: A Lacanian Reading of Femininity in Erotica

Abstract

The similarities between the works of French-born Cuban writer Anaïs Nin and French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan suggest a novel avenue to interpret Erotica as a literary genre. I hypothesize that by reading Nin through Lacan—more specifically by applying the Lacanian gaze as an instance of objet petit a to Nin’s short story “The Veiled Woman”—we subversively perceive Nin’s female characters as the more active and dominant agents, thus reconsidering themes such as power, femininity, and sexuality in Erotica. Analyzing the gaze as a thematic agent in Nin’s erotica can also provide new insight into psychoanalysis that encompasses a wider range of subjects. Possible gaps that this paper hopes to bridge include the overlooked and misunderstood value of psychoanalytic theories in literary criticism as well as Lacan’s own elusive seminars and repeatedly remodeled theories. I attempt to put forth possible explanations for and reconsiderations of Lacan’s gaze as exemplified in “The Veiled Woman.”