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ETD Abstract Container

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In Luke More Than Luke: Family Romance and Narcissism in the 'Star Wars' Saga

Profitt, Blue Aslan Philip
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1555689565560614

Abstract Details

2019, Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, English/Literature.
The Star Wars epic has been important for popular culture since its emergence in 1977; it is relevant for film and popular culture analysis (both of which I tend to in this thesis), and it is a crucial epic tale that contributes to a model of literary and psychoanalytical history. In the four decades in Star Wars’ debut, fans and scholars alike have been interested in the saga’s ostensible depiction of incest and the Skywalker family romance, but I maintain that incest has become a more palatable metaphor for the characters’ respective narcissisms, and that these narcissistic affects in fact provide evidence of little-to-no erotic interest in one another and do not support the incestuous metaphor that is common to readings of the films. In this thesis, I engage the original Star Wars film trilogy as well as the work of Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, and other prominent psychoanalysts to offer my own critique of psychoanalysis’s overreliance on the Oedipal complex: In order to effectively de-Oedipalize psychoanalysis, we need to first recognize and reconcile the problem and ugliness of narcissism. I apply this paradigm to examine the character of Luke Skywalker and his relationships with his father, Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader, and his twin sister, Princess Leia Organa, though this framework can be used to de-Oedipalize other literary and filmic texts. Part I of this thesis traces Luke’s relationship with Darth Vader through Lacan’s concept, the “Name-of-the-Father,” to argue that Luke’s superficially Oedipal desire to become his idealized father is a disguise for his narcissistic desire to turn his father into a facsimile of himself. Similarly, Part II examines Luke’s relationship with Princess Leia through Lacan’s “The Agency of the Letter in the Unconscious” to argue that the twins rely so heavily on the signs and signifieds of sexual difference that they fail to recognize that they are in a narcissistically competitive dialogue.
Erin Labbie, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Jeff Brown, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
130 p.
Film Studies; Literature
Star Wars; Psychoanalysis; Narcissism; Jacques Lacan; Sigmund Freud; Oedipus; Oedipal complex; Luke Skywalker; Darth Vader; Princess Leia; Film; Film Studies; Literature; Literary Studies; Literary Theory; George Lucas; Popular Culture

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Profitt, B. A. P. (2019). In Luke More Than Luke: Family Romance and Narcissism in the 'Star Wars' Saga [Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1555689565560614

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Profitt, Blue. In Luke More Than Luke: Family Romance and Narcissism in the 'Star Wars' Saga. 2019. Bowling Green State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1555689565560614.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Profitt, Blue. "In Luke More Than Luke: Family Romance and Narcissism in the 'Star Wars' Saga." Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1555689565560614

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.