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Othering, Mirroring, And Identity In John Edgar Wideman's Brothers And Keepers, James E. Walker

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Jacques Lacan's notion of the mirror stage of human development, formulated from the theories of Sigmund Freud, lies at the core of psychoanalytic theory. Fundamental components of the mirror stage include the concepts of Otherness and Identity. This examination proffers a critical reading of John Edgar Wideman's Brothers and Keepers, through a psychoanalytic matrix and contemporary constructions of Othering, Mirroring, and Identity. To that end, this examination traces the evolution of the ways subsequent scholars have understood, applied, and expanded Lacan's classical mirror stage, and its components. Nancy VanDerHeide transforms the solitary, individual, experience of Lacan's mirror stage into a …