BREAKFAST ON PLUTO and “Lacanian ‘Pussy’: Towards a Psychoanalytic Reading of Patrick McCabe’s Breakfast on Pluto” by Peter Mahon

Not many people chose to blog on historical contexts last week, so I wanted to reprise this discussion question in hopes that someone might help us with some background: Patrick McCabe opens the novel with quite a bit of Irish history. Choose a date or event to research for this blog and explain how it might apply to the novel. You might want to research William of Orange, The Troubles, Bloody Sunday, the 1922 partition of Ireland, or the Belfast Good Friday Agreement of 1998.

Pasted above is a segment from a documentary entitled The Rocky Road to Dublin by filmmaker Peter Lennon . For your blog this week, feel free to view this documentary in its entirety (it’s all on youtube) and explore the depictions of 1960s Ireland in the documentary as juxtaposed to our vibrant main character, Pussy Braden.

http://www.archive.org/details/JohnMacKenzieWhateverYouSaySayNothingaSeamusHeaneypoem

Pasted above is a link to John MacKenzie reading “Whatever You Say, Say Nothing,” a poem by Irish poet Seamus Heaney, which Mahon references in his essay. How does Mahon interpret this poem? What is the relationship between the meaning in this poem and aspects of Breakfast on Pluto?

This week’s essay relies heavily on Jacques Lacan to explain its arguments. For your blog this week, read through this online lecture on Lacan put forth by Purdue University: http://www.cla.purdue.edu/academic/engl/theory/psychoanalysis/lacandevelop.html

Then, explain in your own words how Lacan’s ideas might apply to this novel. Feel free to agree of disagree with Mahon’s use of Lacan’s theories.

On page 445, Mahon states, “The triumph of McCabe’s text thus lies in its ability to open up a challenging, but nonetheless exciting and imaginative psycho-political space that is situated beyond the silent dynamics of phallic law, authority, and signification that shape fantasies of an apolitical humanity in Northern Ireland.” What do you think he means by this statement and how does it apply to the novel?

Last week, Fay wrote a brilliant blog analyzing Patrick/Pussy’s relationship with his mother. http://introtothenoveltheirishtradition.blogspot.com/2010/04/life-and-times-of-patrick-braden.html

For this week’s blog, use the Mahon article to expand upon Fay’s arguments, and feel free to develop your own analysis in terms of Pussy’s complex relationship with her mother.

There are many moments of violence in Breakfast on Pluto. Choose one of these moments in the novel and do a close reading on one of these moments. How does McCabe depict this moment of violence? How does Pussy react to these moments? What is the significance of her reaction?