Psychoanalytic Interpretation of Blueberries by Susan Gibb

• Main Author: Maya Zalbidea Paniagua
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Editorial Delirio 2014-06-01
• Series: Caracteres: Estudios Culturales y Críticos de la Esfera Digital
• Subjects: hypermedia; digital short fiction; gender; body; psychoanalysis
• Online Access: http://revistacaracteres.net/revista/vol3n1mayo2014/psychoanalytic-blueberries/

Blueberries (2009) by Susan Gibb, published in the ELO (Electronic Literature Organization), invites the reader to travel inside the protagonist’s mind to discover real and imaginary experiences examining notions of gender, sex, body and identity of a traumatised woman. This article explores the verbal and visual modes in this digital short fiction following semiotic patterns as well as interpreting the psychological states that are expressed through poetical and technological components. A comparative study of the consequences of trauma in the protagonist will be developed including psychoanalytic theories by Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan and the feminist psychoanalysts: Melanie Klein and Bracha Ettinger. The reactions of the protagonist will be studied: loss of reality, hallucinations and Electra Complex, as well as the rise of defence mechanisms and her use of the artistic creativity as a healing therapy. The interactivity of the hypermedia, multiple paths and endings will be analyzed as a literary strategy that increases the reader’s capacity of empathizing with the speaker.