A Psychoanalytic Approach To Self-Identity In Olivia Rodrigo’s SOUR
Keywords:
Lacanian Psychoanalysis, Self-Identity, SOUR Album, The Imaginary, The Symbolic, The RealAbstract
This study analyzes the construction and fragmentation of self-identity in Olivia Rodrigo's debut album SOUR (2021) through the framework of Lacanian psychoanalysis. Employing a qualitative approach and textual analysis, this research examines five selected tracks to identify representations of the three Lacanian orders: The Imaginary, The Symbolic, and The Real. The analysis reveals that the lyrical subject possesses no stable, coherent self-identity but is instead formed dialectically through imaginary identification with a failed image, through submission to symbolic law and language, and through traumatic encounters with the Real that resist all representation. Each song manifests the dynamics of these three orders differently, revealing that the fragmentation of identity in SOUR is not an artistic failure but rather a faithful registration of the structural condition of the speaking and desiring subject.
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