It-tentattiv tar-ridefinizzjoni tal-Jien f'Fl-isem tal-Missier (u tal-Iben) ta' Immanuel Mifsud : adattament ta' bixra dekostruzzjonista

Abstract

This paper seeks to analyse the strategies adopted by Immanuel Mifsud in 'In the name of the father (and the son)' in order to explore, and possibly widen, what Alan Thiher identifies as 'the coordinates of self'. The challenge suggested in Helene Cixous's statement that 'one can confess all one wants, the unconfessable remains unconfessed' is taken as a point of departure from which the text takes its cue. The dilemma which very likely crops up in an autobiographical work (ie. the fear that one might confess what is deemed unconfessable) is transformed into a strategy which permits several key elements in the text to lose the certainty in their definition. By applying Derrida's concept of 'differance' Mifsud manages to deconstruct certain concepts by dislocating their meaning from a fixed position to continuous deferral. This radicalization is made possible thanks to the Hamletian encounter which Mifsud experiences with the spectral figure of his father. In realizing what, since then, had been unrealizable, the author manages to come to terms with what had been disturbing him since childhood. In the process, concepts such as masculinity and paternity, which the author finds utterly problematic to embrace in his attempt to redefine himself, have their definition radically altered. In the case of masculinity, the binary opposition which differentiates it from the concept of femininity is weakened to such an extent that its definition stops excluding the other.When it comes to paternity the deferral in the meaning of such concepts as father and son helps the author to relieve the pain which fatherhood inflicts on his soul.