Psychoanalytic Study of an Artist’s Mind in Mahesh Dattani’s Play Tara

Abstract

This research focuses on the psychoanalytic study of an
artist’s mind in Mahesh Dattani’s play Tara. Dan’s guilt is the cause of
his failure as an artist. His misdirected assumption that his sister Tara
lost one leg because of him makes him an escapist thus resulting in the
phase of “incubation,” which in turn has a negative effect on the stages
of “illumination” and “verification” that follow it in the creative model
proposed by Wallas and Smith consulted form the article entitled
“Creativity.” Due to his ensnaring guilt Dan does not realize that in the
process he reconstructs himself as an object also, thus making it his
tragedy as well. The analysis argued from the perspective of poststructuralist concepts discussed by Catherine Belsey in Critical Practice
reveals that Dan is unable to justify his position as the “grammatical
subject” as a result of the conflict initiated by his “subject-position” of a
brother. The emphasis is to argue that Dan’s authority over the “subject
of enonce” is possible only when he resolves his conflicts within the
“subject of enunciation.”