Return to 0 : A Lacanian Reading of Ingeborg Bachmann\u27s Undine Goes

This essay approaches Ingeborg Bachmann\u27s Undine Goes from a Lacanian perspective. The object of the study is three-fold: first, to demonstrate Bachmann\u27s deconstruction of the ideal ego through the water-sprite Undine\u27s criticism of the human Hans. Second, to transcend the limitations of dualistic interpretations (as noted by some feminist critics), by introducing the triple Lacanian registers—the imaginary, the symbolic, and the real—into this particular reading. Finally, to establish Bachmann\u27s monologic text as a discourse of the real and Undine as the voice of the death instinct