UNVEILING THE DEATH DRIVE: A STUDY OF ITS TRACES IN SELECTED LITERATURE AND MANGA

Sigmund Freud is the first person to introduce the concept of ‘Thanatos’ in psychology and it has become the most researched concept till date. In his essay ‘Beyond the Pleasure Principle’, he emphasizes on the urge of human beings to return to zero, to become nothing. Such concepts are discussed in all genres of literature; concepts that are a little similar to Existentialism, Monism and Nihilism. All of these genres revolve around a single purpose or the crust of human existence. But Freud’s belief focuses on degeneration and evaporation of human existence. In literature, specifically in graphic literature or animation it has reserved a seat for itself. In Manga, we find self-destructive characters who strongly believe in nothingness and wish to be erased. These characters are driven by the aftermath of war and hence, are hopeless. But often there is a change in the probability and the variation of the reaction after the war; the reaction being genocide or a complete destruction of the universe. The death instinct is a personal or individual-level thing according to Freud but with respect to the universality, the same concept can be linked to the urge to facilitate mass destruction and exodus too. In this research paper, death instinct and its connection to genocide is discussed with references to the selected literature and manga. The urge to realise the end of the self or of the society, both can be considered as the death instinct. Through various literary implications one can assert that all humans are driven toward annihilation and death.