A Lacanian Interpretation of Domestic Themes in Constance Hunting's Selected Poetry from After the Stravinsky Concert and Other Poems

This essay uses Lacanian theory to analyze domestic themes in Constance Hunting's (1925 -2006) After the Stravinsky Concert and Other Poems (1969) and how the poet's work addresses the Real, Symbolic, and Imaginary. Hunting's domestic imagery—kitchens, living rooms, and intimate family spaces—demonstrates the conflict between personal identity and society. Lacan's framework shows how Hunting's lyrical investigation of everyday life is infused with the "Thing," or unattainable object of love. Her criticism of established roles and the symbolic order is feminist and uses negative capacity and fractured viewpoints. The essay explores Hunting's capacity to make the banal significant via poetic interplay between the unsaid Real and the organized Symbolic. It examines gender, creativity, and identity development in the home via Hunting's work in second-wave feminist discourse and psychoanalytic theory.