Phenomenological analysis of social and individual identity characterization in ‘Mereq’ during the revolution period (It Has Amharic Title)

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to scrutinize the life experience of the characters in Adam Reta's long novel ‘Mereq’ and show the representation of the social and individual identities during the revolution period in terms of social ethics and psychological origins. The study is qualitative and collects the data by document inspection method and purposive sampling method, and uses interdisciplinary analysis as a strategy. To achieve objectives, the research tries to analyze the essay by using the analytical, semantic, phenomenological method of psychoanalysis, New Historicism, and Sociology. This is by considering the relative freedom it creates and the complexity of the science that is the focus of the study. The research shows that the characters are morally out of their society; this means that the society in question is not healthy. In the analysis based on Lacan's view of psychoanalysis, the study showed that at the level of individual psychology, the characters find it difficult to express their thoughts, feelings, and desires, and what they can express was that they are suppressed from expressing freely or boldly. This has been interpreted as an indication of a heightened psychology at the individual personality level. The study also revealed that the revolution period in which the novel was born was like a suppressed society and a protested individual. Therefore, the study presents a conclusive argument that the society and individual identity of the revolution period is chaotic. Furthermore, the study suggests that the call for interdisciplinary literary research is not only for literature, but also for other fields of study. The present study is to indicate that the role that language and literature research can play in the overall development of our country. (It has an Amharic Abstract)