Ideological Fantasy in Claire Messud’s The Emperor’s Children

Introduction: The present article surveys the concept of ideological fantasy as explored through Claire Messud’s The Emperor’s Children. The novel, longlisted for the 2006 Man Booker Prize, is categorized as a post-9/11 novel. Unlike many prominent novels in this genre, such as Don DeLillo's Falling Man, Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, and John Updike's The Terrorist, The Emperor's Children does not directly address the September 11 attacks. Instead, the narrative focuses on the lives of a group of New York's cultural and artistic elite in the months leading up to the 9/11 attacks.
Background Studies: Pointing to the setting of the novel, Aaron DeRosa argues the novel is set in “set in the days and months prior to 9/11, but situating the reader in a position of suspense and anticipation, as he / she knows what will happen in the fall of 2001” (DeRosa 2014, 97). Likewise, Marjorie Worthington tends to read Messud’s The Emperor’s Children in the context of 9-11 declaring that 9/11 is a moment “when they either reevaluate what is most important to them” (Worthington 2011, 112). Reading the novel with reference to the 9/11 attacks, David Simpson suggests that what happens in the novel can be regarded as an “acknowledgement of the limits of fiction in the face of an appalling and indescribable event” (Simpson 2008, 218). Dominic Head argues that the novel is based on a professional quest and contends that in The Emperor’s Children “the nature of ‘success’ is the focus of the satire; but it is also at the heart of the seriousness, less easily categorized, that finally emerges” (Head 2009, 132). He also regards 9/11 attacks as “a kind of catharsis” (Head 2009, 134). Amanda Claybaugh argues that Messud’s novel relies on dialogue. In her perspective, the novel “allows these shallow people to speak for themselves, devoting a great portion of the novel to dialogue” (Claybaugh 2006, 15). Arin Keeble contends that The Emperor’s Children narrates the setting up of life-changing absolutes that appear in novels like Don DeLillo’s Falling Man (2007) and Jay McInerney’s The Good Life (2005). However, unlike the aforesaid novels, in Messud’s novel characters “return quickly to their pre-9/11 conditions” (Keeble 2011, 369).
Methodology and Argument: This study is based on the descriptive-analytical method examining Messud’s novel by drawing on the ideas of the distinguished contemporary philosopher Slavoj Žižek. Žižek considers ideology not as an epistemological issue or a form of false consciousness, but as a conscious act because in our modern world, we already know that we are receiving a distorted version of reality. Žižek calls an action that persists despite our awareness of its falsity an ideological fantasy. However, in some critical moments, the ideological fantasy collapses and the subject is confronted with the Real Order as a corollary of the disruption of the symbolization process in the Symbolic Order.
Findings and Conclusion: Applying Žižek to The Emperor’s Children, it seems that Messud’s novel depicts an ideological society in which the characters are cynical subjects who, ruled by ideological fantasy, cynically convince themselves that they do not take things seriously, while in practice they take their fantasy seriously. Furthermore, the events of September 11, functioning as a spectral supplement, can be regarded as a rupture in ideological fantasy which makes readers confront the Real Order. Finally, by avoiding a definitive judgement and by making the readers of the novel participate in the experience that there is nothing behind the Other and the emperor has no clothes, Messud enables readers to traverse their ideological fantasy.