Subjectivity: A DeleuzoGuattarian Study of Samuel Johnson's Selected Works The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia

The present article attempted to analyze the character's "subjectivity" in Samuel Johnson's The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia under the aegis of Deleuze and Guattari's theory of "subjectivity." Doing so, the character's desires have been considered to clarify if their desire is the product of a lack (as psychoanalysis insists), or it is productive (as Deleuze and Guattari believe). By focusing on Deleuze and Guattari's famous syntheses in Johnson's Rasselas, it was revealed that it is the energy of the desire that sets Rasselas and his fellow travelers in motion to follow their quest. Moreover, it was cleared that their desire does not get repressed in the triangular family relation; instead, it is the social relations which is the main cause for repressing their desire, and the character's subjectivity is constructed based on the repression society imposes on them. In fact, the character's desire is not compatible with the social requirements such as social differentiation, and ideology, thus, desire gets repressed, and each repression renders the character "a" subjectivity specific to that experience.