Four Discourses, Four Subjects: Tracing Subjectivity and Desire in Tagore's Chaturanga

This paper examines the dynamics of subjectivity and desire in Rabindranath Tagore’s Chaturanga through the theoretical framework of Lacanian psychoanalysis. Structured around four central figures, the novel presents four distinct ideological and existential positions that engage with questions of desire, knowledge, and authority. Drawing on Jacques Lacan’s theory of the four discourses, this paper interprets these characters as embodying different configurations of subjectivity produced through specific discursive structures. Through a close reading of the text, the study explores how ideological authority, spiritual rebellion, rational mediation, and disruptive desire interact within the narrative to reveal the instability of any singular claim to truth. Along with ideological assertions, this paper closely focuses on moments of rupture that reveal the subjects as an excess of ideology. By situating Chaturanga within a Lacanian framework, the paper argues that Tagore’s novella anticipates a modern understanding of subjectivity as fractured, relational, and constituted through precarity rather than apodictic stability.