Cultural Interpretation of Mask Symbols in Literary Works from the Perspective of Lacanian Theory: Taking Red Nose and The Phantom of the Opera as Examples

School of Foreign Languages, Minzu University of China, Beijing, 100074, China

^* Corresponding author: 23012168@muc.edu.cn

Abstract

In the context of globalization, the imagery of ‘masks’ in theatre has increasingly become an important symbol for decoding the crisis of cultural identity. Taking Lacanian mirror theory as the core framework, this paper compares and analyses the construction and deconstruction of subjectivity by masks in Yao Yiwei’s Red Nose and Weber’s The Phantom of the Opera. It is found that the clown mask in Red Nose transforms the anxiety of atonement into performative redemption through the gaze of the Other in the context of Confucian ethics. In contrast, the half-face mask in The Phantom of the Opera reinforces the self-deification of the artistic genius with Gothic aesthetics. Together, they reveal the nature of the mask as a mirror image - both as the subject’s imaginative reparation for trauma and as a physicalised cage for the desires of the Other. When the mask is forced to be removed, Eastern narratives choose physical annihilation to achieve a symbolic subversion of order, while Western narratives continue the cult of legend.