“Where were you so long?”: From Meaning to Being in the Mother-imago in Jibanananda Das’s “Banalata Sen”

In the light of Lacanian dichotomy “Being” and “Meaning,” present article intends to illuminate how protagonist’s journey life in Jibanananda Das’s masterwork “Banalata Sen” (1942) proves be a retreat Jungian “mother-imago.” This “imago” is idealized image mother constituted by one’s infantile memory her fulfilling self that remains preserved unconscious. It imbibes all facets womanhood. essence, it both instinctual archetypal. The enterprising career human world invites into his sense fatigue. He feels disintegrated sundry worldly roles. unconscious nostalgia for unified eventually transmutes aimless wanderings way quest love fulfillment. Ultimately he succeeds recapturing defragmented entity, “particular me,” as well experiencing blissful serenity through association with “mother-imago,” Banalata Sen.