Beyond LacanSUNY Press, 2006 M10 5 - 300 pages In Beyond Lacan, James M. Mellard traces psychoanalytic literary theory and practice from Freud to Lacan to Zðizûek. While Freud effectively presupposes an unconscious that is textual, it is Lacan whose theory all but articulates a textual unconscious as he offers the epoch a cutting-edge psychoanalytic ideology. Mellard considers this and then asks, "Which Lacan? Is there one or many? Early or late?" As Zðizûek counters the notion of a single, unitary Lacan, Lacanians are asked to choose. Through Lacanian readings of various texts, from novels like Ellison's Invisible Man and O'Connor's Wise Blood to short stories by Glaspell and Fitzgerald, Mellard shows that in critical practice Lacanians produce a middle Lacan, between early and late.<br/><br/>Mellard concludes by examining why Zðizûek has perhaps transcended Lacan. More than any other, it is Zðizûek who has constructed early and late Lacan, making possible that middle Lacan of praxis, but in the process he has also claimed an independent authority. Ultimately, Mellard explains how Zðizûek offers a post-Lacanian critique—one built on a pervasive philosophy of paradox—that opens new avenues of analysis of contested cultural and literary issues such as subjectivity, political economy, multiculturalism, and religious belief. |
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analysis Anna Barton becomes Borromean knots calls Christianity Copjec critics culture death desire Dexter dialectic drive early Ellison's essay femme fatale Fiction figure film noir Fitzgerald Flannery O'Connor Four Fundamental Concepts Freud Freudian gender Glaspell Glaspell's Hale Hegel Hegelian Hester identifies Imaginary interpretation intertextual Invisible Jacques Lacan Jacques-Alain Miller Jameson jouissance Judy Kristeva Lacan says Lacanian theory language late Lacan late Lacanian literary MacCannell McCullagh meaning metaphor metonymic Minnie modernist mother narrative narrator narrator's noir notion novel O'Connor Object of Ideology objet petit oedipal oedipal father Oedipus complex paradox phallic Phallus political primal Primeau primordial father psychoanalysis readers reading Real relation represents rhetoric Riffaterre role Salecl says Žižek Schema seems Seminar semiotic sexual signifier simply sinthome Slavoj Žižek social story structure symptom textual unconscious thing tion truth-event uncon Winter Dreams Wise Blood woman women words Wright writes York Žižek says