The relationship between literature and psychology is long and richly complex, and no more so than in the work of Jacques Lacan, the most controversial psychoanalyst since Freud. The Literary Lacan: From Literature to ‘Lituraterre’ and Beyond is dedicated to assessing Lacan’s significant contribution to literary studies and the contribution, in turn, of literature to Lacanian psychoanalysis.
The first essays in this collection provide close readings of Lacan’s literature-related work, specifically his work on Hamlet, his homage to Marguerite Duras and Lewis Carroll, his concept of Lituraterre, and his seminar on James Joyce. Other essays examine Lacan’s theories in conjunction with works of major writers such as Samuel Beckett. The book concludes with essays that investigate Lacan and literature more broadly, including the applicability of literature to psychoanalysis.
With well-known contributors including Slavoj Zizek, Jacques-Alain Miller, Russell Grigg and Ellie Ragland, this volume will appeal not only to specialists in literary and Lacanian theory but also to students and enthusiasts of the master and the literature that inspired him.
320 pages | 6 x 9 | © 2012
Literature and Literary Criticism: General Criticism and Critical Theory
Psychology: General Psychology
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Joyce with Lacan
Jacques-Alain Miller (Translated from the French by Russell Grigg)
Introduction
Joyce with Lacan
Jacques-Alain Miller (Translated from the French by Russell Grigg)
Introduction
Santanu Biswas
Part 1: The Literary Lacan
From the Letter to the Objet petit a: The Evolution of Lacan’s Literary Metaphors
Nancy Blake
Psychoanalysis Applicable and Inapplicable: The Case of Literature
Jean-Michel Rabaté
Part 2: From Literature
‘To Be or Not . . .’: Lacan and the Meaning of Being in Shakespeare’s Hamlet
Matthew Sharpe
Lewis Carroll and Psychoanalytic Criticism: Why Nothing Adds Up in Wonderland
Christopher Lane
Joyce: Lacan’s Sphinx
Geoff Boucher
Part 3: To Lituraterre
A Literary Introduction to ‘Lituraterre’
Santanu Biswas
The Littoral Condition of the Letter
Jean-Pierre Klotz
Part 4: And Beyond
Cogito in Literature: Descartes with Beckett
Slavoj Žižek
The Practice of the Letter and Topological Structure
Ellie Ragland
Reading Bhabha, Reading Lacan: Preliminary Notes on Colonial Anxiety
Gautam Basu Thakur
The Transsexual Body Written: Writing as Sinthome
Patricia Gherovici
Afterword
The Enigma of Jouissance
Russell Grigg
‘To Be or Not . . .’: Lacan and the Meaning of Being in Shakespeare’s Hamlet
Matthew Sharpe
Lewis Carroll and Psychoanalytic Criticism: Why Nothing Adds Up in Wonderland
Christopher Lane
Joyce: Lacan’s Sphinx
Geoff Boucher
Part 3: To Lituraterre
A Literary Introduction to ‘Lituraterre’
Santanu Biswas
The Littoral Condition of the Letter
Jean-Pierre Klotz
Part 4: And Beyond
Cogito in Literature: Descartes with Beckett
Slavoj Žižek
The Practice of the Letter and Topological Structure
Ellie Ragland
Reading Bhabha, Reading Lacan: Preliminary Notes on Colonial Anxiety
Gautam Basu Thakur
The Transsexual Body Written: Writing as Sinthome
Patricia Gherovici
Afterword
The Enigma of Jouissance
Russell Grigg
Notes on Contributors
Index