The other Side of Desire

Tamise Van Pelt

Description

The other Side of Desire puts Jacques Lacan's theoretical constructs to work on texts as varied as Plato's Symposium, Hamlet, Tootsie, and the journals of Sylvia Plath, making the techniques of Lacanian analysis accessible to a wide variety of readers. Moving from oppositional readings of Lacan himself, through Lacan's search for an alternative to oppositionality, to his solution in the theory of the registers, Van Pelt rereads Lacan's most significant essays on aggressivity, the mirror stage, the subversion of the subject, and the signification of the phallus, making explicit the reading practices implicit in Lacan's first seven Seminars and his Écrits. Throughout, Van Pelt demonstrates Lacanian theory's pivotal role in the intellectual transition from the poststructuralism of the mid–twentieth century to the post-humanism of the twenty-first.

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction

List of Abbreviations

1. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Symposium

2. The Master in the Mirror

3. The Poe-etics of Register Theory

4. Lacanian Epistemology

5. The Discourse of Desire and the Registers in Hamlet

6. Symptomatic Perfectionism in The Journals of Sylvia Plath

7. Being and Otherness

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 01 février 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780791493052
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

The other Side of Desire

SUNY series in

Psychoanalysis and Culture

Henry Sussman, editor

The other Side of Desire

Lacan’s Theory of the Registers

Tamise Van Pelt

State University of New York Press

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany © 2000 State University of New York All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, pho- tocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher. For information, address State University of New York Press, State University Plaza, Albany, NY 12246 Production, Laurie Searl Marketing, Fran Keneston A portion of Chapter 5, “The Discourse of Desire and the Registers inHamlet” was originally published as “Hamlet’s Desire and the Rules for Lacanian Reading.” Proceedings of the Twelfth International Conference on Literature and Psychology. Lisbon: Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada, 1996. Chapter 6, “Symptomatic Perfectionism in theJournalsof Sylvia Plath,” was published in an earlier version, “Perfect: Ideal Ego and Ego Ideal in theJournalsof Sylvia Plath.” Literature and Psychology43 (1997). A portion of Chapter 7, “Being and Otherness,” originally appeared as “Dys-seminating Lacan.”Proceedings of the Thirteenth International Conference on Literature and Psychology. Lisbon: Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada, 1997. A version of Chapter 7, “Being and Otherness,” has been published as “Otherness,” Postmodern Culture10.2 (January, 2000). Écrits: A Selection by Jacques Lacan, translated by Alan Sheridan. Copyright © 1966 by Les Editions du Seuil. English translation copyright © 1977 by Tavistock Publications. Reprinted by permission of Routledge, London. The Seminar of Jacques Lacan: Book I: Freud’s Papers on Technique, 1953–1954by Jacques Lacan, translated by John Forrester. Copyright © 1975 by Les Editions du Seuil. English translation © 1988 by Cambridge University Press. Reprinted by permission of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

The Seminar of Jacques Lacan: Book II: The Ego in Freud’s Theory and in the Technique of Psychoanalysis, 1954–1955by Jacques Lacan, translated by Sylvana Tomaselli. Copyright © 1978 by Les Editions du Seuil. English translation copyright © 1988 by Cambridge University Press. Reprinted by permission of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

The Seminar of Jacques Lacan: Book III: The Psychoses, 1955–1956by Jacques Lacan, translated by Russell Grigg. Copyright © 1981 by Les Editions de Seuil. English transla- tion copyright © 1993 by W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. Reprinted by permission of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Van Pelt, Tamise. The other side of desire : Lacan’s theory of the registers / Tamise Van Pelt. p. cm. — (SUNY series in psychoanalysis and culture) ISBN 0-7914-4475-9 (hardcover : alk. paper). — ISBN 0-7914-4476-7 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Psychoanalysis. 2. Lacan, Jacques, 1901– . I. Title. II. Series. BF173.V248 2000 150.19´5—dc21

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

99-43545 CIP

In memory of my mother,

Gayle Bozeman Van Pelt

Page vi blank.

Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction

List of Abbreviations

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to theSymposium

The Master in the Mirror

The Poe-etics of Register Theory

Lacanian Epistemology

The Discourse of Desire and the Registers inHamlet

Symptomatic Perfectionism inThe Journals of Sylvia Plath

Being and Otherness

Notes

Bibliography

Index

ix

xi

xiii

xxiii

1

21

45

71

89

119

137

161

177

189

Page viii blank.

Illustrations

Figure 1.1

Figure 1.2

Figure 5.1

Figure 5.2

Lacan’s Schema L: The Subject of the Unconscious

Schema R: The Three Registers

Graph 2

The Completed Graph of Desire

14

16

97

99

ix