Theory, Rhetoric, Aesthetics
Sex, Society, and Other Relations that do not exist
Jacques Lacan’s notorious pronouncement “il n’y a pas de rapport sexuel” (there is no sexual relation) fundamentally measures the gap between the real and relation, between primordial antagonism and imaginary or symbolic suture. As the discourse of sexual difference, psychoanalysis formidably punctuates ‘the political’ as neither sphere nor substance, but as a site or stuff of antagonism or void, underscoring that every social formation, in installing provisional bonds across this void, is sutured by libido. Probing the possible parallels in the non-existence of the sexual relation, the social relation, and the Other, this seminar explores the trans-individual status of the psychoanalytic subject, the distinctively psychoanalytic notion of law, and diverse contemporary approaches to ideology and enjoyment.
29 Aug
The Split $ubject
Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams, Chapters 2, 6
Freud, “Instincts and their Vicissitudes”
“Repression”
“The Unconscious”
“Negation”
5 Sep
The $ubject as / of Language
Lacan, “The Instance of the Letter in the Unconscious” Ecrits 412-444
Seminar 11: Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis, Chapters 1-5
Bruce Fink, The Lacanian Subject, 35-48
Lorenzo Chiesa, Subjectivity and Otherness Chapter 2
12 Sep
The $ubject of Drive
Freud, Beyond the Pleasure Principle
Lacan, Seminar 11, Chapters 10-15
Joan Copjec, Imagine There’s No Woman Chapter 1
Slavoj Zizek, The Indivisible Remainder 27-32
The Ticklish Subject 290-306
19 Sep
The Subversion of the $ubject
Lacan, “The Subversion of the Subject and the Dialectic of Desire” Ecrits 671-702
Zizek, The Sublime Object of Ideology, Chapters 3-6
Tarrying with the Negative, Chapters 1-2
Adrian Johnston, Zizek’s Ontology, 1-66
26 Sep
There Is No Sexual Relation
Suzanne Barnard, Introduction to Reading Seminar 20
Lacan, Seminar 20: On Feminine Sexuality, The Limits of Love and Knowledge, Chapters
1-7
3 Oct
Jouissance Does Not Exist
Fink, The Lacanian Subject, 98-128
“Knowledge and Jouissance”
Zizek, Less than Nothing Chapter 11
Johnston, “The Unbearable Burden of Libidinal Liberation”
“The Critique of Pure Enjoyment”
10 Oct
The Real, or, Signifying Nothing
Lacan, Seminar 3: The Psychoses, Chapters 14-15
Tom Eyers, Lacan and the Concept of the Real Chapter 5
Copjec, Read My Desire Chapter 5
Zizek, “The Real of Sexual Difference”
*RESPONSE PAPERS DUE*
17 Oct
Society Does Not Exist
Karl Marx, The German Ideology, Chapter 1
Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents
Claude Levi Strauss, Elementary Structures of Kinship Chapters 1-2
“Do Dual Organizations Exist?”
24 Oct
Antagonism
Yannis Stavrakakis, Lacan and the Political Chapter 3
Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, Hegemony and Socialist Strategy Chapter 3
Louis Althusser, “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses”
Badiou, “One Divides Into Two”
**ATTEND LECTURE BY JODI DEAN 27 OCT**
31 Oct
The Law
Freud, Totem and Taboo
Juliet Flower McCannell, The Regime of the Brother Chapters 1-2
Zizek, The Ticklish Subject, 313-334
Mladen Dolar, “Freud and the Political”
7 Nov
Pas Tout Law
Lacan, “Kant With Sade” Ecrits 645-670
Alenka Zupancic, Ethics of the Real, 1-42, 140-169
Russell Grigg, Lacan, Language, and Philosophy Chapters 6-8
Tracy McNulty, “The Event of the Letter: Two Approaches to the Law and its Real”
14 Nov
Nothing Exists
GWF Hegel, Science of Logic Chapter 1
Zizek, Less Than Nothing Chapter 1
Zizek, Tarrying With the Negative Chapter 4
21 Nov
The $ubject of Politics
Lacan, Seminar 17: The Other Side of Psychoanalysis, Chapters 7-8, 12-13
Badiou, Theory of the Subject, Parts I and IV
Molly Anne Rothenberg, The Excessive Subject 1-56
28 Nov
Psychoanalytic Politics
Jodi Dean, The Communist Horizon introduction
Kiarina Kordela, “Political Metaphysics”
Todd McGowan and Paul Eisenstein, Rupture introduction
Zizek, “How to Begin From the Beginning”
5 Dec
Final Thoughts
Seminar Paper Abstract presentations
Celebrations TBD
*
Recommended Texts (especially for final paper research)
Bruno Bosteels, Badiou and Politics
Lorenzo Chiesa, Subjectivity and Otherness
Justin Clemens, Jacques Lacan and the Other Side of Psychoanalysis
Joan Copjec, Read My Desire, Imagine There’s No Woman
Jodi Dean, Zizek’s Politics, The Communist Horizon (available mid October)
Gilles Deleuze, Desert Islands
Mladen Dolar, A Voice and Nothing More
Dylan Evans, A Dictionary of Lacanian Psychoanalysis
Tom Eyers, Lacan and the Concept of the Real (available mid October)
Bruce Fink, The Lacanian Subject, Lacan to the Letter
Kiarina Kordela, $urplus
Todd McGowan, The End of Dissatisfaction?, The Real Gaze
Tracy McNulty, The Hostess
Molly Anne Rothenberg, Perversion and the Social Relation
Eric Santner, The Psychopathology of Everyday Life, The Royal Remains
Yannis Stavrakakis, The Lacanian Left
Zizek, with Ernesto Laclau and Judith Butler, Contingency, Hegemony, Universality
Zizek, with Eric Santner and Kenneth Reinhard, The Neighbor