Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Jacques Lacan theory of subjectivity'

ABSTRACT THE REAL AND THE IMAGINARY THRESHOLDS OF OTTOMAN SUBJECTIVITY TaStan, CoSkun Ph.D., Department of Sociology Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Erdogan YILDIRIM March 2010, 262 pages. This work examines the nature of frames that restrict our perspectives and thus give birth to such sociological entities like societies, communities and nations. How is the dualism of &ldquo
inside-outside&rdquo
created on sociological and psychic levels? More importantly, what instruments play what kind of roles in the creation of that dualism? Examining the formation of Ottoman subjectivity as a case, this study gives original answers to these questions. The psychoanalytic theory, which opened a new methodological domain for the social sciences in the past century, productively accommodated a good amount of works on these questions. Sigmund Freud&rsquo
s pioneering works on the dynamics of human psyche and Jacques Lacan&rsquo
s theories of human subjectivity played important roles in the improvement of this domain. Beginning from the second half of the past century, discussions on identity and belonging, as well as such furious social questions as nationalism, racism and xenophobia, have been held in the light of the new approaches of psychoanalytic theories in the field of social sciences. In this sense, this study can be seen as a part of those approaches, because methodologically, it bases itself on the opportunities offered by a particular psychoanalytic theory, namely, that of a French psychoanalyst, Jacques Lacan. I pick up two of Lacan&rsquo
s productively scrutinized concepts, namely the &ldquo
real&rdquo
and the &ldquo
imaginary&rdquo
, to develop a particular perspective towards this question: How is the dualism of inside-outside created in different contexts throughout the Ottoman history, so that this dualism could give birth to Ottoman subjectivity? Taking the two Lacanian concepts as a base, I analyze the instruments that play the role of &ldquo
thresholds&rdquo
in the formation of the dualism of &ldquo
inside-outside&rdquo
, under two general headings: The &ldquo
real thresholds&rdquo
and the &ldquo
imaginary thresholds&rdquo
. To put in a very brief manner, a &ldquo
real threshold&rdquo
is born out of any material obstacle that puts restrictions of any kind to the abilities of human body (natural obstacles like mountains, rivers and oceans, as well as designed obstacles like any object of war architecture, for instance, fall into this heading). Imaginary thresholds, on the other hand, are the &ldquo
images of selves&rdquo
that reflect back to us on the social ground, just in the same manner as our mirror-images come back to us and provide us with a subjective feeling of self (like the diplomatic texts and the mythologies). Although I borrow the two Lacanian terms (i.e. real and imaginary) to build up a theory of thresholds, I do not hesitate to bend and reshape those concepts whenever necessary, to build the conceptual tools into a rather ergonomic manner.

The screen, as recent studies in a number of fields indicate, is a cultural object due for critical reappraisal. Work on the theoretical status of screen objects tends to focus upon the materialisation of surface; in other words, it attempts to rethink the relationship between the supposedly 'superficial' facade and the 'functional' object itself. I suggest that this work, while usefully chipping away at the dichotomy between the 'superficial' and the 'functional', can lead us to a more radical conclusion when read in the context of subjectivity. By rethinking the relationship between the surface and the obverse face of the screen as the terms of a dialectic, we can ‘read’ the screen as the vital component in a process which constitutes the Subject. In order to demonstrate this, I analyse productions of subjectivity in literary texts of the twenty-first century — in doing so, I assume the novel as nonpareil arena of the dramatisation of subjectivity — and I propose a reading of the work of Jacques Lacan as hitherto unacknowledged theorist par excellence of the form and function of the screen. Lacan describes, with the function of desire and the formation of the screen of fantasy, the primary position this ‘screen-form' inhabits in the constitution of the Subject. Lacan’s work forms a critical juncture through which we must proceed if we are to properly read and understand the chosen texts: The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber; The Tain by China Miéville; Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood; and Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald. In each text, I analyse the particular materialisations of the screen and interrogate the constitution of the subject and the locus of desire. By analysing the vicissitudes of subjectivity in these texts, I make a claim for the study of the screen as constituting a central question in the field of contemporary literature.

This thesis examines how the fiction of Joseph Conrad anticipates and enacts the elaborate model of subjectivity that is later formalised in the psychoanalytic theory of Jacques Lacan. While modernist criticism has often utilised the work of post‐structuralism in reading key texts of modernism, the complexity and profundity of the conceptual relationship between Conrad and Lacan has not yet been explored in depth. Conrad’s work captures the impact and influence of emerging transnational capital upon forms of the subject in the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Further, his fiction is also sensitive to how nascent global capital structures forms of space that the subject is embedded within in their daily experience. I argue that it is the intricate and finely woven theories of Lacan that are necessary in identifying this area of the novelist’s work, as Lacan’s model contends with both the individual psychic structure of the subject, and, crucially, how the individual is located and constituted within the broader matrix of social reality. Using four of Conrad’s novels from his early period to the end of his major phase, the thesis traces the evolution of the various fundamental modalities of Lacan’s subject across Conrad’s fiction. I examine how Almayer’s Folly offers the key tenets of Lacan’s primary model of the subject of desire, while Lord Jim presents the transition of the subject of desire into Lacan’s later mode of the subject of drive. Subsequently, The Secret Agent is shown to critique the role of rationalism in the structuring of the subject’s consciousness, while, finally, I read Under Western Eyes as a tour de force of Lacan’s four discourses. The deep and fundamental relationship between the two figures’ work attests to their acuity in observing the development of the subject in the twentieth century, while the method of theoretical analysis also, on a wider disciplinary level, suggests and helps to confirm the continued validity of the mode of deep reading in literary interpretation.

In 1900, Sigmund Freud published The Interpretation of Dreams, establishing climacteric concepts for psychoanalysis and creating a structure upon which he built the theory and his career. 20 years later, he had entirely revised these concepts that solidified the foundation of psychoanalysis. In Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1920), Freud notably theorizes the ‘death drive’ for the first time, a radical but necessary break from the economics of the pleasure principle. Often, the death drive is taken to be the most important contribution of this essay, but I argue that the lasting message to be gleaned from Freud is what he concludes Beyond the Pleasure Principle with: “We must be ready, too, to abandon a path that we have followed for a time, if it seems to be leading to no good end. Only believers, who demand that science shall be a substitute for the catechism they have given up, will blame an investigator for developing or even transforming his views.” In this thesis, I argue that we can develop a necessary Ethic from this way that Freud approached the formation of his work. Drawing on the further developments from Jacques Lacan, I claim that one can take theory of the gaze as an ethical moment: the point at which one is faced with a disruption that they are tasked to carry out “to see where it will lead,” as Freud puts it. Further, I utilize this formation of the Ethic to read the films of Abbas Kiarostami’s “Koker trilogy” to highlight the points at which we can locate the characters, form, and content of these films as realizations of such ethical moments.

Since the late seventies, the violence, speed and spectacle associated with the genres of war films, Westerns and the spectacular melodramas of early cinema have developed into a distinct genre of its own – the action film. With the development of the stylistic language at the core of this generic universe came derogatory generalisations and a tendency to categorise simplistically. To overcome these simplifications, this thesis explores the shifts in generic language to distinguish its subtleties and complexities of logic. Overwhelmingly the genre is considered masculine, but the purpose of this thesis is to explore the logic of this masculinity and analyse the effect of the feminine upon it. Beginning with overviews of the theoretical attempts to grasp the concept of genre that focus primarily on the limitations of the view of their having distinct boundaries, the theory that genre theory has failed is investigated. Leaving this view of boundaries through an exploration of symbolic universes that have translucent boundaries, the filmic movement of genre passes back and forth through the theoretical frameworks. The intention is not to analyse the overall concept of genre, but to focus on the symbolic universe and the language intrinsic to action films. The rules of action cannot be simply transposed onto other generic categories but stand-alone. Genre theory does not fail if approached from a perspective of discourse analysis focusing on the development of symbolic universes. Using Jacques Lacan’s theory of the four discourses, and focusing primarily on the oppositions of the Master’s and the Analyst’s discourse, the question moves from the listing of conventions as the markers of the boundaries of genre, to exploring why the combination of certain conventions and signifiers coming together created the genre. Through Lacanian discourse analysis it becomes apparent that the generally acknowledged logic of masculine and feminine are limited. The masculine is the ‘norm’ that appears to need no explanation, but the feminine has transgressed the norm and shown the construction of fantasy inherent in the genre. This has led to post-action films that are ambiguous both in their generic structure and symbolic language.

Bien que le thème de la pulsion de mort soit souvent perçu à travers un processus biologique de destruction ou de régression à un état de nirvana comme l’affirme Freud, il est cependant utilisé ici sous une perspective spéculative pour penser son statut en s’inscrivant dans les réflexions qui prendraient part à une confrontation, et dans le même temps, une articulation entre Jacques Lacan et Hegel. De sorte que la mort, à travers la détermination ontologique permet d’ouvrir la voie pour étudier la psychanalyse à la frontière de l’être et du penser, non seulement dans sa dialectique avec le sujet et le signifiant, mais également dans son appartenance, par le sujet et sa pensée à son rapport ineffaçable avec l’impensé, ce qui conduit à la constitution de la dépossession, la perte et la destitution de l’identification du Moi spéculaire.Dans cette perspective, le concept de dialectique constitue le point de départ méthodologique pour réfléchir sur le thème de la mort à partir de son statut logique/ontologique et de son déroulement signifiant soutenu par un “examen” sceptique en tant que moment essentiel de le traitement psychanalytique, conduisant ainsi à rendre compte de la subjectivité et de sa brèche/ faille constitutionnelle comme une menace, toujours présente, de désintégration et de négativité.Quant au scepticisme, il est un autre point de départ à cette réflexion et l’origine d’un déplacement vers un regard de la psychanalyse qui va au-delà du domaine clinique. En partant de la fonction de la négation, qui semble s’inscrire comme énonciation sceptique, et à partir de questions à propos de la dissolution, la disparition ou particulièrement, l’abolition [l’aufhebung] du sujet comme lieu impossible dans sa subjectivité en manque, dont l’expression psychique est en concordance avec la déchirure interne que représente le clivage, manifestée à travers le sujet barré, ce travail considère la possibilité d’un regard ontologique de la psychanalyse. Celui-ci supposerait la mort comme ce qui instaure une expérience scripturaire de négativité et qui va jusqu’à désigner l’espace spécifique de l’activité sceptique comme examen qui dirige l’aspect tragique dans le traitement psy
The theme of the pulsion of death is, sometimes, understood in the light of a biologic principle of destruction or regression to a state of nirvana as stated by Freud, nonetheless, here it is mobilized in a speculative perspective to think its status by inscribing the reflections that would take place in a confrontation and, at the same time, articulation between Jacques Lacan and Hegel. Thus, death, under the ontological determination, allows to open the way to study psychoanalysis at the border between the being and the thinking, not only in its dialectics with the subject and the signifier but also in its belonging, by the subject and his thought, to his/her indelible relation to the unthought which involves the formation of dispossession, loss and removal of the identification of the mirrored self. From this perspective, the concept of dialectics constitutes the methodological starting point to reflect about the theme of death from their logical/ontological status and its significant development mantained by a skeptical “exam” as an essential moment in the psychoanalytic cure, involving the realisation of the subjectivity and its constitutional gap/failure as an ever-present threat of disintegration and negativity.As far as it is concerned, skepticism is another starting point of this reflection and the origin of a shift towards a view of psychoanalysis that goes beyond the clinic. As of the role of negation, which we believe it is inscribed as a skeptical utterance, as well as questions about the dissolution, disappearance or specifically abolition [l'Aufhebung] of the subject as an impossible place in his/her missing subjectivity whose psychic expression is in agreement with the internal tear that means split, manifested through the barred subject. This paper considers the possibility of an ontological view of psychoanalysis that would suppose the death as that that institutes a scripturaire experience of negativity and that even designates the specific space of the skeptical activity as an examination that directs the tragic aspect of the psychoanalytic cure.But, how does this displacement of a psychoanalytic clinic operate towards an ontology of psychoanalysis? What is at stake in the movement of the signifying chain inasmuch so a dialectical process that "remains" and that "opposes/sursumée"? To what extent does skepticism appear as a suitable tool for the "exam" and a particular interpretation not just of the unconscious but, also, of the personal history of the subject in its aspect of their subjectivity dislocated?
El tema de la pulsión de muerte siendo, a menudo, entendido a la luz de un principio biológico de destrucción o regresión a un estado de nirvana tal y como lo afirma Freud, sin embargo, aquí es movilizada en una perspectiva especulativa para pensar su estatuto inscribiéndose en las reflexiones que tomarían partida en una confrontación y, al mismo tiempo, articulación entre Jacques Lacan y Hegel. De suerte que la muerte, bajo la determinación ontológica, permite abrir la vía para estudiar el psicoanálisis en las fronteras entre el ser y el pensar, no solo en su dialéctica con el sujeto y el significante sino también en su pertenencia, por parte del sujeto y su pensamiento, a su relación imborrable con lo impensado lo que conlleva la constitución de la desposesión, la perdida y destitución de la identificación del Yo especular. Desde esta perspectiva, el concepto de dialéctica constituye el punto de inicio metodológico para reflexionar el tema de la muerte a partir de su estatuto lógico/ontológico y su desenvolvimiento significante sostenido por un “examen” escéptico en cuanto momento esencial en la cura psicoanalítica, conllevando así a dar cuenta de la subjetividad y su brecha/falla constitucional como una amenaza siempre presente de desintegración y negatividad. Por su parte, el escepticismo es otro punto de partida de esta reflexión y el origen de un desplazamiento hacia una mirada del psicoanálisis que va mas allá de lo clínico. Partiendo de la función de la negación, que a nuestro parecer se inscribe como enunciación escéptica, así como también de preguntas acerca de la disolución, la desaparición o específicamente la abolición [l’aufhebung] del sujeto como lugar imposible en su subjetividad en falta cuya expresión psíquica esta en concordancia con el desgarro interno que significa la escisión, manifestada a través del sujeto barrado, este trabajo considera la posibilidad de una mirada ontológica del psicoanálisis que supondría la muerte como aquello que instituye una experiencia scripturaire de negatividad y que hasta designa el espacio específico de la actividad escéptica como examen que dirige el aspecto trágico en la cura psicoanalítica. Pero, como se opera este desplazamiento de una clínica psicoanalítica hacia una ontología del psicoanálisis? Qué es lo que está en juego en el movimiento de la cadena significante en cuanto un proceso dialectico que « permanece » y que se « opone/sursumée » ? En qué medida el escepticismo aparece como una herramienta apropiada para el “examen” y una interpretación particular no solo del inconsciente sino, también, de la historia personal del sujeto en su aspecto de su subjetividad dislocada?Apoyándonos en algunos elementos del pensamiento Hegeliano como las determinaciones-de-reflexión, la lógica de la Esencia, la diferencia y la contradicción y, en particular, sobre los textos de Lacan relacionado con el goce, la falta y el Otro esta investigación interroga la lógica/ontológica de la muerte para postular una apertura del psicoanálisis

O presente trabalho tem como objetivo: Compreender a lógica da ética da psicanálise partindo de uma análise das formulações propostas por Lacan no Seminário VII, comparando-a com a lógica que formaliza as formas de gozo do Seminário XX, e articulando as possibilidades de uma releitura da ética a partir de tal lógica. Para tanto precorremos o seguinte caminho para nossa pesquisa: Primeiramente, analisaamos o panorama ético do Seminário VII, partindo da critica lacaniana à ética de Aristóteles e de Kant; em seguida discutir os impasses da ética apresentados no Seminário VII, marcando a lógica da sexuação como uma escolha possível de Lacan para a formalização desses impasses; finalmente, utilizar as modalidades lógicas resultantes do modos de gozo tal como Lacan as articula no Seminário XX, na releitura das proposições do seminário da ética. Do ponto de vista do método, trata-se de uma pesquisa teórico-conceitual, epistemologicamente orientada, cujo eixo metodológico principal é uma análise comparativa entre duas abordagens distintas de Lacan sobre o tema da ética. Nossa intenção é contrapor os conceitos envolvidos em ambas as abordagens, retirando desse embate consequências teorias e praticas para a ética da psicanálise; também intencionamos, contrapor as lógicas que sustentam cada momento do ensino de Lacan, marcando as similitudes e as diferenças
The objective of the present work is: understanding the logic of the ethics of psychoanalysis initiating from an analysis of the formulations proposed by Lacan in Seminar VII comparing it with the logic that formalises the forms of jouissance in Seminar XX and articulating the possibilities of a reassessment of the ethic related to such logic. To do so, we proceeded along the following path in our research: firstly, we analysed the ethical panorama of Seminar VII from the Lacanian critique to the ethics of Aristotle and Kant; then, we continued discussing the obstacles of the ethics presented in Seminar VII setting out the logic of sexuation as a possible choice of Lacan for the formalisation of these obstacles. Finally, we utilized the logical manner resulting from the varying modes of jouissance as Lacan articulates them in Seminar XX in the rereading of the proposals of the seminar on ethics. From the point of view of the method followed, it is theoretical-conceptual research, epistemologically oriented, the methodological axis of which is a comparative analysis between two distinct approaches of Lacan regarding the ethical theme. Our intention is to compare and contrast the concepts involved in both approaches, observing from this discussion the theoretical and practical consequences for the ethics of psychoanalysis. We also proposed to contrast the logic which constantly underpins the teaching of Lacan, pinpointing both the similarities and differences

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Davis, 2003.
Degree granted in French. Dissertation completed in 2002; degree granted in 2003. Also available via the World Wide Web. (Restricted to UC campuses).

This essay looks at subjectivity in Virginia Woolf’s The Waves employing a psychoanalytic approach and using the theories of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. Woolf’s relation to the theories of her contemporary Sigmund Freud was unclear. Psychoanalytic scholarship on Woolf’s writings, nevertheless, established itself in 1980’s as a dominant scholarly topic and has been growing since. However, the rigidity and medicalizing discourse of psychoanalysis make it poorly compatible with Woolf’s feminist, anti-individualist writing. This essay is a reading of The Waves, in which psychoanalytic theory is infused with a Deleuzo-Guattarian approach. The theories of psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, and especially his concept of the Other, together with Rosi Braidotti’s concept of nomadic subjectivity, are used as relevant tools for thinking about subjectivity in the context of The Waves. The resultant reading is a criticism of psychoanalysis. In this reading, two characters are looked at in detail: Percival and Bernard. Percival emerges as the Lacanian Other, who, situated at the central nexus of power, symbolises the tyrannies of individuality and masculinity. Simultaneously, Percival is detached from the metaphysical world of the novel. His death marks a shift from oppressive individuality towards nomadic subjectivity. For Bernard, nomadic subjectivity is a flight from the dead and stagnating centre towards periphery, where new ethics can be negotiated. The essay concludes with the implications of such reading: the affirmation of nomadic subjectivity makes the Deleuzo-Guattarian approach more relevant in the context of Woolf, whereas psychoanalytic striving towards structure, dualism, and focus on pathology are rejected as incompatible with her texts.

Este trabalho investiga a questão do corpo em Psicanálise tendo como referência a obra de três dos autores fundamentais para o pensamento psicanalítico, quais sejam: Freud, Reich e Lacan. Estuda o problema do corpo percorrendo inicialmente a obra de Sigmund Freud, tendo em vista a forma como seu pensamento se distancia do campo da Medicina e do corpo biológico, articulando uma noção de corpo específica ao campo psicanalítico a partir de conceitos como inconsciente, sexualidade e pulsão (Trieb). Nesse contexto, focaliza a forma como ele funda uma nova disciplina e uma nova prática, na qual a intervenção se faz por meio da palavra. Aborda a obra de Wilhelm Reich, verificando como seu pensamento surge inicialmente a partir das idéias e conceitos freudianos. Focaliza a especificidade da noção de corpo e a forma como ele funda uma teoria e uma técnica ativa de intervenção na clínica, que se distinguem em vários pontos do método freudiano clássico. Examina as perspectivas teórico-clínicas estabelecidas por Jacques Lacan a partir da sua releitura do texto freudiano e da ênfase sobre a linguagem. Analisa como a nova conceituação do inconsciente freudiano, (estruturado como linguagem) e a introdução do conjunto terminológico e conceitual Real, Simbólico e Imaginário permitem repensar o campo psicanalítico e a problemática do corpo em Psicanálise. Destaca a especificidade da proposta teórico-clínica de cada um dos três autores, verificando como, das diferentes concepções sobre o corpo, decorrem formas distintas de abordá-lo na clínica.
This work examines the issue of the body in Psychoanalysis with refeence to the works of three fundamental authors of psychoanalytical thought: Freud, Reich and Lacan. It studies the problem o f the body, initially based on the works of Sigmund Freud, considering the way his thought distances itself from the medical field and the biological body, articulating a notion of body specific to the field of psychoanalysis, taking into account concepts such as unconsciousness, sexuality and instinct (Trieb). In this context, it focuses on the way he establishes a new discipline and a new practice, in which the intervention is made trough the word. It covers the work of Wilhelm Reich, verifying how his thought initially appears from Freudian ideas and concepts. It focuses specifically on the notion of body and the way he establishes a theory and active technique of intervention in the clinic, that distinguishes itself in many aspects of the classic Freudian method. It examines the perspectives of clinical-theory established by Jacques Lacan, from his rereading of the Freudian text and the emphasis on the language. It analyses how the new conception of Freudian unconsciousness (structured as a language) and the introduction of the terminological and conceptual group, Real, Symbolic and Imaginary allows a rethinking of the psychoanalytical field and of the problem of the body in Psychoanalysis. What stands out is the specific nature of each of the three authors clinical-theory proposal checking how the different body conceptions result in distinct methods of dealing with them at the clinic.

Après Freud, de la théorie à la clinique, Lacan renouvelle la psychanalyse. Au niveau de la théorie, l’une des caractéristiques singulières est que, dans les années 1960, il constitue sa propre théorie en référence aux modèles logiques et mathématiques, et que les termes fondamentaux y sont disposés. Pour saisir la pensée de Lacan, il faut élucider les modèles et la connotation des termes. Dans cette thèse, nous nous efforçons d’étudier quatre questions : (1). Lacan est-il le lecteur d’Aristote ou de Frege ? (2). Lacan se conforme-t-il ou non aux principes de la référence théorique ? (3). Quel problème théorique essaie-t-il de discuter en référence à la logique et aux mathématiques ? (4). Peut-on appliquer la technique du Zen à la pratique psychanalytique ?Notre recherche se fonde sur l’énoncé de Lacan lui-même. Pour montrer la démonstration convaincante et consistante, nous ne nous sommes pas limités à l’idée solitaire, la démonstration est basée sur la cohérence de l’énoncé de Lacan.Quant à la première question, nous proposons une nouvelle approche pour la logique et les mathématiques dans la pensée de Lacan. Contrairement à l’idée commune, nous pensons que la logique à laquelle se réfère Lacan n’est pas la logique aristotélicienne, mais frégéenne.À l’égard de la deuxième question, notre idée est que Lacan ne se conforme pas aux principes de la logique frégéenne et de la théorie des ensembles.Pour la troisième question, nous découvrons que les premiers modèles étudient la présentification du réel dans le Symbolique, et que cette présentification correspond à la relation pulsion-représentant de la représentation dans la pensée freudienne. Nous présentons la pensée de Lao Zi pour comprendre ce que montrent les deuxièmes modèles.Enfin, nous présentons l’histoire et le développement du Zen dans la culture chinoise afin d’élucider les deux grandes doctrines et leurs principes, puis nous comparons les deux doctrines du Zen à la pensée de Lacan ; enfin, nous en concluons qu’il ne faut pas appliquer la technique du Zen à la pratique psychanalytique sans réfléchir
After Freud, from theory to clinic, Lacan renews psychoanalysis. At the theoretical level, one of the singular characteristics is that, in the 1960s, Lacanian thought constitutes its own theory in reference to existing logical and mathematical models, and that the fundamental terms are to interpret in the models. To grasp Lacan’s thought, we must elucidate the models and the meaning of terms.In this thesis, I strive to study four questions: (1). Is Lacan a reader of Aristotle or Frege? (2). Does Lacan comply or not with the principles of the theoretical reference? (3). What theoretical problem is he trying to discuss with reference to logic and mathematics? (4). Can the zen technique be applied to psychoanalytic practice?Our research is based on Lacan’s own work, and it aims to provide a convincing and consistent demonstration. We are not limited to a single idea, and the demonstration is based on the consistency of Lacan’s statement.As for the first question, we propose a new approach to logic and mathematics in Lacan’s thought. Contrary to common thought, we think that the logic to which Lacan refers is not Aristotelian but rather Fregean.Concerning the second question, we believe that Lacan does not conform to the principles of Fregean logic and set theory.As for the third question, we find that the first models study the presentification of the real in the symbolic and that this presentification corresponds to the drive-representative relationship of the representation in Freudian thought. We then present Lao Zi’s thinking to understand what the second models show.Finally, we present the history and development of zen in Chinese culture in order to elucidate the two great doctrines and their principles. We then compare the two zen doctrines to Lacanian thought. Finally, we draw a conclusion that Lacan does not apply the technique of zen to psychoanalytic practice without thinking

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The following research aims to find in the text Science and Truth, by Jacques Lacan, published in 1966, the arguments with which he justifies the scientific vocation of psychoanalysis and most importantly, shows that it is located in the field of science through the subject. Searching beyond this, to analyze if these justifications are consistent and to identify through which elements they are supported. The investigation is divided into three parts, which correspond to the three chapters of the dissertation, which have the following focus: The subject of science, the object of psychoanalysis and the scientific vocation of psychoanalysis. To bring together science and psychoanalysis, Lacan, in the main text, refuses to include psychoanalysis in the area of human science. Considering this, the research aims to find, through the study of the criticism completed by Lacan, of man as the subject of science, the debate with psychology, implicit in the text. The argument that there is equality between the subject of science and the Freudian unconscious is another focus of this research. Searching to identify the consistency of this argument through the Freudian references that Lacan is examining in the main text. Concluding that psychoanalysis had, and still has, as in Lacan s view, to face two big challenges to be included in the scientific field: the first has to do with the question of the object and the second deals with the differentiation between psychoanalyses and psychology, that the latter seeks to include the first in its set, since it claims for a unity in its field of knowledge
A presente pesquisa visa a localizar no texto A Ciência e a Verdade, de Jacques Lacan, publicado em 1966, os argumentos com que ele justifica a vocação científica da psicanálise, e, principalmente, mostra que esta se insere no campo da ciência por meio do sujeito. Procurando, além disso, analisar se essas justificativas são consistentes e em que elementos se apoiam. A investigação está dividida em três partes, que correspondem a três capítulos da Dissertação, as quais têm os seguintes focos: o sujeito da ciência, o objeto da psicanálise e a vocação científica da psicanálise. Para aproximar a psicanálise da ciência, Lacan, no texto base, recusa, no entanto, incluir a psicanálise no bojo das ciências humanas. Em face disso, este trabalho objetiva encontrar, mediante o estudo da crítica, empreendida por Lacan, ao homem como objeto da ciência, o debate com a psicologia, implícito no texto. O argumento de que há equivalência entre o sujeito da ciência e o inconsciente freudiano é outro foco desta pesquisa. Buscar-se-á identificar, na leitura das referências freudianas apresentadas por Lacan no texto base, a coerência desta argumentação. Chega-se à conclusão de que a psicanálise tinha, e continua tendo, como na visão de Lacan, de enfrentar dois grandes obstáculos para localizar-se no campo científico: o primeiro, dizendo respeito ao debate, que se dá, em seus termos próprios, na ciência, sobre a questão do objeto, e o segundo, acerca da diferenciação em relação à psicologia, que visa a incluí-la em seu conjunto, na medida em que busca a unidade enquanto campo do saber

This dissertation seeks to explore the nature of the self/other, subject/object dialectic that can be found in Jacques Lacan's theory of the Minor Stage and his notion of Imaginary mastery, and how this relationship can be re-read in terms of a beholder/image relationship. What I seek to demonstrate in exploring the relationship between the beholder and the image is the staging of two opposing emotions, aggression and desire and the consequential tussle for mastery that arises from the self/other, and hence the beholder/image, dichotomy. I seek to explore the reasons why such a beholder/image relationship becomes ambivalent, due to veiled, obscured and fragmented images.
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In my thesis, Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is examined using French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan's mirror stage theory. In the novel, humans have built androids that are almost indistinguishable from humans except that they lack a sense of empathy, or so the humans believe. The Voigt-Kampff Machine is a polygraph-like device used to determine if a subject shows signs of empathy in order to confirm if one is an android or a human. Yet, should empathy be the defining quality of determining humanity? In his article "The mirror stage as formative of the function of the ‘I’ as revealed in psychoanalytic experience," Lacan refers to a particular critical milestone in an infant's psychological development. When the baby looks in a mirror, they come to the realization that the image they are seeing is not just any ordinary image; it is actually themselves in the mirror. This "a-ha" moment of self-realization is what Lacan's Mirror Stage Theory is based on. According to Lacan's theory, the image that the child sees in a mirror becomes an "Other" through which they will always scrutinize and pass judgment on, for it is not how they have pictured themselves to be in their mind’s eye. I hypothesize that the androids are humans' artificial and technological Other. It is my thought that Dick uses the conflict of determining the biological from the artificial, the effort to differentiate humans from androids and biological animals from artificial ones, to illustrate Lacan's psychoanalysis of the mirror stage and its importance in our continual search for determining what humanity is and who we really are.

This thesis explores the role played by narrative desire within two modernist experimentations with novel form: Willa Cather's 1918 novel My Antonia and William Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom! (1936). In it, I argue that Cather and Faulkner utilize framing narratives in order to present the main plot of each novel as a product of multiple narrators' desire for a story to emerge. In My Antonia, it is the expressed wish of Jim Burden's nameless writer friend that compels him to finish writing his account of Antonia, which constitutes the main plot of the novel. Meanwhile, in Absalom, Absalom! it is Quentin's perception that Rosa "wants it told" which inspires him to investigate and reconstruct her ex-fiancee Thomas Sutpen's life story with the help of two other character-narrators: his father and college roommate Shreve. Calling on narrative theory and psychoanalysis, I argue that Cather's and Faulkner's novels depict characters' desire for both storytelling and each other to be enigmatic and intersubjective. Indeed the impulse to generate narrative on the part of the tellers in both texts--notably Jim and Quentin--is seen to arise out of a partial, but not entirely clear, sense that another wants them to do so. In other words, the narrative desire conveyed by the nameless writer and Rosa appears to have no clear object. While it is understood by Jim and Quentin that a story is desired of them, the full extent of what this story might come to be about is never fully explicated by their interlocutors. Theoretically, the intervention this project wagers by way of Cather and Faulkner is a rethinking of two influential attempts to bring together narrative theory and psychoanalysis: Peter Brooks' Reading for the Plot (1984) and Judith Roof's Come As You Are (1996). While the claims regarding narrative advanced by both Brooks and Roof rely primarily on Freud's work (notably his theories of the death drive and of sexual development), I attempt to demonstrate how Lacan's thinking allows us to understand narrative as issuing from a desire that is at once intersubjective and objectless--as appears to be the case in My Antonia and Absalom, Absalom!. Lacan's dynamic conceptualization of desire, I suggest, is not only essential to understanding these two works; it is also very much implicit within the interplay of desire and narrative form they establish.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2003.
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Thesis (Master of Arts)--Miami University, Dept. of Mass Communication, 2005.
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This thesis examines the social theory of Lacanian philosopher Slavoj Žižek. It focuses on Žižek’s work between 1989 and 2006, and offers an interpretation based on a reading of three central concepts: the Other, fantasy, and the act. All these concepts occupy the intersection between Lacan’s three orders (Imaginary, Real, Symbolic), which in Žižek’s theory means that they express a tension shared by all social order. The first chapter approaches Žižek’s conception of “the social” through an introduction of the Lacanian concept of "the Other." Attention is paid to how (a) the Other is constitutively split between its role as a Symbolic network of signifiers, and its enigmatic (Real and Imaginary) capacity to support this Symbolic network; (b) a similar split marks several of Žižek’s Lacanian and Hegelian concepts. Moreover, the chapter contrasts Žižekian sociality with those of Giddens, Luhmann and Althusser. The second chapter gives an account of the topological place of fantasy in Žižek’s theory. Relating Žižek’s theory to Critical Theory, deconstruction and Deleuzian philosophy, fantasy is presented as a concept countering new forms of “bad infinity” (Hegel) in modern social theory. The third chapter links Žižek’s theory of the act to the theories of Judith Butler, Ernesto Laclau, and Alain Badiou. Commenting on Rex Butler’s brilliant reading of Žižek, the thesis argues that Butler’s definition of the act is too negative. Instead, the thesis proposes a definition which emphasises the act's productive dimension, insisting on how the act ultimately involves the transformation from masculine to feminine enjoyment. The last chapter critically observes the different treatments Lacan and Derrida receive in Žižek’s text. The argument concludes that the Žižekian text relapses into a "masculine logic of exception", insofar as it leaves Derrida’s phallus untouched, while treating Lacan as the only one lacking phallus.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2004.
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This is an explication of Lacan’s Seminar XVII. The introduction situates the Seminar in its time and in relation to other theories of discourse. In part one I examine the changes which it brings to a variety of ideas already known in Lacan’s oeuvre such as Jouissance, Master Signifier(s) and Oedipus. Part two looks the four discourses in detail after considering the positions common to each. I provide accounts of each discourse as taking place internally to a subject and between subjects. The coda examines areas where further research is possible, reviews and critiques some scholarship on this seminar and inquires into the use value of the discourse theory, both generally and as a means of getting beyond Lacan.

En principe le droit traite les deux sexes à égalité tandis que les lieux communs mènent la pensée dans les impasses d’une paix portée par les femmes et de guerres portées par les hommes. De tout temps, la part de criminalité féminine est restée moindre que celle des hommes. Depuis des analyses croisées d’historiens, juristes, criminologues, sociologues, et psychologues, les chercheurs mobilisent des sources abondantes et multiples qui nous donnent à voir la complexité des représentations des femmes criminelles, construites et sédimentées depuis plus de vingt siècles. Aujourd’hui, l’augmentation des infractions féminines constitue un nouveau champ de recherches interdisciplinaires. Mieux interroger le malaise dans la civilisation d’une tendance actuelle à la violence féminine c’est rouvrir la boite à Pandore par ce thème ancestral de la femme criminelle. Sous cette empreinte féminine qui caractérise notre monde actuel, cette thèse nous engage sur les chemins d’une recherche en psychanalyse dans ses rapports au passage à l’acte depuis une pratique clinique en milieu carcéral. Position féminine n’étant pas à confondre avec la jouissance féminine, qu’est-ce que cette touche du réel du hors-la-loi vient-elle nous enseigner ? Devant l’échec du fantasme, les violences ne cessent pas d’échapper à la machine signifiante. A partir du développement de l’enseignement freudien et orientés par cette logique non œdipienne introduite par la théorie des jouissances lacanienne, nous interrogerons la mise en acte comme court-circuit de la réalité inconsciente
On principle, right treats equally the two sexes while servants domains lead thought in apeace’s deadlock brought by the women and wars brought by the men. Feminine crime hasalways remains minor towards mens. Since crossed analysis from historicians, jurists,criminologists, sociologists and psychologists, groups of researchers mobilize abundant andmultiple sources that reveals the complexity of criminal women’s representations built andsedimented for centuries. Today feminine’s infractions rise forms a new field ofinterdisciplinary research. Better questionning civilization and its discontents on the currenttrend towards feminine violence consists in reopening the Pandora box by this ancestral themeof criminal woman. Under this feminine print which characterises our current world thisthesis initiate us in the path of psychoanalysis researches in its reports with the acting outfrom a clinical practice in prison environment. Feminine’s position is not to be confused withthe feminine jouissance, what this touch of the real from the out-law comes to teach us ?Before failure of the phantasm, both in neurosis and psychosis, violences never ceased toescape (the chain of signifier ou the signifier machine). From the enlightement of freudian’steaching and direct by this non oedipal’s logic introduced by the theory of Lacanianjouissance, we question the violent enactment as a short-circuit of unconscious reality

Qu’est-ce que la possession démoniaque ? La manifestation d’une croyance archaïque ? Avant de nous arrêter à cette définition minimale, remarquons que notre modernité en est pourtant toujours autant interrogée : Jamais les cas de possession et les demandes d’exorcismes ne semblent avoir été aussi nombreux. Mais comment situer ces phénomènes ? La théorie psychanalytique nous conduit à saisir la clinique du sujet possédé aux limites entre névrose et psychose, entre la jouissance radicalement Autre du mystique et la jouissance de l’Autre. Ce qui nous invite tant à prendre en compte les points de fuite de la structure psychique qu’à envisager le renversement de la position démoniaque en position mystique, renversement auquel la topologie lacanienne nous permet de donner forme. Enfin, il faut penser la possession comme une façon d’être au monde, une modalité discursive venant en réponse d’une mutation de la fonction paternelle, ayant elle-même une incidence sur le lien social contemporain
What is demonic possession but the expression of an archaic belief ? Before we discuss this minimalist definition, let us be aware of the fact that our modern ways are still under scrutiny : Never before has the number of possession cases and exorcism requests been this high. Where are those phenomena coming from? The psychoanalytical theory is leading us at the frontier between neurosis ans psychosis, between the mystic’s radically Other Jouissance of the mystic and the other’s jouissance.This allow us to take hold of the psyche's structure escape points as well as considering the inversion of the demonic possession into a mystical one, inversion by means of the lacanian topology. Finally, we have to look at possession as a way of being in the world, a discursive manner answering a mutation in the paternal function, itself affecting the contemporary social bond

This thesis aims to examine the notion of subjectivity in terms of the theories posed by specific schools of thought, particularly with regard to the notion of resistance within the contexts of contemporary culture. It will be concerned primarily with the theories of Jacques Lacan, Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, Donna Haraway, Pierre Bourdieu and Michel de Certeau, as well as the contributions made by Theodor Adorno and Walter Benjamin.

The thesis begins with a discussion of theories which consider subjectivity as a narrative of commoditisation that sets up the potential for both violence and resistance. These theories include Lacanian psychoanalysis, Foucault's notion of power as production and prohibition, Bourdieu's theory of habitus and Butler's notion of performativity, all of which highlight the central issues of commoditisation and contingency as subjectivity's inherent anxiety or 'discontents'. The notion of the cyborg, a primary symptom of this anxiety in postcolonial times, is central to the project's argument of a recursive subjectivising process which must necessarily involve violence, if it is to provide any possibility for emancipation. The thesis goes on to examine the processes of contemporary cultural commoditisation in relation to the hegemonies cultivated by technology and the culture industry, using specific texts from the popular culture genres of science-fiction film and manga.

This dissertation provides an exploration of the nature and scope of the category of the Unconscious as a necessary feature of rhetorical theory and criticism. In order to demonstrate the fundamental importance of the Unconscious to rhetorical theory and criticism, this dissertation focuses on Kenneth Burke's rhetorical theory of Dramatism. Burke is one of the most frequently cited theorists by rhetorical scholars, and offers a familiar site for rhetorical scholars to understand the Unconscious as a rhetorical factor. Burke formulated a theory of the Unconscious by drawing from Freudian psychoanalysis. Since Freud, Jacques Lacan has advanced and altered the Freudian understanding of the Unconscious. Therefore, by navigating the terrain of both Burkeian and Lacanian scholarship, this dissertation moves toward a BurkeLacanian theory and method to offer a more critical lexicon for the rhetorical study of the dialectical relationship between the conscious and Unconscious parts of the psyche. In doing so, this dissertation develops and answers the following questions: How can we theorize the Unconscious as a rhetorical factor? How is Burke's theory of the Unconscious rhetorically useful? How might we understand Burke's theory of rhetoric differently and better if we read his Freudian influences through Lacanian scholarship on the Unconscious? How is a theory of the BurkeLacanian subject rhetorically useful? How does a BurkeLacanian theory of the Unconscious inform productive criticism? This dissertation applies a BurkeLacanian theory of the Unconscious by introducing a rhetorical method called "Ideographic Cluster Quilting." This method moves toward the rhetorical study of texts as cultural psyches that are constructed from fragments of discourse that form around figures of abjection. In order to demonstrate the usefulness for studying Ideographic Cluster Quilts, this dissertation analyzes the cultural psyche that forms around the figure of the "illegal immigrant" as abject. In doing so, we gain an insight into the Unconscious hatred of humanity as the perverse core of American identity that qualifies which bodies do and do not matter. We will also gain an insight into the way nationalistic identities function within globalization by confining labor forces within national boundaries, while multinational corporations move freely around the world.
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This study offers a Lacanian-informed analysis of the rhetorical shifts, significant absences and elisions in the Bush administration’s justificatory war rhetoric prior to, during, and after the 2003 Iraq War. Lacan’s conception of the Subject, I suggest, is indispensable for the study of how ideology succeeds and fails rhetorically to avoid traumatic kernels, inconvenient facts, unspeakable historical truths, voids, etc. This project presents an opportunity to re-examine rhetorical studies’ assumptions about the emergence of subjectivity, including the process of interpellation, in ways that allow us to theorize not only the constitution but also the failure of identity. In so doing, it revisits the question of agency and calls for an increased focus on desire in matters rhetorical. Finally, the study invites reconsideration of the relation between rhetoric and time by suggesting that a psychoanalytic understanding of temporality can enrich and expand the existing scholarship.

Raymond Williams argues that a community’s cultural texts naturally draw upon its lived experience, and are thus a trustworthy expression of life within that community. This thesis explores the subject positions expressed in two contemporary texts—Wang Yuan’s Lipstick (又 红), and Ning Ying’s I Love Beijing (夏日暖洋洋)—to understand how urban Chinese individuals experience and comprehend the transformations convulsing their cities. To facilitate this, my primary goal in this thesis is to build a theoretical framework that uses the psychoanalytic work of Jacques Lacan and Slavoj Žižek to create the concept of the fantasy construction of the desiring subject. Using this concept, and drawing on two aspects of the cultural theories of Walter Benjamin—his heavily citational methodology and his theory of the flâneur—I examine the role of fantasy in the construction of contemporary urban Chinese individuals as desiring subjects.
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Text in English with abstracts in English, Afrikaans and isiZulu
There has been considerable debate amongst feminist scholars as to whether the normalization of cosmetic surgery positively impacts women, empowers women by promoting agency and choice (Gimlin 2002, Kuczynski 2006), or oppresses women by propagating patriarchal ideologies that confine women’s bodies and consequently inhibit their voice (Blum 2003, Blood 2005, Heinricy 2006, Clarke and Griffin 2007, Tait, 2007). Rather than entering this debate my argument proceeds from a premise that the normalization of cosmetic surgery is a form of implicit and exclusive violence. Using a selection of post‐structuralist, feminist, and psychoanalytic theories, I analyze the manner in which this form of violence confines women’s bodies and structures the psyche. Using Jacques Lacan, Judith Butler, and Michel Foucault’s argument on pastoral power, I deconstruct the formation of the normalized self, the conscience, and the act of confession as it translates in the context of the cosmetic surgical body itself. Furthermore, I highlight liberal feminism’s role in this form of oppression. In so doing, I theoretically show the continual and effective functioning of pastoral power in the context of an individualization technique that oppresses women in the second decade of the twenty‐first century. I argue that the normalization of cosmetic surgery provokes a silencing of woman’s voices, an exploitation and oppression of the individual’s psyche, and an invalidation of the living body by a less visible, less explicit, mode of incarceration that is concealed by an aesthetic and moral veil. It is in this context that I present a counter discourse to the oppression that underlies the normalizing discourses promoted by the cosmetic surgical industry, a destabilization of patriarchal norms embedded within cosmetic surgical discourses, and a theoretical reconstruction that involves an inscription of what I refer to as an authentic feminist voice in contemporary consumer culture – a mode of intimate unconscious insurgence. I advocate a return to Julia Kristeva’s theory and the intimate revolt promoted by her ethical approach. Furthermore, I present a voice that demonstrates an intimate revolt – a voice that challenges patriarchal norms and is not exclusively confined by the mechanisms of normalization that shape the twenty‐first century woman with emphasis on the cosmetic surgical industry and its superincumbent discourses – the South African poet Antjie Krog. It is Krog’s skillfully structured poetic texts that facilitate my theoretical reconstruction. Applying Kristeva’s theory on semanalysis, I theoretically show that Krog’s work fabricates an excess to the confines of the law of the Father and the mechanisms of normalization itself. In addition, I present an “originary attachment” as an adaption of Kristeva’s argument on the chora and my proposal of an “originary ideal” challenges Kristeva’s emphasis on phonetic grams in the context of that which underlies the realm of the paternal metaphor. Using Louise Viljoen’s analysis of Krog’s work and Bridget Garnham’s research on emerging designer cosmetic surgical discourses as support, I then present Krog’s poetic texts as a counter discourse to the “moral” cosmetic surgical discourses that exploit the ageing individual in the second decade of the twenty‐first century. In addition, applying Kristeva’s theory on paragrams to Krog’s poetic text(s), I present a destabilization of the patriarchal norms implicit within cosmetic surgical discourses. Furthermore, I extend Kristeva’s theory on the principle of negativity to present a re‐translation of the act‐of‐confession in Krog’s poetic text(s), an extension of Foucault’s pastoral power and Butler’s argument on the exclusivity of normalization, and a reclamation of her ageing body in Verweersrkrif/Body Bereft (Krog 2006).
Feministiese geleerdes voer al geruime tyd 'n warm debat oor die kwessie of die normalisering van kosmetiese chirurgie vroue positief beïnvloed, vroue bemagtig deurdat dit volmag en keuse vir hulle in die hand werk (Gimlin 2002; Kuczynski 2006), of vroue onderdruk deurdat dit patriargale ideologieë voorstaan wat die vroueliggaam inperk en gevolglik die vrou inhibeer om haar stem te laat hoor (Blood 2005; Blum 2005; Clarke en Griffin 2007; Heinricy 2006; Tait 2007). In plaas daarvan om by hierdie debat betrokke te raak, gaan ek van die veronderstelling uit dat die normalisering van kosmetiese chirurgie 'n vorm van implisiete en eksklusiewe geweld is. Aan die hand van post-strukturalistiese, feministiese en psigoanalitiese teorieë ontleed ek die manier waarop hierdie vorm van geweld vroue se liggaam onderwerp en hul psige vorm. Ek dekonstrueer die vorming van die genormaliseerde self, die bewussyn en die daad van belydenis, soos dit in die konteks oorgebring word, aan die hand van Jacques Lacan, Judith Butler en Michel Foucault se beskouings van herderlike oftewel pastorale mag. Hierbenewens onderstreep ek die rol wat liberale feminisme in hierdie vorm van onderwerping speel. Sodoende demonstreer ek teoreties hoe die voortdurende en effektiewe funksionering van pastorale mag in die konteks van ’n individualiseringstegniek vroue in die tweede dekade van die een-en-twintigste eeu onderdruk. Ek maak die aanname dat die normalisering van kosmetiese chirurgie daartoe bydra dat vroue die swye opgelê word, die individu se psige uitgebuit en onderdruk word en die lewende liggaam ontkragtig word deur middel van ’n inkerkering wat minder sigbaar en minder eksplisiet is en agter ’n estetiese en morele sluier verdoesel word. In hierdie konteks bied ek ’n teendiskoers aan vir die onderwerping wat onderliggend is aan die normaliseringsdiskoerse wat die kosmetiesechirurgiebedryf ondersteun, en ek bepleit dat die patriargale norme wat in diskoerse oor kosmetiese chirurgie vassit, gedestabiliseer word. Ek demonstreer verder ’n teoretiese rekonstruksie wat ’n inskripsie insluit van wat ek ’n geloofwaardige feministiese stem in die eietydse verbruikerskultuur noem – ’n modus van intieme, onbewuste opstandigheid. Ek bepleit 'n terugkeer na Julia Kristeva se teorie en die intieme oproer wat deur haar etiese benadering voorgestaan word. Afgesien hiervan stel ek ’n stem voor wat ’n intieme opstand demonstreer – ’n stem wat patriargale norme uitdaag en nie uitsluitlik onderdruk word deur die normaliseringsmeganismes wat vorm gee aan die vrou van die een-entwintigste eeu nie, waar die klem op die kosmetiesechirurgiebedryf en die boliggende diskoerse daarvan val – Antjie Krog, Suid-Afrikaanse digter. Dit is juis Krog se kunstig gestruktureerde digterlike tekste wat my teoretiese rekonstruksie fasiliteer. Aan die hand van Kristeva se teorie oor semanalise toon ek teoreties dat Krog se werk ’n ruimte daarstel wat "uitstyg" bo die grense wat die wet van die Vader en die normaliseringsmeganismes stel. Hierbenewens stel ek ’n "originêre gehegtheid" as aanpassing van Kristeva se beskouing van die chora voor, en my voorstel van ’n "originêre ideaal" daag Kristeva se opvating oor paragramme uit in die konteks van dit wat ten grondslag lê aan die gebied van die paternalistiese metafoor. Op grond van Louise Viljoen se ontleding van Krog se werk en Bridget Garnham se navorsing oor opkomende diskoerse oor ontwerpers- kosmetiese chirurgie bied ek Krog se digterlike tekste aan as ’n teendiskoers vir die "morele" diskoerse oor kosmetiese chirurgie wat die verouderende individu in die tweede dekade van die een-en-twintigste eeu uitbuit. Daarby, deur Kristeva se teorie oor paragramme op Krog se digterlike teks(te) toe te pas, demonstreer ek 'n destabilisering van die patriargale norme wat implisiet in diskoerse oor kosmetiese chirurgie teenwoordig is. Hierbenewens brei ek Kristeva se teorie oor die negatiwiteitsbeginsel uit deur middel van ’n heroorsetting van die belydenisdaad in Krog se digwerk(e), ’n uitbreiding van Foucault se pastorale mag en Butler se opvatting oor die eksklusiwiteit van normalisering, en ’n opeising van Krog se verouderende liggaam in Verweerskrif/Body Bereft (Krog 2006).
Sekubekhona izingxoxo-mpikiswano eziningi kwizifundiswa zama-feminist ukuthi ngabe ukwenza isurgery yohlinzo olungajulile ukuzishintsha ukubukeka ngokwemvelo (cosmetic plastic surgery) kunomphumela omuhle yini kwabesimame, ngabe kuhlinzeka ngamandla kwabesimame ngokuphakamisela phezulu ukuthi umuntu azenzele akufunayo kanye nokuzikhethela (Grimlin 2002, Kuczynski 2006) noma kuyinto ecindezela abesimame ngokuqhubela phambili indlela nama-idiyoloji abekwa ngabesilisa ukuthi imizimba yabesimame kumele ibukeke kanjani, kanti lokhu kucindezela izwi labesimame (Blum 2003, Blood 2005, Heinricy 2006, Clarke and Griffin 2007, Tait, 2007). Kunokuthi iphuzu nami ngingenele kule ngxoxo-mpikiswano, elami iphuzu lona liqhubeka ukusukela kwisimo sokuthi ukwamukela uhlujzo olungajulile lokuzitshintsha ukubukeka kwabesimame (cosmetic surgery) kuyindlela yodlame olungaqondile ngqo kanye nolukhipha inyumbazane abesimame. Ngokusebenzisa amathiyori epost-structuralist, awe-feminist kanye nawepsychoanalytical, ngihlaziya indlela le nhlobo yalolu dlame ecindezela ngayo imizimba yabesimame kanye nokuhlela indlela okumele bacabange nokuzibona ngayo. Ngokusebenzisa iphuzu likaJacques Lacan, Judith Buttle kanye noMichel Foucault lamandla okukhokhela ngokomoya, ngiqhaqha indlela okubumbeka ngayo isithombe sokuzibona, unembeza kanye nomoya wokuhlambulula ngokuzidalula (confession) lapho kubhekwa izinto ngaphansi kwesimo somzimba wokuhlinzwa okungajulile ukuzishintsha ukubukeka ngokwakho. Nangaphezu kwalokho, ngigqamisa indima ye-liberal feminism ngokwayo kule nhlobo yencindezelo. Ngokwenza lokho, ngikhombisa ngokwethiyori ukuqhubeka nokusebenza kwamandla esikhokhelo ngokomoya ngaphansi kwethekniki yokuzazi komuntu eyedwa okucindezela abesimame kwiminyaka elishumi yesibili, yesenshuri yamashumi amabili nanye . Ngiqhubela phambili iphuzu lokuthi ukwenziwa kohlinzo olungajulile lokuzishintsha ukubukeka kuqala umoya wokucindezela izwi labesimame, ukuxhashazwa kwabo, kanye nendlela umuntu azibona ngayo ngokwengqondo, kanye nokucindezela umzimba ophilayo ngezindlela ezingazibonakalisi obala, ezifihlekile, indlela yokubopha efihlwa yindlela yokubukeka kanye nokwembozwa umoya. Kungaphansi kwalesi simo lapho ngethula khona i-discourse yencindezelo eyenza ukuthi imboni yohlinzo olungajulile ukuzishintsha ukubukeka kwabesimame kube yinto ephakanyiswayo nokubonwa iyinhle, ukuphazamiseka kwama-norm endlela yengcindezi yabesilisa, ngaphansi kwama-discourse okuhlinzwa okungajulile ukushintsha ukubukeka, kanye nokwakha ithiyori ebandakanya ukubona izinto ngendlela ethize, engikuchaza njengezwi okuyilo elifanele le-feminism, kwisimo sosiko esiphila ngaphansi kwaso samanje - okuyindlela abantu abazibuka ngayo ezingqondweni ngendlela engekho obala. Ngigcizelela ukubuyela kwithiyori kaKristeva, kanye nokuthi abantu babhoke indlobana ngezindlela eziphansi, okuyinto ayiphakamisayo yenkambiso yokwazi okulungile nokungalunganga (ethical approach). Naphezu kwalokho, ngiveza izwi elibonisa ukubhoka indlobana kwabesimame ngendlela engekho sobala - izwi elifaka inselele kuma-norm okubhozomelwa ngumqondo wokulawula kwabesilisa, kanti futhi leli zwi aligcinanga nje kuphela umumo wabesimame ngendlela ejwayelekile njengowesimame wesenshuri yamashumi amabili-nanye ngokugcizelela kwimboni yohlinzo olungajulile lokuzishintsha ukubukeka, kanye nendlela lokhu okuyisihibe ngayo – ngokusho kukasonkondlo waseNingizimu Afrika, u-Antjie Krog. Imibhalo yezinkondlo zikaKrog ezinobungcweti yiyo eyenze ukwakha kwami kabusha ithiyori. Ngokusebenzisa ithiyori kaKristeva ye-semanalysis, ngibonisa ngokwethiyori ukuthi umsebenzi kaKrog uqambe okweqele ngaleya kwizihibe zomthetho kubaba kanye nezindlela zokwenza izinto zibukeke ngendlela evamile noma zingavamile. Nangaphezu kwalokho, ngifakela i-"originary attachment" njengokwenza ukuthi kube kwesinye isimo, iphuzu likaKristeva ku-chora kanti isiphakamiso sami se-"originary ideal" sifaka inselele kusigcizelelo sikaKristeva ngamagremu efonethiki ngaphansi kwesimo esigcizelela umfanekiso ngasohlangothini lobaba. Ngokusebenzisa ukuhlaziya kukaLouise Viljoen kumsebenzi kaKrog kanye nocwaningo lukaBridget Garnham ngokuvela kwama-discourse ohlinzo olungajulile ukuzishintsha ukubukeka njengesisekelo, ngase ngethula imibhalo yezinkondlo zikaKrog njenge-discourse yokuphikisa ama-discourse e-"moral" yama-discourse ohlinzo olungajulile lokuzishintsha ukubukeka, elixhaphaza abantu abagugayo ngeminyaka eyishumi yesibili kwisenshuri yamashumi amabili-nanye. Naphezu kwalokho, ngisebenzise ithiyori kaKristeva kumapharagramu kwimibhalo yezinkondlo zikaKrog, ngaphazamisa imibono yokuphatha kwabesilisa equkethwe kuma-discourse ohlinzo ulungajulile ukuzishintsha ukubukeka. Ukuqhubekela phambili, nginwebe ithiyori kaKristeva ngesimiso se-negativity ukwethula ukuhumusha kabusha umoya wokuzihlambulula ngokuzidalula otholakala kwizinkondlozikaKrog, ukuwukunweba amandla umbono kaFaucault wamandla okuthi abantu bazibone ngenye indlela kanye nephuzu likaButler wlkuthi into engavamile engaphandle ibonwe njengento efanele, kanye nokwamukela umzimba ogugayo kwinkondlo ye- Verweerskrif/Body Bereft (Krog 2006).
English Studies
D. Litt. et Phil.(Theory of Literature)

The first aim of the thesis is to demonstrate the structural congruence between the discourse theory, as is formulated in the work of political philospoher Ernesto Laclau, and the Lacanian psychoanalytical discouse. Moreover, we claim that any potential attempt to remove or omit the theoretical connection with Lacanian thinking from Laclauan work is illegitimate and thwart a coherence of this work. Through this demonstration we want to reach our second aim, which is to reconstruct a theory of discourse and ideology in particular which can consistently draw upon theories of both Jacques Lacan and Ernesto Laclau. To reinforce our argumentation in context of this second aim, it turned out to be very fruitful to introduce another contemporary thinker, Slavoj Žižek, to our theoretical exposition. Joining these two aims made possible a delineation of post-structurally and at the same time psychoanalytically oriented critical political theory of ideology and society.

The numerous and varied conspiracy theories which circulate in the contemporary discourse are subject to hyperstition, insofar as they are grouped into wider, more elaborate structures. Some of them become hierarchic to such a degree, that they may, in Michael Barkun's typology, be labeled as "superconspiracy" constructs. No author is more prolific and systematic in the crafting of these constructs than the guru of anglophone conspiracy theory belief, David Icke. The work attempts to keep as its object of study the work of David Icke and his "reptoid hypothesis," as it is effectively one of the most elaborate and baroque conspiracy theories which populate contemporary political discourse. It is Icke's oeuvre which this thesis attempts to recontextualize within the confines of critical social theory and Žižekian psychoanalysis. The existence of a "paranoid style" as professed by Richard J. Hofstadter can be noted throughout the history of western culture, from the Homeric gods, scheming behind the scenes, to its modern incarnations culminating in the superconspiracy constructs of David Icke, Alex Jones, and others. The work focuses not on specific conspiracy theories and their claim to facticity, but rather attempts to trace the structural features of Icke's construct and establish their underlying...