The Singularity of Being:Lacan and the Immortal Within

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Publisher : Fordham University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780823243143
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (431 download)

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Book Synopsis The Singularity of Being:Lacan and the Immortal Within by : Mari Ruti

Download or read book The Singularity of Being:Lacan and the Immortal Within written by Mari Ruti and published by Fordham University Press. This book was released on 2012-06-01 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Singularity of Being presents a Lacanian vision of what makes each of us an inimitable and irreplaceable creature. It argues that, unlike the "subject" (who comes into existence as a result of symbolic prohibition) or the "person" (who is aligned with the narcissistic conceits of the imaginary), the singular self emerges in response to a galvanizing directive arising from the real. This directive carries the force of an obligation that cannot be resisted and that summons the individual to a "character" beyond his or her social investments. Consequently, singularity expresses something about the individual's non-negotiable distinctiveness, eccentricity, or idiosyncrasy at the same time it prevents both symbolic and imaginary closure. It opens to layers of rebelliousness, indicating that there are components of human life exceeding the realm of normative sociality.Written with an unusual blend of rigor and clarity, The Singularity of Being combines incisive readings of Lacan with the best insights of recent Lacanian theory to reach beyond the dogmas of the field. Moving from what, thanks in part to Slavoj Zizek, has come to be known as the "ethics of the act" to a nuanced interpretation of Lacan's "ethics of sublimation," the book offers a sweeping overview of Lacan's thought while making an original contribution to contemporary theory and ethics. Aimed at specialists and nonspecialists alike, the book manages to educate at the same time as it intervenes in current debates about subjectivity, agency, resistance, creativity, the self-other relationship, and effective political and ethical action. By focusing on the Lacanian real, Ruti honors the uniqueness of subjective experience without losing sight of the social and intersubjective components of human life.

The Singularity of Being

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780823293209
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (932 download)

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Book Synopsis The Singularity of Being by : Mari Ruti

Download or read book The Singularity of Being written by Mari Ruti and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Singularity of Being presents a Lacanian vision of what makes each of us an inimitable and irreplaceable creature. It argues that, unlike the "subject" (who comes into existence as a result of symbolic prohibition) or the "person" (who is aligned with the narcissistic conceits of the imaginary), the singular self emerges in response to a galvanizing directive arising from the real. This directive carries the force of an obligation that cannot be resisted and that summons the individual to a "character" beyond his or her social investments. Consequently, singularity expresses something about the individual's non-negotiable distinctiveness, eccentricity, or idiosyncrasy at the same time it prevents both symbolic and imaginary closure. It opens to layers of rebelliousness, indicating that there are components of human life exceeding the realm of normative sociality. Written with an unusual blend of rigor and clarity, The Singularity of Being combines incisive readings of Lacan with the best insights of recent Lacanian theory to reach beyond the dogmas of the field. Moving from what, thanks in part to Slavoj Žižek, has come to be known as the "ethics of the act" to a nuanced interpretation of Lacan's "ethics of sublimation," the book offers a sweeping overview of Lacan's thought while making an original contribution to contemporary theory and ethics. Aimed at specialists and nonspecialists alike, the book manages to educate at the same time as it intervenes in current debates about subjectivity, agency, resistance, creativity, the self-other relationship, and effective political and ethical action. By focusing on the Lacanian real, Ruti honors the uniqueness of subjective experience without losing sight of the social and intersubjective components of human life.

The Singularity of Being

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780823243181
Total Pages : 260 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (431 download)

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Book Synopsis The Singularity of Being by : Mari Ruti

Download or read book The Singularity of Being written by Mari Ruti and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume presents a Lacanian vision of what makes each of us an inimitable and irreplaceable creature. Aimed at specialists and non-specialists alike, the book manages to educate at the same time as it intervenes in current debates about subjectivity, agency, resistance, creativity, the self-other relationship, and much more.

The Singularity of Being

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Publisher : Psychoanalytic Interventions
ISBN 13 : 9780823243150
Total Pages : 260 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (431 download)

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Book Synopsis The Singularity of Being by : Mari Ruti

Download or read book The Singularity of Being written by Mari Ruti and published by Psychoanalytic Interventions. This book was released on 2012 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Singularity of Being offers a Lacanian interpretation on what makes each of us a unique and irreplaceable creature. Focusing on the Lacanian real, it builds a theory of individual distinctiveness while also intervening in critical debates about subjectivity, agency, resistance, the self-other relationship, and effective political and ethical action.

Reinventing the Soul

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Publisher : Other Press, LLC
ISBN 13 : 163542125X
Total Pages : 262 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (354 download)

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Book Synopsis Reinventing the Soul by : Mari Ruti

Download or read book Reinventing the Soul written by Mari Ruti and published by Other Press, LLC. This book was released on 2020-10-20 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Essential reading for scholars and students in critical theory, psychoanalysis, and gender studies. How does the self care for itself in the posthumanist era? What psychic processes might allow the postmodern subject to find meaning and value in its life? Is it possible to delineate a theory of psychic potentiality that is compatible with poststructuralist models of fluid, decentered, and polyvalent subjectivity? Reinventing the Soul offers a new perspective on what it means to be a human being and to strive in the world despite the wounding effects of the socialization process. Drawing on the rich legacies of French poststructuralism and Lacanian psychoanalysis, Ruti builds an affirmative alternative to the post-Foucaultian tendency to envision subjectivity as a function of hegemonic systems of power. She proposes that the subject's encounter with the world also necessarily activates the psyche's innovative potential. By focusing on matters of creative agency, imaginative empowerment, inner metamorphosis, and self-actualization, Ruti outlines some of the mechanisms by which the psyche manages not only to survive its lack, alienation, or suffering, but also to transform its abjection into an existentially livable reality. Central to Ruti's argument is the idea that human beings relate to the world in active rather than merely passive ways—as dynamic creators of meaning rather than as powerless dupes of disciplinary power.

On the Psychotheology of Everyday Life

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Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226734897
Total Pages : 165 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (267 download)

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Book Synopsis On the Psychotheology of Everyday Life by : Eric L. Santner

Download or read book On the Psychotheology of Everyday Life written by Eric L. Santner and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2007-11-01 with total page 165 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In On the Psychotheology of Everyday Life, Eric Santner puts Sigmund Freud in dialogue with his contemporary Franz Rosenzweig in the service of reimagining ethical and political life. By exploring the theological dimensions of Freud's writings and revealing unexpected psychoanalytic implications in the religious philosophy of Rosenzweig's masterwork, The Star of Redemption, Santner makes an original argument for understanding religions of revelation in therapeutic terms, and offers a penetrating look at how this understanding suggests fruitful ways of reconceiving political community. Santner's crucial innovation in this new study is to bring the theological notion of revelation into a broadly psychoanalytic field, where it can be understood as a force that opens the self to everyday life and encourages accountability within the larger world. Revelation itself becomes redefined as an openness toward what is singular, enigmatic, even uncanny about the Other, whether neighbor or stranger, thereby linking a theory of drives and desire to a critical account of sociality. Santner illuminates what it means to be genuinely open to another human being or culture and to share and take responsibility for one's implication in the dilemmas of difference. By bringing Freud and Rosenzweig together, Santner not only clarifies in new and surprising ways the profound connections between psychoanalysis and the Judeo-Christian tradition, he makes the resources of both available to contemporary efforts to rethink concepts of community and cross-cultural communication.

The Call of Character

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Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231164084
Total Pages : 218 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (311 download)

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Book Synopsis The Call of Character by : Mari Ruti

Download or read book The Call of Character written by Mari Ruti and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2013-11-12 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Should we feel inadequate for failing to be healthy, balanced, and well-adjusted? Is such an existential equilibrium realistic or even desirable? Condemning our cultural obsession with cheerfulness and “positive thinking,” Mari Ruti calls for a resurrection of character that honors our more eccentric frequencies, arguing that sometimes the most tormented and anxiety-ridden life can also be the most rewarding. Ruti critiques our current search for personal meaning and the pragmatic attempt to normalize human beings’ unruly and idiosyncratic natures. Exposing the tragic banality of a happy life commonly lived, she instead emphasizes the advantages of a lopsided life rich in passion and fortitude. Ruti shows what counts is not our ability to evade existential uncertainty but to meet adversity in such a way that we do not become irrevocably broken. We are in danger of losing the capacity to cope with complexity, ambiguity, melancholia, disorientation, and disappointment, leaving us feeling less “real,” less connected, and unable to metabolize a full range of emotions. Heeding the call of our character may mean acknowledging the marginalized, chaotic aspects of our being, for they carry a great deal of creative energy. Ruti shows it is precisely this energy that makes us inimitable and irreplaceable.

Lacan on Love

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Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 1509500510
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (95 download)

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Book Synopsis Lacan on Love by : Bruce Fink

Download or read book Lacan on Love written by Bruce Fink and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2017-09-05 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Quintessentially fascinating, love intrigues and perplexes us, and drives much of what we do in life. As wary as we may be of its illusions and disappointments, many of us fall blindly into its traps and become ensnared time and again. Deliriously mad excitement turns to disenchantment, if not deadening repetition, and we wonder how we shall ever break out of this vicious cycle. Can psychoanalysis – with ample assistance from philosophers, poets, novelists, and songwriters – give us a new perspective on the wellsprings and course of love? Can it help us fathom how and why we are often looking for love in all the wrong places, and are fundamentally confused about “what love really is”? In this lively and wide-ranging exploration of love throughout the ages, Fink argues that it can. Taking within his compass a vast array of traditions – from Antiquity to the courtly love poets, Christian love, and Romanticism – and providing an in-depth examination of Freud and Lacan on love and libido, Fink unpacks Lacan’s paradoxical claim that “love is giving what you don’t have.” He shows how the emptiness or lack we feel within ourselves gets covered over or entwined in love, and how it is possible and indeed vital to give something to another that we feel we ourselves don’t have. This first-ever commentary on Lacan’s Seminar VIII, Transference, provides readers with a clear and systematic introduction to Lacan’s views on love. It will be of great value to students and scholars of psychology and of the humanities generally, and to analysts of all persuasions.

Hegel and the Hermetic Tradition

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Publisher : Cornell University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780801474507
Total Pages : 310 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (745 download)

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Book Synopsis Hegel and the Hermetic Tradition by : Glenn Alexander Magee

Download or read book Hegel and the Hermetic Tradition written by Glenn Alexander Magee and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Glenn Alexander Magee's pathbreaking book argues that Hegel was decisively influenced by the Hermetic tradition, a body of thought with roots in Greco-Roman Egypt. Magee traces the influence on Hegel of such Hermetic thinkers as Baader, Böhme, Bruno, and Paracelsus, and fascination with occult and paranormal phenomena. Hegel and the Hermetic Tradition covers Hegel's philosophical corpus and shows that his engagement with Hermeticism lasted throughout his career and intensified during his final years in Berlin. Viewing Hegel as a Hermetic thinker has implications for a more complete understanding of the modern philosophical tradition, and German idealism in particular.

What Lacan Said About Women

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Publisher : Other Press, LLC
ISBN 13 : 1635421292
Total Pages : 342 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (354 download)

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Book Synopsis What Lacan Said About Women by : Colette Soler

Download or read book What Lacan Said About Women written by Colette Soler and published by Other Press, LLC. This book was released on 2020-10-06 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The definitive work on Lacan's theory of the feminine. With exquisite prose and penetrating insights, Colette Soler shares her theoretical and clinical expertise in this vibrant new text. She spins out seductive explications of Lacan's thought on the controversial question of sexual difference. With the subtlety that these topics deserve, she takes up Lacan's conception of woman and her relation to masochism, femininity and hysteria, love and death, and the impossible sexual relation. Following more than the usual suspects, What Lacan Said About Women also explores the mother's place in the unconscious, how Lacan understands depression, and why depressives feel unloved. Soler's analysis examines the cultural implications of the texts that Lacan produced from the 1950s to the 1970s, such as the effects of science on contemporary conceptions of the feminine. She gracefully bridges the gap still left open between psychoanalysis and cultural studies. Winner of the Prix Psyche for the best work published in the fields of psychology and psychoanalysis in 2003, this book will appeal to cultural critics, especially those in gender and women's studies, as well as to anyone involved in contemporary theory or clinical practice. This study will transform novices within the field of Lacanian theory into informed thinkers and it will substantially supplement and refine the knowledge of Lacanian veterans.

Lacanian Ethics and the Assumption of Subjectivity

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Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 0230305032
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (33 download)

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Book Synopsis Lacanian Ethics and the Assumption of Subjectivity by : C. Neill

Download or read book Lacanian Ethics and the Assumption of Subjectivity written by C. Neill and published by Springer. This book was released on 2011-07-12 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A readable and advanced introductory-level text focusing on the ethical dimensions and impact of Lacan's thinking. This book argues that a rethinking of the subject necessitates a rethinking of our relation to law, tradition and morality, as well as our understanding of guilt, responsibility and desire.

Penis Envy and Other Bad Feelings

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Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231546769
Total Pages : 242 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (315 download)

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Book Synopsis Penis Envy and Other Bad Feelings by : Mari Ruti

Download or read book Penis Envy and Other Bad Feelings written by Mari Ruti and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2018-05-29 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mari Ruti combines theoretical reflection, cultural critique, feminist politics, and personal experience to analyze the prevalence of bad feelings in contemporary everyday life. Proceeding from a playful engagement with Freud’s idea of penis envy, Ruti’s autotheoretical commentary fans out to a broader consideration of neoliberal pragmatism. She focuses on the emphasis on good performance, high productivity, constant self-improvement, and relentless cheerfulness that characterizes present-day Western society. Revealing the treacherousness of our fantasies of the good life, particularly the idea that our efforts will eventually be rewarded—that things will eventually get better—Ruti demystifies the false hope that often causes us to tolerate an unbearable present. Theoretically rigorous and lucidly written, Penis Envy and Other Bad Feelings is a trenchant critique of contemporary gender relations. Refuting the idea that we live in a postfeminist world where gender inequalities have been transcended, Ruti describes how neoliberal heteropatriarchy has transformed itself in subtle and stealthy, and therefore all the more insidious, ways. Mobilizing Michel Foucault’s concept of biopolitics, Jacques Lacan’s account of desire, and Lauren Berlant’s notion of cruel optimism, she analyzes the rationalization of intimacy, the persistence of gender stereotypes, and the pornification of heterosexual culture. Ruti shines a spotlight on the depression, anxiety, frustration, and disenchantment that frequently lie beneath our society’s sugarcoated mythologies of self-fulfillment, romantic satisfaction, and professional success, speaking to all who are concerned about the emotional costs of the pressure-cooker ethos of our age.

Lacan

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Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1780741626
Total Pages : 248 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (87 download)

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Book Synopsis Lacan by : Lionel Bailly

Download or read book Lacan written by Lionel Bailly and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-12-01 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lacan without the jargon! Jacques Lacan was one of the most important psychoanalysts ever to have lived. Building upon the work of Sigmund Freud, he sought to refine Freudian insights with the use of linguistics, arguing that the structure of unconscious is like a language. Controversial throughout his lifetime both for adopting mathematical concepts in his psychoanalytic framework and for advocating therapy sessions of varying length, he is widely misunderstood and often unfairly dismissed as impenetrable. In this clear, wide-ranging primer, Lionel Bailly demonstrates how Lacan's ideas are still vitally relevant to contemporary issues of mental health treatment. Defending Lacan from his numerous detractors, past and present, Bailly guides the reader through Lacan's canon, from l'objet petit a to The Mirror Stage and beyond. Including coverage of developments in Lacanian psychoanalysis since his death, this is the perfect introduction to the great modern theorist.

Jacques Lacan and the Other Side of Psychoanalysis

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Publisher : Duke University Press
ISBN 13 : 0822387603
Total Pages : 341 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (223 download)

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Book Synopsis Jacques Lacan and the Other Side of Psychoanalysis by : Justin Clemens

Download or read book Jacques Lacan and the Other Side of Psychoanalysis written by Justin Clemens and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2006-05-23 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection is the first extended interrogation in any language of Jacques Lacan's Seminar XVII. Originally delivered just after the Paris uprisings of May 1968, Seminar XVII marked a turning point in Lacan’s thought; it was both a step forward in the psychoanalytic debates and an important contribution to social and political issues. Collecting important analyses by many of the major Lacanian theorists and practitioners, this anthology is at once an introduction, critique, and extension of Lacan’s influential ideas. The contributors examine Lacan’s theory of the four discourses, his critique of the Oedipus complex and the superego, the role of primal affects in political life, and his prophetic grasp of twenty-first-century developments. They take up these issues in detail, illuminating the Lacanian concepts with in-depth discussions of shame and guilt, literature and intimacy, femininity, perversion, authority and revolt, and the discourse of marketing and political rhetoric. Topics of more specific psychoanalytic interest include the role of objet a, philosophy and psychoanalysis, the status of knowledge, and the relation between psychoanalytic practices and the modern university. Contributors. Geoff Boucher, Marie-Hélène Brousse, Justin Clemens, Mladen Dolar, Oliver Feltham, Russell Grigg, Pierre-Gilles Guéguen, Dominique Hecq, Dominiek Hoens, Éric Laurent, Juliet Flower MacCannell, Jacques-Alain Miller, Ellie Ragland, Matthew Sharpe, Paul Verhaeghe, Slavoj Žižek, Alenka Zupancic

Being Singular Plural

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Publisher : Stanford University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780804739757
Total Pages : 236 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (397 download)

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Book Synopsis Being Singular Plural by : Jean-Luc Nancy

Download or read book Being Singular Plural written by Jean-Luc Nancy and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book, by one of the most innovative and challenging contemporary thinkers, rethinks community and the very idea of the social. Nancy's fundamental argument is that being is always "being with," that "I" is not prior to "we," that existence is essentially co-existence.

Interface Fantasy

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Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262266490
Total Pages : 185 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (622 download)

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Book Synopsis Interface Fantasy by : Andre Nusselder

Download or read book Interface Fantasy written by Andre Nusselder and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2009-09-11 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Behind our computer screens we are all cyborgs: through fantasy we can understand our involvement in virtual worlds. Cyberspace is first and foremost a mental space. Therefore we need to take a psychological approach to understand our experiences in it. In Interface Fantasy, André Nusselder uses the core psychoanalytic notion of fantasy to examine our relationship to computers and digital technology. Lacanian psychoanalysis considers fantasy to be an indispensable “screen” for our interaction with the outside world; Nusselder argues that, at the mental level, computer screens and other human-computer interfaces incorporate this function of fantasy: they mediate the real and the virtual. Interface Fantasy illuminates our attachment to new media: why we love our devices; why we are fascinated by the images on their screens; and how it is possible that virtual images can provide physical pleasure. Nusselder puts such phenomena as avatars, role playing, cybersex, computer psychotherapy, and Internet addiction in the context of established psychoanalytic theory. The virtual identities we assume in virtual worlds, exemplified best by avatars consisting of both realistic and symbolic self-representations, illustrate the three orders that Lacan uses to analyze human reality: the imaginary, the symbolic, and the real. Nusselder analyzes our most intimate involvement with information technology—the almost invisible, affective aspects of technology that have the greatest impact on our lives. Interface Fantasy lays the foundation for a new way of thinking that acknowledges the pivotal role of the screen in the current world of information. And it gives an intelligible overview of basic Lacanian principles (including fantasy, language, the virtual, the real, embodiment, and enjoyment) that shows their enormous relevance for understanding the current state of media technology.

The Animal that Therefore I Am

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Author :
Publisher : Fordham Univ Press
ISBN 13 : 0823227901
Total Pages : 192 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (232 download)

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Book Synopsis The Animal that Therefore I Am by : Jacques Derrida

Download or read book The Animal that Therefore I Am written by Jacques Derrida and published by Fordham Univ Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Animal That Therefore I Am is the long-awaited translation of the complete text of Jacques Derrida's ten-hour address to the 1997 Cérisy conference entitled "The Autobiographical Animal," the third of four such colloquia on his work. The book was assembled posthumously on the basis of two published sections, one written and recorded session, and one informal recorded session. The book is at once an affectionate look back over the multiple roles played by animals in Derrida's work and a profound philosophical investigation and critique of the relegation of animal life that takes place as a result of the distinction--dating from Descartes--between man as thinking animal and every other living species. That starts with the very fact of the line of separation drawn between the human and the millions of other species that are reduced to a single "the animal." Derrida finds that distinction, or versions of it, surfacing in thinkers as far apart as Descartes, Kant, Heidegger, Lacan, and Levinas, and he dedicates extended analyses to the question in the work of each of them. The book's autobiographical theme intersects with its philosophical analysis through the figures of looking and nakedness, staged in terms of Derrida's experience when his cat follows him into the bathroom in the morning. In a classic deconstructive reversal, Derrida asks what this animal sees and thinks when it sees this naked man. Yet the experiences of nakedness and shame also lead all the way back into the mythologies of "man's dominion over the beasts" and trace a history of how man has systematically displaced onto the animal his own failings or bêtises. The Animal That Therefore I Am is at times a militant plea and indictment regarding, especially, the modern industrialized treatment of animals. However, Derrida cannot subscribe to a simplistic version of animal rights that fails to follow through, in all its implications, the questions and definitions of "life" to which he returned in much of his later work.