Suchergebnisse

This book examines the use of myth in contemporary popular and high culture, and proposes that the aporetic subject, the individual that 'does not know', is the ideal contemporary subject. Using several contemporary novels, films and theatrical plays that illustrate aporia - such as Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief (Riordan, 2007), Tron Legacy (Koninski, 2010), Welcome to Thebes (Buffini, 2010), The Photographers(Koundouros, 1998), Prometheus (2012) and Prometheus Retrogressing (Sfikas, 1998) - Angie Voela introduces common ground between Lacanian psychoanalysis and some of Freud's most ardent critics, Michel Foucault and Jean Baudrillard, as well as the cultural philosopher Bernard Stiegler. These unprecedented systematic comparisons broaden the scope and impact of Lacanian psychoanalysis in inter-disciplinary debates of philosophy and culture and Voela argues that apart from dealing with the past, psychoanalysis must also deal more explicitly with the present and the future. She presents a unique inquiry into modern subjectivity that will be of great interest to scholars of psychoanalysis, philosophy, film, literature and contemporary culture

In Moira Buffini's Welcome to Thebes (2010) Antigone fails to reach her tragic destiny, the city of Thebes fails to become an autonomous democratic state, and the audience fails to witness the splendour of the ancient heroine. In this paper I consider these three failures as interrelated and dependent upon one another, arguing, along psychoanalytic lines, that they register changing attitudes towards knowledge and the Other which ultimately determine the meaning of 'failure'. However, in order to better appreciate the contemporary scope of failure, I draw on both Lacan and Baudrillard, highlighting convergences between the two theorists. In particular, I argue that Lacan's notion of the inconsistent Other can be supplemented by Baudrillard's notion of the impossible exchange. Further, the relevance of these notions for theatre and spectatorship is discussed in detail, as they both invite spectators to reflect on their own involvement in the scene they witness and the ontological conditions of (their own) absence and presence. Failure to do so possibly indicates an irreparable loss of the critical capacity which we have always considered central to radical thought.

AbstractAn experience of helplessness during the production of a collective autobiographical narrative offers an opportunity to explore points of convergence between Adriana Cavarero's postural philosophy and Bracha Lichtenberg Ettinger's matrixial borderlinking. The narrative is treated as a live scene that enfolds the movement of the drive conceptualized in such a way as to avoid the prioritization of death over life. Five successive moves, inspired by Ettinger's rotation of the phallic prism, illuminate affinities between the two thinkers. The first rotation explores the matrixial and relational qualities that compose the scene. The second rotation approaches death from a notional beginning, prioritizing the presence of the mother and her assymmetrical relationship to the infant. The third rotation emphasizes the transformational character of Ettinger's matrixial movement and border-crossing, especially when examined in conjunction with Cavarero's maternal inclination. In the fourth rotation we show how inclination (clinamen) in Lacanian psychoanalysis is linked to the disappearance of the mother from the scene. The (re)introduction of the mother disrupts the Lacanian logic with the possibility of a beginning just as immanent as desire and lack. Movement, qua embrace and unity-disunity (fifth rotation), becomes an indispensable component of feminist ontology that captures the immanence of sharing in the matrixial-maternal plane.

We are the first generation in recent history to not know if our children will have a better life than us. Over the past thirty years, the dream of upward mobility and stable and securely paid employment has dissipated. This collection draws together insights from the disciplines of cultural studies, literary theory, psychoanalysis, psychosocial studies, social policy and sociology, in order to explore the complex and contested status of "the family" under neoliberalism. At one end of the spectrum, the intensification of work and the normalisation of long-hours working culture have undermined the time and energy available for private family life. At the other end, the fantasy of the nuclear family as a potential "haven in a heartless world" is rapidly unravelling, supplanted with a hypercompetitive, neo-traditionalist, mobile, neoliberal family seeking to capitalise on the uneven spread of resources in order to maximise the futures of its own children. As neoliberalism has always been split between socio-economic realities and the expectations of where we "should" be, we are always living with the anxiety of being left behind and the hope that the best is yet to come. The chapters in this collection signal the troubles of the neoliberal family: in particular, the gulf between the practical conditions of family life and the formation of new fantasies. The volume addresses the neoliberal family in a range of contexts: from the domestic, reproductive and bio-political regulation of family life, the representations of the neoliberal family on television and across social media, to the negotiation of family dynamics in maternal memoirs. The work provides a much-needed corrective to the critical emphasis on the macrostructures of the neoliberal world