Page 154 - DENG501_LITERARY_CRITICISM_AND_THEORIES

Literary Criticism and Theories

Notes which Lacan formed the same year when he broke with the International Psycho-Analytical
Association (IPA). His break with the IPA was based on major disagreements Lacan had
with the ego psychology of the group, which placed the ego at the origin of psychic stability.
• From 1953-63 Lacan concentrated on structural linguistics and the role of the symbolic in the
work of Freud. He felt that Freud had understood that human psychology is linguistically
based, but would have needed Saussure's vocabulary and structuralist concept of language
as a system of differences to articulate the relationship. In Les Psychoses: Seminar III, Lacan
claims that the unconscious is "structured like a language," and governed by the order of the
signifier.
• Lacan translated Martin Heidegger's work into French and the evidence of Heidegger's
influence can be read in Lacan's essay The Function and Field of Speech in Psychoanalysis,
in which he concentrates on the idea that subjectivity is symbolically constituted. Lacan was
also influenced by Hegel's work, and by his discussions with both Sartre and Merleau-Ponty.
He was the first to introduce structural linguistics to psychoanalytical theory, and because of
this he attracted attention both nationally and, later in the 1970s, internationally.

13.8 Key-Words

1. Jouissance : (Fr. ‘bliss’, ‘pleasure’, including sexual bliss or orgasm) a term introduced into
psychoanalytic theory by Jacques Lacan, to refer to extreme pleasure, but also
to that excess whereby pleasure slides into its opposite. Roland Bathes uses the
term to suggest an experience of reading as textual bliss. Similarly, Jacques
Derrida suggests that the effect of deconstruction is to liberate forbidden
jouissance.

13.9 Review Questions

1. Discuss the biography of Lacan.
2. Write a short note on the life and works of Lacan.
3. What are the three orders of Lacan.
4. Explain Lacan’s criticisms.
Answers: Self-Assessment
1. (i)(a) (ii)(c) (iii)(c) (iv)(b)

13.10 Further Readings

1. Hutcheon, Linda A poetics of postmodernism, London: Routledge, 1988.
2. Kennedy, X.J., Dana Gioia, Mark Bauerlein, Handbook of Literary Terms:
Literature, Language, Theory, 1st edition, New Delhi: Pearson, 2007.
3. Lodge, David (ed.) Twentieth Century Literary Criticism, London: Longman,
1972.
4. Rice, Philip and Patricia Waugh (eds.) A Modern Literary Theory: A Reader, 3rd
edition, London: Arnold, 1999.
5. Sethuraman, V.S. and Ramaswamy (eds.) The English Critical Tradition, Volume
II, New Delhi, Macmillan, 1977.
6. Seturaman, V.S. (ed.) Contemporary Criticism: An Anthology, New Delhi:
Macmillan, 2008.

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