13. Jacques Lacan in Theory

Introduction to Theory of Literature (ENGL 300)

In this lecture on psychoanalytic criticism, Professor Paul Fry explores the work of Jacques Lacan. Lacan's interest in Freud and distaste for post-Freudian "ego psychologists" are briefly mentioned, and his clinical work on "the mirror stage" is discussed in depth. The relationship in Lacanian thought, between metaphor and metonymy is explored through the image of the point de capiton. The correlation between language and the unconscious, and the distinction between desire and need, are also explained, with reference to Hugo's "Boaz Asleep."

00:00 - Chapter 1. Peter Brooks and Lacan
09:03 - Chapter 2. Lacan and Freudian Scholarship
15:51 - Chapter 3. The Mirror Stage
22:18 - Chapter 4. Language and the Unconscious
30:25 - Chapter 5. Metonymy, Metaphor, and Desire
37:03 - Chapter 6. What Is Desire?
46:50 - Chapter 7. Slavoj Žižek

Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://open.yale.edu/courses

This course was recorded in Spring 2009.