Jacques Lacan: Psychoanalysis and the Subject of Literature

by Jean-Michel Rabaté

The French theorist Lacan has always been called a 'literary' theoretician. Here is, for the first time, a complete study of his literary analyses and examples, with an account of the importance of literature in the building of his highly original system of thought. Rabate offers a systematic genealogy of Lacan's theory of literature, reconstructing a doctrine based upon Freudian insights, and revitalised through close readings of authors as diverse as Poe, Gide, Shakespeare, Plato, Claudel, Genet, Duras and Joyce. Not simply an essay about Lacan's influences or style, this book shows how the emergence of key terms like the 'letter' and the 'symptom' would not have been possible without innovative readings of literary texts.

Genres: Psychoanalysis, France

225 pages, Paperback

First published March 21, 2001

Reviews

[Peter Mathews · Rating 3 out of 5]

Let me start out by saying that Jean-Michel Rabaté is one of my favorite writers on the subject of Jacques Lacan. He has a commanding knowledge of Lacan's ideas - he is especially good at noting where particular concepts fit into the evolution of Lacan's thought - and he expresses that knowledge in clear and direct prose that I usually find engaging.

The particular angle of this book is to explore the relationship between Lacan and literature. The first three chapters are a testament to the qualities in Rabaté that I just praised: a lucid explanation of what Lacan means by "letters" and "literature," and how he sees the connection between them in his theory.

I did, however, feel a bit let down by rest of the book, which provides detailed (and often insightful) commentaries of Lacan's engagements with Poe (Ch.4), Hamlet (Ch.5), Antigone (Ch.6), Sade (Ch.7), Duras (Ch.8), and Joyce (Ch.9). It's not that Rabaté's ideas are bad, quite the contrary, it's just that these chapters felt a bit too much like they were aimed at the level of a textbook rather than a challenging and rigorous academic work. I wanted a little more meat on this particular bone.

There is always something to be learned from reading Rabaté on Lacan, and I did gain some new insights and ideas. On the whole, though, the level of ambition of this book was, for me, too low, as many of the concepts dealt with here I could get simply from reading Lacan. Rabaté's book did help to clarify a number of points, however, and overall it is worth reading.