Subject Lessons: Hegel, Lacan, and the Future of Materialism

Diaeresis

by Russell Sbriglia (Editor), Adrian Johnston (Contributor), Kathryn Van Wert (Contributor)

Responding to the ongoing “objectal turn” in contemporary humanities and social sciences, the essays in Subject Lessons present a sustained case for the continued importance— indeed, the indispensability—of the category of the subject for the future of materialist thought.Approaching matters through the frame of Hegel and Lacan, the contributors to this volume, including the editors, as well as Andrew Cole, Mladen Dolar, Nathan Gorelick, Adrian Johnston, Todd McGowan, Borna Radnik, Molly Anne Rothenberg, Kathryn Van Wert, and Alenka Zupančič—many of whom stand at the forefront of contemporary Hegel and Lacan scholarship—agree with neovitalist thinkers that material reality is ontologically incomplete, in a state of perpetual becoming, yet they maintain that this is the case not in spite of but, rather, because of the subject.Incorporating elements of philosophy, psychoanalysis, and literary and cultural studies, Subject Lessons contests the movement to dismiss the subject, arguing that there can be no truly robust materialism without accounting for the little piece of the Real that is the subject.

Genres: Philosophy, Psychoanalysis, Nonfiction

280 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 15, 2020

Reviews

[Michael A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very engaging set of essays working in the Hegelian-Lacanian/dialectical materialist orientation. Every essay is worthwhile here, but I particularly enjoyed the first five essays and Alenka Zupancic's essay on Lacan and Deleuze (which is apparently mostly from her book What IS Sex? Reading this essay only confirmed my need to check her out sooner rather than later).