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Guide Questions for Lacan and Kristeva readings

Week 2 Notes:

The following notes are highlights from the above chapter. They are neither intended to replace the lectures and text, nor to substitute for a reading of the text. Lectures will add to and supplement material given here. In order to do well in this class, it is recommended that you review these notes to identify main ideas after having attended class.

Reading philosophical essays is more challenging in that you often have to scan once, read once, and review once before you can adequately explain the author's position. In order to be sure that you are receiving maximum benefit from your time spent studying, try to answer the guide questions posed below. If you cannot answer them, it is time to read or review to be sure you understand the main arguments presented.

What is psychoanalytic theory?

The study of literature under the rubric of psychoanalytic theory began in earnest in the 20th century.  It is primarily concerned with the idea of the unconscious in the areas of author/character, reader and text.(136)  Our two selections for this week emphasize the role of perspective [syntax] and the language.  In both cases human beings are characterized as subjects who must operate in a field of signs that will influence them to adopt particular identities and linguistic conventions.

 Both Lacan and Kristeva see this positionality and our acquired social habits as profound determinates for thought and action. Kristeva argues that, in the case of language, our concepts are formed at least in part by the language we use to describe our experiences of being.  To sum, our conscious and unconscious work in harmony to provide a coherent description of the world that helps us to navigate through multiple social roles.  
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Notes

Post-structuralism and Post-Modern Theory

Russell's Philosophy for Laymen

Resource Links for this week's assignment:

Kristeva:

Lacan:

Applications:

"To a normal person, Union Station is just a place with shops and trains. But to Marshall Blonsky, a professional semiotician, it is a mother lode of signs, symbols, signifiers -- a code in need of decoding." Click here to read Joel Achenbach's article from the Washington Post.

Guide Questions:

The following questions are designed to fine tune your understanding of the reading. Although I will not collect or check to see if you've completed them, the subject matter and answers to these questions form the basis of what you will be required to know for exams.

Lacan

  1. Explain Lacan's idea of syntax in your own words.(137)

  2. What does Lacan mean when he states that the subject is always "in process?"(137)

  3. How does the symbolic order influence subjects?

Kristeva

  1. What does Kristeva intend to emphasize when she contrasts the normal with the poetic?

  2. Summarize Kristeva's notion of the semiotic and symbolic.(142)

  3. How does the notion of revolution enter into Kristeva's theory? Is it merely metaphorical? 

 

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