Lecture 13 - Jacques Lacan in Theory

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." **Reading assignment:** Lacan, Jacques. "The Agency of the Letter in the Unconscious." In The Critical Tradition, pp. 1129-48 **Resources:** ;[[http://oyc.yale.edu/sites/default/files/papertopics1_1.pdf|Handout: Paper Topics 1 [PDF]]]