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Letters from Lacan: Reading and the Matheme

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LETTERS FROM LACAN: READING AND THE MATHEME by DOUGLAS SADAO AOKI B.Sc. (Specialization), The University of Alberta, 1976 M.A., The University of British Columbia, 1993 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES Department of Interdisciplinary Studies We accept this thesis as conforming to the^quired standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA June 1998 © Douglas Sadao Aoki, 1998 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the head of my department or by his or her representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department of /MfiDtSC/tiUNMY Sm»ES The University of British Columbia Vancouver, Canada Date lo #9# DE-6 (2/88) ii ABSTRACT This is a study of reading and how reading is complicated by an extraordinary letter delivered by the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. That letter is the matheme, which is part ordinary language and part technical jargon, part literature and part science. For many readers, such a mongrel heritage means that the matheme becomes unreadable. I argue that the matheme can indeed be read, but only if the reader is willing to reconsider the nature, practice and limits of conventional reading. As a condensation of Lacanian theory, the matheme can only be read by wading into the densely intricated paradoxes of that theory. To cross the famous three registers of Lacan, the imaginary of the matheme—its image, line, and spatiality—reveals a real insufficiency and disruption of symbolic textuality. The matheme always frustrates and complicates reading, but from a Lacanian standpoint, this means that it illuminates the psychoanalytic politics of reading via its strategic opacity to the reader. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ii Table of Contents iii List of Figures v Acknowledgements vii Dedication ix PREFACE An Invitation to an Esoteric Letter 1 CHAPTER ONE Reading, Language and the Matheme The Art of Clarity 7 Translations of Clarity 12 Jargon and Exclusion 21 Imaginary Meaning and All the Registers of Language 26 The Sociology of Exclusion 30 The Terror of Language 38 Letters from Lacan 47 Reading the Matheme 52 CHAPTER TWO S: Rendering the Subject 60 The Passion of the Signifier 71 Being Alienated 93 CHAPTER THREE The Phallus, the Schemata and the Object Lacan Is a Prick 106 The Names of the Schemata 114 The Subject and All Its Others 125 SCHEMA R: The Fantasy Circus 132 The Name of the Father Is the Phallus 144 objet a: Desire Must Be Taken Literally 151 CHAPTER FOUR SO a: Fantasy 157 The Heart of Fantasy: hepoin$on 159 The Discourse of the University 166 From Four to Two: The Formal Structure of 0 171 Three: Fantasy and the Schemata of the Visual Field 180 Diagram 1: The Look and the Subject-as-Look 182 Diagram 2: The Gaze and the Subject-as-Spectacle 184 Diagram 3: The Subject and the Gaze 185 The Place of Fantasy: Between Meaning and the Lack of the Other 188 iv CHAPTER FIVE Imposing the Matheme 201 Topological Deformations 219 The Logics of the Language of Mathematics 222 Imaginary Numbers and Imaginary Words 225 CHAPTER SIX Translations of Love God Is Clearly Love 237 Coming Home With Lacan 246 Teaching as the Excess of Translation 252 Amusing Lacan 258 A Caricature of Lacan 266 WORKS CITED 274 APPENDIX 1 Elaborations on SCHEMA L 290 V LIST OF FIGURES 2.1 The elementary cell of the Graph of Desire 73 2.2 The signifying chain as a necklace of necklaces 75 2.3 Capitonnage 76 2.4 The birth of the subject 80 2.5 Graph II 88 2.6 The vel of alienation 95 2.7 The Cartesian subject 98 2.8 The Lacanian subject 99 3.1 SCHEMA L 115 3.2 SCHEMA £ 117 3.3 SCHEMA L 117 3.4 SCHEMATA L 118 3.5 SCHEMA L according to Dylan Evans 120 3.6 SCHEMA L according to Robert Samuels 121 3.7 SCHEMA L according to Ellie Ragland Sullivan 121 3.8 SCHEMA L according to Catherine Clement 122 3.9 The meconnaissance of • for O 127 3.10: The migration of the mark 129 3.11: SCHEMA R 132 3.12: SCHEMA R 134 3.13: The imaginary half of SCHEMA R 134 3.14: The symbolic half of SCHEMA R 135 3.15: The field of reality 135 3.16: The field of the imaginary 137 3.17: The Second Graph of Desire 138 3.18: The mirror stage 139 3.19: I and i 140 3.20: The return of the phallus 141 3.21: The symbolic triangle and three vertices of SCHEMA L 144 3.22: Miller's paternal metaphor as point de caption 147 3.23: The field of reality 148 3.24: SCHEMA I 150nl46 3.25: Che Vuoi? 152 4.1 The vectors of the poinpn 177 4.2 The schemata of the visual field 180 4.3 Translating the schemata 181 4.4 The translated schemata 181 4.5 Diagram 1: The look and the subject-as-look 182 4.6 Diagram 2: The gaze and the subject-as-spectacle 184 4.7 Diagram 3: The subject and the ga2e 185 4.8 The isomorphism of the screen and the poinfon 188 4.9 The place of fantasy in the Graph of Desire 189 vi 6.1: Raymond Tallis's imaginary Lacan 266 6.2: Jerome Hebert's imaginary Lacan 267 6.3: My imaginary Lacan 269 7.1: SCHEMA L as the subject and the other 290 7.2: The arrow of speech 293 7.3: The subject and the other 295 7.4: The four poles of the subject 295 7.5: From the subject to the other 298 7.6: Wo Es war, solllch werden 299 vii Acknowledgements An acknowledgements section of a dissertation is not ordinarily where an author congratulates her/himself, but, true to character, I will do exactly that. I commend myself for my choice of committee members, for I could not have made any finer selections. The wisdom and grace of Nancy Frelick demonstrated that it is possible to be a good Lacanian without being a sociopath. Richard Cavell was always the exemplary embodiment of "le style est I'homme mime." Dawn Currie's pragmatic social conscience meant that she had reservations about some of my theoretical ambitions, but it also meant that she always provided the practical advice and support that every doctoral student needs but too often never receives. Tom Kemple provided happy proof that sociological theory can, at least in particular theorists, rise above its disciplinary doldrums. Above all, Valerie Raoul, through her scholarship, acuity, integrity, and generosity, defined an ideal of supervision to which I will always aspire in my own career. I had the great fortune to study under some exceptional teachers, who fundamentally changed and informed how I think: Derek Gregory, Lorraine Weir, Kaja Silverman, John Forrester, Diana Fuss, and especially Judith Butler. I was also blessed with the support of some exceptional colleagues, who made my studies more productive and much more pleasurable: Sharon Fuller, Kevin Haggerty, Caroline Desbiens, Alan Segal, Gustavo Guerra, Jamie Lampidis and Erin Soros. I am particularly indebted to Chris Bracken, who was and continues be one of my finest teachers and most cherished friends. There were two heads of the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of British Columbia during my program, Laurence Ricou and Rhodri Windsor- Liscombe, and both aided me immensely. Derek Sayer, Chair of the Department of Sociology at the University of Alberta, hired me ABD and must now be relieved at not viii having to fire me for still being so. I am very appreciative of the efforts he made on my behalf; I hope that he will not have cause to regret them in the years to come. The fellowship support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada was crucial, and it is gratefully acknowledged. Finally, Ted and June Aoki never quailed under the burden of still parenting a middle-aged student, showing a steadfastness which I, as a new father, find terrifying and astounding. Thank you, Mom and Dad. It ix Dedication Every work could be better than it is, but no matter how much better this one might be, if I were more talented or industrious, it would always pale beside what is best in my life: my wife and my son. This dissertation is therefore dedicated to Lucy and Alex, without whose love the world would be impossible. 1 Preface An Invitation to an Esoteric Letter My Ecrits are unsuitable for a thesis, particularly an academic thesis.1 —-Jacques Lacan This dissertation is an invitation to the esoteric of the letter. This particular letter is from Jacques Lacan, but because he rarely yields to any direct confrontation, an indirect salutation becomes necessary. Since the dissertation is written from my own perspective as a sociologist, I will turn to the elegant mediation of Pierre Bourdieu: "Sociology is an esoteric science—initiation into it is very slow and requires a real conversion in your whole vision of the world—but it always seems to be exoteric."2 Bourdieu is not referring to Lacan, explicitly or implicitly, but his revelation of the seemingly exoteric as definitively and comprehensively esoteric is germane nonetheless.
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