When Lacan Met Dali : Lacan’s “Paranoid” Reading of Saussure’s Theory of the Sign*
Part of : Γράμμα : περιοδικό θεωρίας και κριτικής ; Vol.20, 2012, pages 237-256
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Pages:
237-256
Abstract:
The starting point of this paper, the extent to which Lacanian psychoanalytictheory is indebted to Saussurean semiotics, is a well-established field ofstudy. In fact, most critics agree that it was Jacques Lacan’s mis-reading ofFerdinand de Saussure’s theory of the sign that determined Lacanian psychoanalytictheory and its approach to cultural texts. The present paper offersa theoretical and historical reasoning behind Lacan’s mis-reading of Saussure’sviews about the nature of the signifier within a semiotic system, arguingthat his interaction with Salvador Dali in the 1930s played a decisiverole in the use of structural semiotics for the proclaimed “return to Freud”.The concept of paranoia, the delirium of systematic interpretation of reality,served not only as common ground between the interwar work of the youngpsychiatrist and the surrealist artist, but essentially informed Lacan’s readingof Saussure. Thus, research into Lacan’s early writings and Dali’s 1930s artsheds new light on the origins of the “primacy of the signifier”.
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References (1):
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