This study brings the insights of Slavoj Žižek’s Lacan-inspired approach to bear upon a series of influential 20th century plays and their engagement with what Lacan calls the Real. The plays to be explored share a focus on experiences, events or encounters which transcend, exceed, disrupt, and in some cases shatter characters’ normal, familiar realities. Examined through the lens of Žižek, these confrontations with the sublime and the fantastic reveal a crucial relation to the plays’ contemporary contexts, prompting us to “look awry” upon the dynamics of our own symbolically-regulated reality and the ever-changing and precarious nature of our relation to it. Similarly crucial is the relation of the Lacanian Real to our theatrical forms and modes of perception in the theatre. In staging “encounters with the Real,” these plays prompt us simultaneously to explore the ways in which the Real operates —and “appears” — in our own theatrical experience, ensnaring our gaze and the force of our desire. The study offers a Žižekian approach to works including Peter Shaffer’s Equus, John Mighton’s Possible Worlds, S. An-sky’s The Dybbuk, or Between Two Worlds, Caryl Churchill’s The Skriker, Tony Kushner’s The Illusion, and Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt’s Enigma Variations.

Within the science fiction genre, utopian as well as dystopian experiments have found equal representation. This balanced treatment of two diametrically opposed social constructs results from a focus on the future for which this particular genre is well known. Philip K. Dick’s VALIS, Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash, Samuel R. Delany’s Babel-17, and Chuck Palahniuk’s Lullaby, more aptly characterized as speculative fiction because of its use of magic against scientific social subjugation, each tackle dystopian qualities of contemporary society by analyzing the power that language possesses in the formation of the self and propagation of ideology. The utopian goals of these texts advocate for a return to the modernist metanarrative and a revision of postmodern cynicism because the authors look to the future for hopeful solutions to the social and ideological problems of today. Using Slavoj Žižek’s readings of Jacques Lacan and Theodor Adorno’s readings of Karl Marx for critical insight, I argue these four novels imagine language as the key to personal empowerment and social change. While not all of the novels achieve their utopian goals, they each evince a belief that the attempt belies a return to the modernist metanarrative and a rejection of postmodern helplessness. Thus, each novel imagines the revision of Žižek’s big Other through the remainders of Adorno’s inevitably failed revolutions, injecting hope in a literary period that had long since lost it.

This is an explication of Lacan’s Seminar XVII. The introduction situates the Seminar in its time and in relation to other theories of discourse. In part one I examine the changes which it brings to a variety of ideas already known in Lacan’s oeuvre such as Jouissance, Master Signifier(s) and Oedipus. Part two looks the four discourses in detail after considering the positions common to each. I provide accounts of each discourse as taking place internally to a subject and between subjects. The coda examines areas where further research is possible, reviews and critiques some scholarship on this seminar and inquires into the use value of the discourse theory, both generally and as a means of getting beyond Lacan.

This study brings the insights of Slavoj Žižek’s Lacan-inspired approach to bear upon a series of influential 20th century plays and their engagement with what Lacan calls the Real. The plays to be explored share a focus on experiences, events or encounters which transcend, exceed, disrupt, and in some cases shatter characters’ normal, familiar realities. Examined through the lens of Žižek, these confrontations with the sublime and the fantastic reveal a crucial relation to the plays’ contemporary contexts, prompting us to “look awry” upon the dynamics of our own symbolically-regulated reality and the ever-changing and precarious nature of our relation to it. Similarly crucial is the relation of the Lacanian Real to our theatrical forms and modes of perception in the theatre. In staging “encounters with the Real,” these plays prompt us simultaneously to explore the ways in which the Real operates —and “appears” — in our own theatrical experience, ensnaring our gaze and the force of our desire. The study offers a Žižekian approach to works including Peter Shaffer’s Equus, John Mighton’s Possible Worlds, S. An-sky’s The Dybbuk, or Between Two Worlds, Caryl Churchill’s The Skriker, Tony Kushner’s The Illusion, and Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt’s Enigma Variations.

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This project is centered on two primary concerns. First, to reformulate Adornos notion of ethical subjectivity in a way that allows for a clearer articulation of his normative position, and second, to make it more relevant to our contemporary social context and advances in social theory. My claim is that we can achieve this by rejecting Adornos philosophical method (negative dialectics and constellations) by reading his ethics through the lens of ieks method which I am calling autoprohibition. As I will show, autoprohibition is ieks strategy for breaking the deadlock of the dialectic of enlightenment and its accompanying defeatist politics by developing a dialectical theory that neither rests on pure negation nor falls into the totalising and reifying trap of orthodox Marxism. It is in the context of autoprohibition that one can rearticulate Adornos normative imperatives (specifically, the imperative to end suffering, and to recognise the truth-content of the body) without these imperatives being negated by the totalising dictates of the dialectic of enlightenment. The best way to redeem the important normative components of Adornos formulation of ethical subjectivity is to reject its underlying philosophical method and resituate it in another. I frame this methodological shift as one from constellations to autoprohibition, which allows for a more positive articulation of Adornos ethics; a plan for actively practising an ethical life vs. one premised on the rejection of participating in an unethical system (which Adornos ethics amounts to on my account).

This master thesis presents a study of the authorship of the Italian writer Elena Ferrante, focusing on hermain concepts “la frantumaglia” and “la smarginatura” in relation to the question of literary truth. Thepurpose is to examine the fascinating interaction between meta reflection and narration through anintratextual reading of her poetics elaborated in La frantumaglia (2013, 2016) and all novels publishedso far. With references to the theories of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan, la frantumaglia and lasmarginatura are interpreted as the unconscious and different mental disorders that characterize the crisisof the female protagonists. The analysis examines literary truth on three literary levels: the verbal,considering the Neapolitan dialect related to the city of Naples as a representation of both maternalorigin and patriarchal oppression, the stylistic, viewing la smarginatura as literary style, and finally, thesymbolic, connected to what Ferrante calls the “symbolic sphere of the authentic”. Furthermore, anintellectual approach to truth is discussed as a contraposition to the others. In applying the methodologyof Michael Riffaterre, the analysis of the stylistic and symbolic truth dimensions shows how theiridiosyncratic traits are extended and transformed throughout the Ferrantian work. The thesis alsosuggests a different interpretation of the intimate relationship between mother and daughter, one of theauthorship’s central themes. Unlike previous studies with a psychoanalytical approach that affirms theexistence of a pre-oedipal phase free from patriarchal intrusion, this analysis demonstrates how Ferranterepeatedly reveals this idea as an infantile fantasy. Instead, the thesis argues that the only real synthesisis found at the level of writing itself, in the merging of the perspectives of the two protagonists in thecycle of L’amica geniale (The Neapolitan novels). This synthesis is further conceived as the authenticidentity of the anonymous author herself.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This work has dealt with the clinical Little Hans case - statement by Freud in 1909 - and aims to bring the dialogue between this theoretical and Jacques Lacan, with prints and case analysis. Specifically, the study aims to provide for the issue of child psychoanalysis and addressing the problem of phobia while symptomatic output. Considering the clinic with children as contemporary practice of psychoanalysis, there was a theoretical study, whose methodological dynamics was the literature, using mainly from Freud´s texts and Lacan. Therefore, the work is divided into three sections. The first brings the issue of child psychoanalysis, highlighting as it reaches the place of subject of desire and law, making it therefore possible to be analyzed. In addition, support for the next chapter in this first are brought some positions and functions assumed by the child in the family dynamics. The second chapter develops the dialogue between Freud and Lacan about Hans case, presenting the facts following the case, the chronology, the directions of Freud and Lacan considerations. Are treated some issues such as the relationship between Hans and his mother, the question of the paternal function, as well as the complex of Oedipus and castration in Hans. Finally, the third chapter is the phobia as symptomatic output, serving Hans as the means possible so that it is positioned in the world and enter in the symbolic order. Thus, issues are worked that concern the phobia, such as anxiety, anguish, symptomatic formation and its prospects and the specific clinical case, the focus on substitutive function assumed by the phobic symptom on the limping paternal function. We conclude the work by pointing out some directions for the relationship between the current children´s clinic and the symptom. / Este trabalho tem por tema o caso clínico do pequeno Hans comunicado por Freud em 1909 e almeja trazer o diálogo entre esse teórico e Jacques Lacan, com as impressões e análises do caso. Especificamente, o estudo objetiva dispor sobre a questão da criança para psicanálise e abordar a problemática da fobia enquanto saída sintomática. Considerando a clínica com criança como prática contemporânea à psicanálise, realizou-se um estudo teórico, cuja dinâmica metodológica foi a pesquisa bibliográfica, utilizando-se, sobretudo, de textos de Freud e de Lacan. Por conseguinte, o trabalho se encontra estruturado em três capítulos. O primeiro traz a questão da criança para psicanálise, destacando como ela alcança o lugar de sujeito de desejo e de direito, tornando-se, portanto possível de ser analisada. Além disso, por fundamentar o capítulo seguinte, neste primeiro são trazidas algumas posições e funções assumidas pela criança na dinâmica familiar. No segundo capítulo, é desenvolvido o diálogo entre Freud e Lacan acerca do caso Hans, apresentando os fatos que acompanham o caso, a cronologia, os direcionamentos de Freud e as considerações de Lacan. São tratados alguns assuntos como a relação entre Hans e sua mãe, a questão da função paterna, assim como os complexos de Édipo e de castração em Hans. Por fim, o terceiro capítulo traz a fobia como saída sintomática, servindo a Hans como o meio possível para que ele se posicione no mundo e insira-se na ordem simbólica. Assim, são trabalhados temas que tangem à fobia, como a ansiedade, a angústia, a formação sintomática e suas perspectivas e no caso clínico específico, a aposta na função de suplência assumida pelo sintoma fóbico, diante da função paterna claudicante. Concluímos o trabalho apontando alguns direcionamentos para a relação existente entre a clínica infantil atual e o sintoma.

Der Begriff Maskerade unterscheidet sich trotz etymologischen Verwandschaft vom Begriff Maske. Unter Maskerade werden vor allem Strategien der Inszenierung von Geschlechtsidentitäten verstanden, weshalb synonymisch häufig von Geschlechtermaskerade die Rede ist. Das Konzept hat in den Theater-, Film- und Literaturwissenschaften sowie in der Philosophie und der Psychologie Einzug gehalten. In den Gender Studies etablierte sich der Begriff in den 1990er Jahren, maßgeblich beeinflusst durch psychoanalytische und poststrukturalistische Theoriebildung. Mit der Maskerade können sehr verschiedene Phänomene bezeichnet werden, von der Pseudonymität weiblicher Autor_innenschaft bis hin zu alltagskultureller Performance und Körperinszenierung, etwa im Transvestitismus.

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